Randall "Tex" Cobb

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Randall Craig "Tex" Cobb (born October 10, 1953) is an American prizefighter and actor.

Cobb was born in Bridge City, Texas to Williard Glynn Cobb and Norma Grace Alexander. He was raised in Abilene, Texas, where he attended Abilene High School, and later Abilene Christian University.

Cobb dropped out of ACU at the age of 19, and entered the world of boxing. He began training as a kickboxer at Joe Frazier's gym in Philadelphia. His professional boxing debut was on January 21, 1977, in El Paso, Texas, where he knocked out Pedro Vega. Cobb went on to win 13 straight fights by 1979, all by KO.

On November 26, 1982, he fought champion boxer Larry Holmes for the WBC World Heavyweight title at Houston's Astrodome. Cobb suffered a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of Holmes, who won all 15 rounds on two scorecards, and fourteen out of fifteen on the third (scores of 150-135 twice and 149-136). The one-sidedness of the fight so horrified sportscaster Howard Cosell that he vowed to never cover another match.

After the fight, many sports fans all over the world wrote to Cobb and thanked him for his effort. Cobb was a fighter who had hitting power, as shown by his eighth round knockout victory over Earnie Shavers. He was never knocked out in his career, and is known for having one of the greatest chins of all time. Cobb's boxing career had followed a brief kickboxing stint where he scored an impressive 9 consecutive knockouts. Cobb also fought Michael Dokes twice during his boxing career, losing both fights.

As a Hollywood actor, he has played "extremely hairy, expressionless bad guys" in films such as The Golden Child, The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Raising Arizona and Ernest Goes To Jail. He has made some guest appearances on television shows including Highlander in the season 3 episode "Line of Fire" as the evil immortal named Kern. He also appeared on Married... with Children and Walker, Texas Ranger and The X-Files.

Cobb lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and maintained a friendship with Philadelphia Daily News columnist Pete Dexter, who frequently commented on boxing. In a notorious incident, Cobb came to the defence of Dexter who, during the course of a bar brawl, was severely beaten.

Cobb was married to Sharon Cobb from 1987 and their divorce was on February 12, 1997. Sharon was known for saving Tex's life and career by helping him get off of hard drugs. Tex left Sharon for Janet Ake, whom he later married.