Bob Penny, a former UAB professor and actor who appeared in over 30 films, including “Forrest Gump” and “Sweet Home Alabama,” died.
Bob Penny was 87. In his obituary, no cause of death was stated.
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Dr. Robert Lynn “Bob” Penny, born in Anniston in 1935, won multiple prizes for his poetry, teaching, and acting, including the Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching in 1974. According to his obituary, he was nominated for the award six times.
Penny, who taught poetry and prose at UAB for 21 years, received the Birmingham Festival of the Arts’ Silver Bowl Award in 1980 for his poems in “Prologues to Home.”
Penny received the Applause Award from the Alabama School of Fine Arts in 1996 for his services to theater in Alabama.
Similarly he continued to focus on his acting career, which began while teaching English at UAB, after retiring in 1990 after 32 years of teaching, including 21 at UAB.
Penny had done commercials for Birmingham’s Parisian department store in the early 1980s and was teaching English at UAB when the acting bug bit him harder.
“When I watched the advertisements, a British friend of mine said, ‘Bob, why don’t you come with me to Atlanta and see if they’d like to have you as one of their performers at this agency,'” Penny told AL.com in 2008.
They did, and a number of high-profile ads followed, including Penny’s appearance as the angel in Atlanta’s United Way campaign in 1986.
“Then the movies started coming,” Penny explained. “I was quite fortunate. “I got these minor roles, but they sure helped pay the bills.”
Although he had acted in films such as “Sweet Home Alabama,” in which he played fumbling small-town lawyer Wallace Buford, “Forrest Gump,” “My Cousin Vinny,” “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” “The Rosa Parks Story,” and many others.
He also appeared on the NBC series “In the Heat of the Night.”
Penny enjoyed doing theater in Birmingham in between trips to Hollywood. He was a Performer in “The Odd Couple” and “Don Juan in Hell,” and he’s work on other stages as well.
Penny participated in many performances for the Birmingham Festival Theatre, the last of which was in 2017 in Ronald Harwood’s “The Dresser,” about an actor and his dresser approaching retirement and directed by Beth Ensey.
“Bob Penny captivated all of our hearts at Birmingham Festival Theatre and poured his all into his work,” she told AL.com. “He adored BFT, and we would often discuss how to make the Magic City’s hidden jewel of a theatre shine brighter.”
“Bob Penny is and always has been an actor and a joy to be with,” Erbrick added. “Birmingham Festival Theatre adored him, and we now mourn with the Birmingham Theatre Community the loss of such a magnificent performer and human being.”
