Los Angeles (USA), 30 Dec (EFE).- The American actor Bob Penny, known for his roles in films such as ‘Forrest Gump’ and ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, has died at the age of 87.
The Laughlin funeral director in Huntsville, Alabama, said on its website that the fellow poet and professor died on December 25, but the causes of death were not detailed.
Penny was born in Jacksonsville and raised in North Carolina where she attended Wofford College in South Carolina. His academic career is rounded off by courses at universities such as Columbia in New York or the University of Alabama.
The actor dedicated 32 years of his life to teaching and his work as a teacher earned him the Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Classroom in the ’70s, while his book of poetry, Prologues to Home, won a Silver Bowl Award in 1980 .
Retiring from his academic career allowed him to expand his acting work and his career is also framed by films such as Mississippi Burning (1988) and My Cousin Vinny (1992), where he worked with Joe Pesci.
He’s also had a bit of a foray into television in productions like 1990’s ‘In the Heat of the Night’ opposite Carroll O’Connor and Howard E. Rollins Jr, and 2016’s ‘Still the King,’ which the actor starred in his last appearance.