Stalked to Oblivion
November 10th 2011 01:08
Keith Hamilton Cobb gained attention in a soap opera; All My Children.
"Soaps don't often get insane groupie type fans. Sure, people would follow me, want to pull my hair or touch me, but never put the word
'stalking' in my mind."
It all happened when he appeared in Andromeda.
"This was a dream. Firstly it was part of the Star Trek family. Secondly, I wrote much of my character. I'm saying it now with a sense of incredulity. I wroteTyr Anasazi. Everything was beyond perfection...until my first convention."
"We were going to my room, the staff opened the door, my friend wanted to use the bathroom so went in first. I was in the corridor when he screamed. A naked woman had been standing in the shower stall..sort of a reverse Psycho."
After that he never entered a room that hadn't been 'cleared'.
He went on to describe women who stood outside of his house, followed him;
"They would stare at me with this look on their faces. Not just looking at me, but looking at me as if I weren't human."
"I had a Webpage, thinking I'd communicate with fans, we'd share ideas. That is how it began but shortly it turned into what I can't describe. People I wanted to exchange thoughts with were driven off the message board, I was driven off the message board."
"Okay, I'm an actor. I want attention. I know what I look like, but this kind of attention doesn't flatter or elevate it is frightening."
He described other events and particular stalkers.
"I was doing a charity thing in L.A. when this one showed up. She stared at me, followed me, took photographs it was surreal. She stalked me everywhere, she appears at almost every place I go, just popping up staring. I was virtually nobody in the Industry, yet was getting the kind of stalkers the most famous do. The dichotomy is irreconcilable. It messes with ego, reality, identity. What am I representing to these stalkers?"
"These aren't fans. These aren't people who'll come up to me and discuss the character or philosophy or the days events. These aren't people who just want my autograph or a photo. These are people who are mentally unbalanced and who have cast me into a role in their lives; who believe I have no right to privacy, to personal space. Who would jerk on my locks as if I were amannequin or robot."
Things were not going well at the studio or in his private life.
"I thought it was my hair, if I cut it and kept a lower profile it would dispel the stalkers. I know it sounds nutty but at the time I felt it was the dread that maybe was the attraction."
He cut his hair.
"It was the stupidest thing, it took me fifteen years to grow my hair, and cut it to nothing as if this would of stopped the stalking. It was a mistake, as leaving Andromeda was a mistake, but I was in a particularly bad place. I couldn't go to my house in L.A. because there would be stalkers there. I couldn't go to my parent's house for the same reason."
Another Soap
"I went to Y & R with the mindset of a superstar and they saw just another soap actor. They thought I'd bring in the millions of Tyr fans. But I didn't. It was 'Tyr' the actual fans were interested in, not Keith. Further, the fan base for a Sci-fi program is totally obverse to that for a soap opera."
Comparing All My Children to Young and the Restless;
"In the first I played a young romantic lead. I was exotic, different, the love interest was white, so it was something new for the public. I didn't start off as a good guy, so brought a tension. On Y & R my character wasn't particularly interesting or different, and there was already a character like mine on the show. There was nothing special, and with my short hair, the whole 'exotic' cache was gone. If I had been the only black character or if my role was different, a bad guy, then perhaps...."
He then took a role as a Gay Man in a short lived television series.
"I was hoping to get rid of the stalkers, hoping that my performance and what I said about the role and the character would turn them off. Maybe it did, but not the ones I wanted to get rid of. They continued."
Now what?
"I've been doing plays all over the country, especially in very out of the way places because I can't get other roles. I could try to spin it, but why bother? I'd only sound ridiculous. No one would chose the roles I'm offered, one would only accept because this is all there is."
I couldn't believe it, so he elaborated.
"I am considered difficult to work with, further, the stalkers interfere in the production and I'm too 'small' for the powers that be to put up with it. I am not a 'name' I'm nobody to most of those who have the power. So why sign me and get the possibility of stalkers when they can sign another actor who comes without baggage."
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