Keith Hamilton Cobb

Despite my interest in that kind of drama, I've never watched daytime soaps, since I actually, generally have had to work for a living. So the first place I ever saw the extraordinarily sensitive, "thinking man" strongman Keith Hamilton Cobb was in the potboiler science fiction drama Andromeda.

Here's what I thought was absolutely genius about that series: every TV show from Dynasty to 90210 has a regular cast and guest-stars that are "beautiful people" in stunning clothes, both male and (usually) female. Yet Andromeda was the first series to actually have a built-in reason for explaining exactly why that was: since it was the future and genetic engineering was widespread, attractive people were relatively commonplace. I wonder what Isaac Asimov's notoriously plain, prim creation Susan Calvin would say to that.

Keith Hamilton Cobb's character was something very common in science fiction: a sidekick that was more interesting and compelling than the main hero. His character, Tyr Anasazi, was a smart and selfish Nietzchian superman, cunning, cynical and loyal only to himself, with a deep love of philosophy, especially Ayn Rand and Nietzche. Tyr also has the distinction of being the only person in the cast whose name and character I actually remember. Andromeda wasn't a great series, after all, and my friends that continued to watch it after the first season tell me that afterwards it got exponentially worse. In all honesty, the only reason I watched it for a very long time was for KHC in a mesh muscle-shirt.

I have absolutely no idea why Keith Hamilton Cobb isn't more famous than he currently is. Physically impressive and imposing, he's not just another muscleboy: he usually plays cultured, intelligent men. He has a startling deep voice that is naturally commanding. Maybe that's the reason that KHC hasn't been seen much: thinking men are very much out of fashoin in the action world.