Mr. Hobson, who was born on Aug. 11, 1935, was in the ensemble of the original Broadway production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus. He also appeared in Dance a Little Closer, the 1983 Alan Jay Lerner-Charles Strouse musical, which lasted a single performance at the Minskoff Theatre. He created the role of The Late Guard Allgood in Ed Bullins' Joanne!, and was featured in William Finn's early musical America Kicks Up Its Heels at Playwrights Horizons. On the road, he was Charlemagne in a national tour of Pippin, and portrayed Voltaire in the 1967 North American tour of Marat/Sade.

For his work in a 1989 South Coast Repertory Company mounting of You Never Can Tell, he won an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award. He won again for playing Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1992, according to Ms. Boykin. He also acted on the stages of the Alley Theatre in Houston; Hartford Stage; Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh Public; and Princeton, New Jersey's McCarter Theatre, where he spent several seasons.

A stout man with florid features, he was a natural in such roles as Bumble in Oliver!, as well as assorted butlers, bishops, maitre'ds and other figures of authority.

On film, he had roles in "All The Jazz," "Annie," "Newsies" and two Coen brothers movies, "Barton Fink" and "The Hudsucker Proxy."

In his last years, Mr. Hobson lived in the small town of Evanston, Wyoming, with his dog Cleo. He left no survivors.