Bob Penny, who was a star in Sweet Home Alabama, died at 87. 

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Bob Penny, an actor who had roles in “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Forrest Gump,” died Sunday at 87. 

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No cause of death was given. 

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Born in 1935, He spent most of his early days as a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 

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He was teaching poetry and English, according to his obituary from the Laughlin Service Funeral Home in Huntsville, Ala. 

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Penny was also a TV commercial actor in Atlanta for the United Way campaign. 

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The movies began to come, Penny said in 2008 in an interview with AL.com.  

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I was lucky. I had small roles and they were pretty helpful to pay the mortgage.

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Penny has been in more than 30 movies and TV series. 

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He played small-town lawyer Wallace Buford in 2002's "Sweet Home Alabama" and had a small role in the 1994 movie "Forrest Gump." 

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