Cosby Show actor Warner dies in Costa Rica drowning

The Advertiser

22-07-2025

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who played teenage son Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died at the age of 54 in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, local authorities say.
Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department said on Monday that Warner drowned on Sunday afternoon on a beach on the country's Caribbean coast.
He was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.
"He was rescued by people on the beach," the department's initial report said but first responders from the Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner featured in a pilot-episode argument with Bill Cosby's Cliff Huxtable about money and an ear piercing he tries to hide from his dad.
His Theo was the only son among four daughters in the household of Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad's Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom, and he would be one of the prime representations of teenage boyhood on a show that was the most popular in the United States for much of its run from 1984 to 1992.
He played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.
For many the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly botched mock designer shirt sewed by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who played teenage son Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died at the age of 54 in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, local authorities say.
Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department said on Monday that Warner drowned on Sunday afternoon on a beach on the country's Caribbean coast.
He was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.
"He was rescued by people on the beach," the department's initial report said but first responders from the Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner featured in a pilot-episode argument with Bill Cosby's Cliff Huxtable about money and an ear piercing he tries to hide from his dad.
His Theo was the only son among four daughters in the household of Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad's Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom, and he would be one of the prime representations of teenage boyhood on a show that was the most popular in the United States for much of its run from 1984 to 1992.
He played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.
For many the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly botched mock designer shirt sewed by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who played teenage son Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died at the age of 54 in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, local authorities say.
Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department said on Monday that Warner drowned on Sunday afternoon on a beach on the country's Caribbean coast.
He was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.
"He was rescued by people on the beach," the department's initial report said but first responders from the Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner featured in a pilot-episode argument with Bill Cosby's Cliff Huxtable about money and an ear piercing he tries to hide from his dad.
His Theo was the only son among four daughters in the household of Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad's Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom, and he would be one of the prime representations of teenage boyhood on a show that was the most popular in the United States for much of its run from 1984 to 1992.
He played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.
For many the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly botched mock designer shirt sewed by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who played teenage son Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died at the age of 54 in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, local authorities say.
Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department said on Monday that Warner drowned on Sunday afternoon on a beach on the country's Caribbean coast.
He was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.
"He was rescued by people on the beach," the department's initial report said but first responders from the Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner featured in a pilot-episode argument with Bill Cosby's Cliff Huxtable about money and an ear piercing he tries to hide from his dad.
His Theo was the only son among four daughters in the household of Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad's Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom, and he would be one of the prime representations of teenage boyhood on a show that was the most popular in the United States for much of its run from 1984 to 1992.
He played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.
For many the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly botched mock designer shirt sewed by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.