Gen Xers mourn drowning death of The Cosby Show's Theo actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner
And Malcolm-Jamal Warner's 'Theo Huxtable' was the character Generation X most related to. Fans took quickly to social media on Monday as news of Warner's accidental drowning in Costa Rica spread.
'It's like losing one of us,' said Harriet Cammock, a 58-year-old Detroit author and speaker. 'This is the thing with television. When you're watching people every week on television, you think you know them and you're related to them.'
Warner was swimming Sunday afternoon at Playa Cocles in Costa Rica's Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the Caribbean, according to that country's Judicial Investigation Department.
First responders found him without vital signs.
'The Cosby Show' was groundbreaking and a ratings giant, drawing in viewers across racial, cultural and economic backgrounds. The show ran for 197 episodes from 1984 to 1992. In 1986, Warner earned an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy.
The show starring Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad as his wife Clair and 'made the wider society aware that there are Black people who live like white people do,' said Cammock, who is Black. 'The perception that we don't live like they do was hurtful.'
Lynn Reasonover, 62, of Oak Lawn, Illinois, began receiving messages Monday afternoon about Warner's death. Her initial thoughts were 'Nope, didn't happen.'
'Then, I kept seeing the news flashes and friends started sending texts,' Reasonover said. 'So, it's sinking in. Makes you realize how much some celebrities help shape our memories. His work had such a huge impact. I'm feeling a personal loss because we grew up with him. It's like losing a part of our childhood.'
Reasonover saw much of her family in the Huxtables where both parents were professionals who valued education and handled family issues with understanding and love.
'They had similar problems to what we experienced growing up,' she said. 'We could relate and that's why we laughed.'
Rasheda Williams, 46, of Detroit was about the same age as Rudy, the youngest character on 'The Cosby Show' and Theo's little sister. Williams said she and others are mourning Warner's passing because of what they saw in the character he played.
'He's like the ideal cousin you wish you had,' Williams said. 'Hearing the news has really affected some of us. It was unexpected. He wasn't sick. That makes it even more tragic.'
'He wasn't just an actor,' she said. 'He was also an activist, a positive role model, not just for young Black men, but for young Black women as well.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Golden Earring co-founder George Kooymans dies at 77
NEW YORK (AP) — George Kooymans, the guitarist and co-founder of the Dutch band Golden Earring who co-wrote the hard-rock classic 'Radar Love' and wrote and shared lead vocals on the top 10 hit 'Twilight Zone,' has died at age 77. Kooymans' family and the surviving members of Golden Earring announced that he had died Wednesday from complications of ALS, which he had been diagnosed with in 2020. He retired from the band soon after. 'George bore this devastating and debilitating illness with exceptional strength and dignity,' the statement from Golden Earring reads in part. 'We bid farewell to a great musician and composer, whose work extended beyond Golden Earring. George was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, but above all, a friend.' A native of The Hague, Kooymans was in his mid-teens when he helped found what became Golden Earring in the early 1960s: The band's name was inspired by an instrumental of the time, 'Golden Earrings.' He was also a core member of the group's best known lineup, which featured drummer Cesar Zuiderwijk, singer-guitarist Barry Hay and bassist-keyboardist Rinus Gerritsen and stayed together from 1970 until Koosyman's departure. With more than 20 top 10 singles in their native country, Golden Earring had more success at home than overseas. But they began to attract an underground following in the U.S. in the late 1960s and broke through commercially in 1973 with the worldwide hit 'Radar Love,' which has been covered by U2, R.E.M. and hundreds of others and used on the soundtrack to 'Baby Driver,' 'Wayne's World 2' and other films. 'Radar Love,' with its stately opening riff and memorable opening line 'I've been driving all night, my hands wet on the wheel,' was once ranked by Rolling Stone as among the greatest road trip songs. Golden Earring shared bills with Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin among others and toured with such stars as Aerosmith, Rush and the Doobie Brothers. In 1982, 'Twilight Zone' became their biggest U.S. song with the help of a video on the recently launched MTV, while other popular tracks included 'When the Lady Smiles' and 'Going to the Run.' Golden Earring continued to tour and record in the 1990s and beyond. For its 50th anniversary, in 2011, the band was honored with a commemorative stamp from the Dutch postal service that through an app could be linked to 'Radar Love.' A farewell performance, without Kooymans, had already been scheduled for early next year.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Zookeepers in Prague turn into puppeteers to save baby vultures
PRAGUE (AP) — Zookeepers in Prague sometimes have to become puppeteers to save newborn birds rejected by their parents. This was the case for a lesser yellow-headed vulture chick hatched three weeks ago. Bird keeper Antonín Vaidl said Thursday that when a dummy egg disappeared from the nest, it signaled to keepers that the parents were not ready to care for their two babies, despite doing so in 2022 and 2023. The first-born is being kept in a box and fed using a puppet designed to mimic a parent bird, while another is expected to hatch in the next few days. Vaidl said the puppet is needed to make sure the bird will be capable of breeding, which it won't if it gets used to human interaction. He explained that the puppet doesn't have to be a perfect replica of an adult bird because the chick responds to certain signals, such as the pale orange coloration on its featherless head and neck. Lesser yellow-headed vultures live in the wild in Latin America and Mexico. Prague Zoo is one of only three zoos in Europe that breed them. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. In the past, the park successfully applied this treatment to save the critically endangered Javan green magpie and two rhinoceros hornbill chicks. The puppet-feeding technique is applicable for birds that live in pairs. 'The method has been working well,' Vaidl said. 'We'll see what happens with the vultures.'
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Banksy work ‘The Migrant Child' removed from Venetian palazzo for restoration and future display
MILAN (AP) — Art restorers have removed a deteriorating piece of graffiti by the street artist Banksy titled 'The Migrant Child' from the side of a building overlooking a Venetian canal to preserve the work for future public display, officials said Thursday. The removal from the wall of Palazzo San Pantalon was carried out in consultation with people close to the secretive British street artist, according to the Venice-based bank Banca Ifis' art program that promotes art and culture. The artwork depicting a shipwrecked child holding a pink smoke bomb and wearing a lifejacket appeared along Rio di San Pantalon in Venice in May 2019, and was acknowledged by Banksy. Marked on online maps, it has become a tourist destination. But six years of neglect had led to the deterioration of about a third of the work, the bank said. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. The restoration is being overseen by Federico Borgogni, who previously removed dust and cleaned the surface before detaching a section of the palazzo's facade overnight Wednesday, Banca Ifis said in a statement. The bank is financing the project, but didn't release the cost of the operation. The bank intends to display the work to the public as part of free cultural events organized by Ifis art once restoration is completed. No time frame was given.
