Cosby Show actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner dies in Costa Rica drowning

1News

6 days ago

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who played teenage son Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show was central to a cultural phenomenon that helped define the 1980s, died at 54 in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, authorities there said.
Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department said Monday that Warner drowned Sunday afternoon (local time) on a beach on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast. He was swimming at Playa 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 Costa Rica's Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner created many TV moments etched in the memories of Generation X children and their parents, including 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 American teenage boyhood on a show that was the most popular in America for much of its run from 1984 to 1992.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theodore 'Theo' Huxtable (back row, second from left) alongside Cosby Show co-stars. (Source: Getty)
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
The "Gordon Gartrell" shirt later became a memeable image. Anthony Mackie wore one on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the profile picture on Cosby's Instagram shows a toddler sporting one.
NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson was among those giving tribute Monday. Johnson said on X that he and his wife are sad to hear of the death of their friend.
"We were both super fans of the hit 'Cosby Show' and continued to follow his career on shows like 'Malcolm and Eddie' and 'The Resident'," Johnson said. "Every time I ran into Malcolm, we would have deep and fun conversations about basketball, life, and business. He will truly be missed."
Like the rest of the show's cast, Warner had to contend with the sexual assault allegations against its titular star, whose conviction in a Pennsylvania court was later overturned.
Warner told The Associated Press in 2015 that the show's legacy was "tarnished".
"My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of colour on television and film," Warner said. "We've always had The Cosby Show to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that, that's the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale."
ADVERTISEMENT
Summary: The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including death of a The Cosby Show actor, vape product recalled, and how working less makes us feel better. (Source: Breakfast)
Representatives for Cosby declined immediate comment.
Warner worked steadily as an actor for more than 40 years. His first major post-Cosby role came on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, co-starring with comedian Eddie Griffin in the popular series on the defunct UPN network from 1996 to 2000.
"My heart is heavy right now," Griffin said on Instagram Monday. "Rest easy my brother for you have Won in life and now you have won forever eternal bliss."
In the 2010s, he starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross as a family-blending couple for two seasons on the BET sitcom Read Between The Lines. He also had a role as OJ Simpson's friend Al Cowlings on American Crime Story and was a series regular on Fox's The Resident.
"First I met you as Theo with the rest of the world then you were my first TV husband," Ross said on Instagram. "My heart is so so sad. What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant."
Warner's film roles include the 2008 rom-com Fool's Gold with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. A poet and a musician, Warner was a Grammy winner, for best traditional R&B performance, and was nominated for best spoken word poetry album for Hiding in Plain View.
ADVERTISEMENT
Warner also worked as a director, helming episodes of Malcolm & Eddie, Read Between the Lines, Kenan & Kel, and All That.
Warner was born in 1970 in Jersey City, New Jersey. His mother, Pamela Warner, reportedly named him after Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. She served as his manager when he began pursuing acting at age nine.
In the early 1980s, he made guest appearances on the TV shows Matt Houston — his first credit — and Fame.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner speaks onstage at the "Accused" panel during the Deadline Contenders Television event at Directors Guild Of America on April 16, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Source: Getty)
Warner was 13 when he landed the role of Theo in an audition after a broad search for the right child actor.
Cosby was a major star at the time, and the show was certain to be widely seen, but few could've predicted the huge, yearslong phenomenon it would become.
He was married with a young daughter, but chose to not publicly disclose their names. Warner's representatives declined immediate comment on his death.
His final credits came in TV guest roles, including appearances on The Wonder Years, Grown-ish, and 9-1-1, where he had a four-episode arc last year.
"I grew up with a maniacal obsession with not wanting to be one of those 'where are they now kids'," Warner told the AP in 2015. "I feel very blessed to be able to have all of these avenues of expression... to be where I am now and finally at a place where I can let go of that worry about having a life after Cosby."