SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) — Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who as teenage son Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” was central to a cultural phenomenon that helped outline the Eighties, died at 54 in an unintentional drowning in Costa Rica, authorities there mentioned Monday.
Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Division mentioned Warner drowned Sunday afternoon on a seaside on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. He was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon province when a present pulled him deeper into the ocean.
“He was rescued by people on the beach,” the division’s preliminary report mentioned, however first responders from Costa Rica’s Purple Cross discovered him with out important indicators and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner created many TV moments etched within the reminiscences of Technology X youngsters and their dad and mom, together with a pilot-episode argument with Invoice Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable about cash, and one other episode the place Theo tries to cover his ear piercing from his dad. His Theo was the one son amongst 4 daughters within the family of Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad’s Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom, and he could be one of many prime representations of American teenage boyhood on a present that was the preferred in America for a lot of its run from 1984 to 1992.
He performed the position for eight seasons, showing in every of the present’s 197 episodes and incomes an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986. For a lot of the lasting picture of the character, and of Warner, is of him sporting a badly botched mock designer shirt sewed by his sister Denise, performed by Lisa Bonet. The “Gordon Gartrell” shirt later grew to become a memeable picture: Anthony Mackie wore one on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon and the profile image on Warner’s Instagram exhibits a toddler sporting one.
NBA Corridor of Famer Magic Johnson was amongst these giving tribute Monday. Johnson mentioned on X that he and his spouse are unhappy to listen to of the loss of life of their buddy.
“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 mentioned. “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 remainder of the “Cosby Show” forged, Warner needed to cope with the sexual assault allegations towards its titular star, whose conviction in a Pennsylvania courtroom was later overturned.
Warner advised The Related Press in 2015 that the present’s legacy was “tarnished.”
“My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of color on television and film,” Warner mentioned. “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.”
Representatives for Cosby declined rapid remark.
Warner labored steadily as an actor for greater than 40 years. His first main post-“Cosby” position got here on the sitcom “Malcolm & Eddie,” co-starring with comic Eddie Griffin within the well-liked collection on the defunct UPN community from 1996 to 2000.
“My heart is heavy right now,” Griffin mentioned on Instagram Monday. “Rest easy my brother for you have Won in life and now you have won forever eternal bliss..”
Within the 2010s, he starred reverse Tracee Ellis Ross as a family-blending couple for 2 seasons on the BET sitcom “Read Between The Lines.” He additionally had a task as O.J. Simpson’s buddy Al Cowlings on “American Crime Story” and was a collection common 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 mentioned 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 movie roles included the 2008 rom-com “Fool’s Gold” with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. A poet and a musician, Warner was a Grammy winner, for greatest conventional R&B efficiency, and was nominated for greatest spoken phrase poetry album for “Hiding in Plain View.”
Warner additionally labored as a director, helming episodes of “Malcolm & Eddie,” “Read Between the Lines,” “Kenan & Kel,” and “All That.”
Warner was born in 1970 in Jersey Metropolis, New Jersey. His mom, Pamela Warner, reportedly named him after Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal. She served as his supervisor when he started pursuing performing at age 9.
Within the early Eighties, he made visitor appearances on the TV exhibits “Matt Houston” — his first credit score — and “Fame.”
Warner was 13 when he landed the position of Theo in an audition after a broad seek for the correct youngster actor.
Cosby was a significant star on the time, and the present was sure to be extensively seen, however few might’ve predicted the massive, yearslong phenomenon it might turn into.
He was married with a younger daughter, however selected to not publicly disclose their names. Warner’s representatives declined rapid touch upon his loss of life.
His closing credit got here in TV visitor roles, together with appearances on “The Wonder Years,” “Grown-ish,” and “9-1-1,” the place he had a four-episode arc final yr.
“I grew up with a maniacal obsession with not wanting to be one of those ‘where are they now kids,’” Warner advised 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.’”
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AP Leisure Author Andrew Dalton reported from Los Angeles. AP Nationwide Author Jocelyn Noveck contributed reporting from New York.
