Malcolm-Jamal Warner dies at 54; actor delivered big laughs as Theo on ‘The Cosby Show’
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, an actor and artist who rose to fame as a child as Theodore Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” has died. He was 54.
Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department said Monday that Warner drowned Sunday afternoon on a beach on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. A source close to the actor says he he was on vacation there with his family.
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.
A native of New Jersey, Warner started acting at age 9, making appearances in shows like “Fame.” He was a young teen when he was cast as the only son of Bill Cosby’s character, Heathcliff Huxtable, in “The Cosby Show,” which ran from 1984 to 1992.
Warner later reflected on the legacy of the popular, Emmy-winning sitcom.
“The fact that the Cosby Show for Black America and White America alike finally legitimized the Black middle class, which has always been around since the inception of this country but, as with everything, is not legitimate til it’s on television,” Warner said. “When the show first came out, there were White people and Black people talking about (how) the Huxtables don’t really exist, Black people don’t really live like that. Meanwhile, we were getting tens of thousands of fan letters from people saying, thank you so much for this show.”
Warner was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 1986 for his supporting work on “The Cosby Show.”
By the time the show was over, Warner said in a 2013 interview, “we were still on top enough to go out on top, but we were ready to live our own lives.”
“We were all ready to move on and as Mr. Cosby said, by that point, we had pretty much said all that we could say,” Warner added.
After the perennial hit series ended in 1992, the actor continued working primarily in television until recently, with credits including “Touched by an Angel,” “Community,” “Key and Peele,” “Suits,” “Sons of Anarchy” and “American Horror Story.”
Warner’s comments on Cosby’s misconduct allegations
Warner acknowledged his sadness in 2015 when sexual misconduct allegations about Bill Cosby came to light, saying he felt the sitcom’s legacy had been “tarnished” by the allegations.
“My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of color on television and film, no matter what … negative stereotypes of people of color, we’ve always had ‘The Cosby Show’ to hold up against that,” Warner told The Associated Press in an interview at the time.
Cosby was released from prison in 2021 after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his 2018 sexual assault conviction, saying Cosby’s due process rights were violated. Cosby was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.
In a 2015 interview with Billboard magazine, Warner spoke about how “painful” it is to watch Cosby, who he described a major influence in his life, become the subject of rape allegations.
“He’s one of my mentors, and he’s been very influential and played a big role in my life as a friend and mentor,” Warner said at the time. “Just as it’s painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it’s just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this.”
Warner’s life beyond acting
As much as he honored the Theo character, Warner also worked hard to show how multifaceted he was, including being a Grammy-winning musician.
He won best traditional R&B performance in 2015 for the song “Jesus Children.” He was also nominated for a Grammy in 2023 for best spoken word poetry album.
Both as a musician, and then as a parent, Warner talked to CNN in 2017 about his excitement in those roles.
“Being a new parent, I have a lot of new material for the music,” he said at the time. “It’s really awesome and right now, my daughter’s four months so I don’t have to tell her ‘no.’”
Warner also starred opposite Eddie Griffin in the series “Malcolm & Eddie” for four seasons between 1996 and 2000.
His more recent acting credits include “The Resident,” “The Wonder Years” reboot, “Grownish” and “9-1-1.”
Last year, Warner launched his podcast “Not All Hood” last year with the goal of continuing to be a voice that explores the diverse experiences of the Black community and touch on themes of representation in media.
“When we talk about the Black community, we tend to speak of it as a monolith when the reality is there are so many different facets of the Black community, and we wanted to have a space where we can really explore, discuss, and acknowledge all of those different aspects,” he told People magazine in an interview last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.