Malcolm-Jamal Warner, an actor and artist who rose to fame as a baby as Theodore Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” died Sunday in a drowning accident in Costa Rica, in accordance with native police.
He was 54.
Warner was swimming at Playa Grande close to the city of Cahuita in the province of Limón on the Caribbean coast round 2:30 p.m. native time, when a present pulled him deeper into the ocean, in accordance with the Associated Press.
Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Police instructed NCS on Monday folks who had been on the seashore tried to assist Warner, however he was declared dead by the Red Cross. Another man is in essential situation after being pulled into the present with Warner, authorities stated.
On Tuesday, the Judicial Investigation Police stated an post-mortem of Warner had been accomplished, with the way of loss of life categorized as unintended, and the trigger as “asphyxia by submersion” (or, drowning). Warner’s physique will then be launched to a funeral service chosen by his household.
NCS has reached out to representatives for Warner for additional info.
Beginnings on a landmark TV present
A local of New Jersey, Warner began performing at age 9, making appearances in reveals like “Fame.” He was a younger teen when he was solid as the one son of Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad’s characters, Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable, in “The Cosby Show,” which ran from 1984 to 1992.
In an interview with NCS affiliate WPVI Monday, Cosby recalled his on-screen son’s dedication to his craft.
“You could depend on Malcolm always … to learn his lines, to gather his character, to come out and be ready,” Cosby stated.
Cosby instructed WPVI he was gutted by the “shocking” information of Warner’s loss of life, including, “Of course, my thoughts went straight to his mother, who worked so hard. She was so wonderful with him.”
Warner typically spoke about the legacy of the favored, Emmy-winning sitcom with delight.
“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 stated.
“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,” he added.
Warner was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 1986 for his supporting work on “The Cosby Show.”
By the time the collection was over, Warner stated 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.
When dozens of sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to Cosby got here to mild years later, Warner acknowledged his disappointment, saying he felt the sitcom’s legacy had been “tarnished.”
“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 instructed The Associated Press in a 2015 interview. “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.”
Cosby denied all of the allegations. A 2018 sexual assault conviction in opposition to him was later overturned.
As a lot as he honored taking part in Theo, Warner additionally labored exhausting to indicate how multifaceted he was, together with being a Grammy-winning musician.
He received greatest conventional R&B efficiency in 2015 for the music “Jesus Children,” a Stevie Wonder cowl Warner carried out with the Robert Glasper Experiment. He was additionally nominated for a Grammy in 2023 for greatest spoken phrase poetry album.
Warner spoke with NCS in 2017 about his music and turning into a father.
“Being a new parent, I have a lot of new material for the music,” he stated 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 continued working steadily in tv all through his profession, with credit together with “Touched by an Angel,” “Community,” “Key and Peele,” “Suits,” “Sons of Anarchy” and “American Horror Story.”
Tracee Ellis Ross, with whom Warner costarred on the BET collection “Reed Between the Lines,” remembered her good friend in a tribute shared on social media.
“I love you, Malcolm. First I met you as Theo with the rest of the world then you were my first TV husband,” Ross wrote. “My heart is so so sad. What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant. You made the world a brighter place. Sending so much love to your family. I’m so sorry for this unimaginable loss.”
Eddie Griffin, who starred reverse of Warner in the collection “Malcolm & Eddie” for 4 seasons between 1996 and 2000, additionally paid tribute.
“My Heart is heavy today… For what the world lost was a Father a Son a Poet a Musician a Actor a Teacher a Writer a Director a Friend a Warrior that I had the pleasure of going to war with against the Hollywood machine and sometimes with each other because that’s what Brothers do but the Love was and is always there,” Griffin wrote in an announcement. “You’ve taught me so much and I thank you 🙏🏾 Rest Well My Big little Brother 🙏🏾❤️🙏🏾.”
Some of Warner’s newer performing credit embrace “The Resident,” “The Wonder Years” reboot, “Grownish” and “9-1-1.”
Last yr, Warner launched his podcast “Not All Hood” with the objective of constant to be a voice that explores the various experiences of the Black neighborhood and contact on themes of illustration 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 instructed People journal in an interview final yr.
This story has been up to date with extra info.