On Monday morning, it was reported that actor and artist Malcolm-Jamal Warner passed away while on vacation with his family in Costa Rica. According to sources close to the actor, Warner died in a drowning accident that resulted in asphyxiation by submersion; he was 54. Born on Aug. 18 1970, Warner started acting at age 9, making appearances in shows like “Fame.” He was a young teen when he secured the role of Bill Cosby’s son, Theo Huxtable, in “The Cosby Show,” which ran from 1984 to 1992.
Warner was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 1986 for his supporting work on “The Cosby Show.”
“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, White people and Black people were talking about (how) the Huxtables don’t exist, Black people don’t live like that. Meanwhile, we were getting tens of thousands of fan letters from people saying, “Thank you so much for this 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 also served as the voice of The Producer in the PBS children’s series “The Magic School Bus.” He directed episodes of “The Cosby Show,” “All That,” “Kenan & Kel,” and “Malcolm & Eddie.”
Warner also worked hard to show his other talents, 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.
