A TV Icon’s Rich Lie & Tragic End

THE COSBY SHOW KID, WHO GREW UP TO FIND HIS OWN HOLLYWOOD STARDOM AND DISCOVER THE JOYS OF FAMILY, DIES BY DROWNING AT 54

- By TOM GLIATTO

In an interview last year with People, Malcolm-Jamal Warner spoke about how, from the moment he found fame on The Cosby Show at age 14, he pondered his future path—the one he'd have to pursue once he was finished playing lovable teen Theo Huxtable. What set that course, he said, was a heart-to-heart talk he'd had with his mother, Pamela, a show business consultant. "My mother sat me down and said, 'Listen, baby, it's great that this show is the phenomenon that it is, but at some point this show is going to be over.'" How would he avoid becoming just another actor for hire, "out there making desperate career choices"?

And so he made the decision, he later said, to start "planting seeds"—and they bloomed. The show's central star, Bill Cosby, would see his career and reputation as "America's Dad" torpedoed by sexual-assault allegations. But Warner, in addition to never losing the global audience's affection for Theo, went on to have a highly respected career that included a Grammy-winning R&B song, "Jesus Children," as well as acting credits such as the series Malcolm & Eddie (1996-2000) and The Resident (2018-23). He was also a TV producer, writer and director.

But his path forward ended on July 20: The 54-year-old actor drowned in the waters off Cocles, a beach on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, while on vacation with his family. Caught by the current, he was lifeless when first responders reached him.

Warner is survived by a wife and an 8-year-old daughter, both of whose names he was always careful not to reveal. “Although I live in the public eye,” he said in the title poem of a 2022 spoken-poetry album, Hiding in Plain View, “I don’t subscribe to the dog-and-pony show.”