Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor who played his teenage son Theo Huxtable in “The Cosby Show,” passed away at the age of 54 in an accidental drowsing in Costa Rica.
The Costa Rica Judicial Investigation Bureau said Warner owned on a Sunday afternoon on a beach on Costa Rica’s Caribbean Coast. He was swimming in Playacocles, Limon Province, when a current man pulled him deep into the sea.
“He was rescued by people on the beach,” the department’s first report said, but the first responder from the Costa Rica Red Cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner has created many television moments etched into the memories of the Generation X child and their parents, including discussions of a pilot episode with Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable and another episode in which Theo tries to hide his ears from his father. His Theo was one of the four daughters of Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad’s Claire Huxtable family, and he became one of the main expressions of American teenage boyhood at America’s most popular shows from 1984 to 1992.
He played eight seasons of roles, appeared in each of the 197 episodes of the show, and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1986 to support the actor in comedy. The “Gordon Gartrell” shirt was later made into an image that could be member-wide. Anthony Mackey wore one with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show.”
NBA Hall of Fame Magic Johnson was among those paying his tribute on Monday. Johnson said at X that he and his wife were sad to hear of the death of their friend.
“We were both super fans of the hit ‘Cosby Show’ and continued to pursue his career with shows such as ‘Malcolm and Eddie’ and ‘The Resident’,” Johnson said. “Every time you come across Malcolm, you have a deep, fun conversation about basketball, life, business. He’s really missed.”
Like the rest of the “Cosby Show” cast, Warner had to contest a sexual assault allegation against a famous star whose Pennsylvania court conviction was later overturned.
Warner told The Associated Press in 2015 that the show’s legacy is “discolored.”
“My biggest concern is with images of people of color on television and film,” Warner said. “We’ve always had the ‘Cosby Show’ to oppose it. And the fact that we don’t have it anymore is what makes me saddest.
Cosby representatives immediately declined to comment.
Warner later appeared in the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, where he starred with comedian Eddie Griffin in the UPN Network series, which was discontinued between 1996 and 2000. He also took on the role of OJ Simpson’s friend Al Cowlings in “American Crime Story,” and was in the regular series for Fox’s “The Resident.”
“First, I met you as Theo with the rest of the world, then you were my first TV husband,” Ross said on Instagram. “My heart is so sad. What an actor and friend you were: warm, kind, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, interesting and elegant.”
His film roles included the 2008 ROM-COM “Fool’s Gold” with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. Poet and musician Warner is a Grammy Award winner, a top performance in traditional R&B, and was nominated for the Best Spoken Word Poetry Album for “Hiding in Plane View.”
Warner was married to his daughter, about 5 years old for about 10 years, but chose not to reveal her name. Warner representatives declined to immediately comment on his death.
“I told the Associated Press in 2015. “I feel very blessed to be able to have all of these revenge.”
AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press National Writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed to the report from New York.
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