Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor most famous for playing Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” died Sunday. He was 54.
Warner died by drowning off the coast of Costa Rica on a family trip, Costa Rican police told ABC News. Cops said he was caught by an unexpectedly high and strong current.
Though he compiled a long and varied acting resume, Warner remained best-known for his first big role, as the only son of Bill Cosby’s character Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show.” Warner was only a teenager when he was first cast in the show, and Cosby picked him personally.
“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 said in a 2015 interview, after the show’s biggest star was accused of rape and sexual assault by several women. “And the fact that we no longer have that, that’s the thing that saddens me.”
As an adult, Warner starred on “Sons of Anarchy” and “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” among several other shows and movies.
Most recently, Warner started a podcast called “Not All Hood” with Weusi Baraka and Candace Kelley about the various identities and perceptions of Black people throughout the U.S.
“The media keeps trying to tell us who we are, but the Black experience is not universal,” Warner said of the podcast. “This show will highlight the journeys and versions of Black confirmation.”
Born Aug. 18, 1970, in Jersey City, Warner dreamed of being an actor from a young age, and his parents sent him to The Professional Children’s School in Lincoln Square. His big break came when he landed the role of Theo, despite thinking he blew it on the first audition.
“I feel I’m killing. Everyone in the room is laughing,” Warner told Backstage in 2019. “I look up, and Mr. Cosby is just looking at me with his face in his hand. ‘Would you talk to your father like that?’ I said, ‘No,’ and he said, ‘Well, I don’t want to see it on this show. You work on it and come on back.’”
Following his eight years on “The Cosby Show,” Warner led the sitcom “Malcolm & Eddie” alongside Eddie Griffin, then starred on “Reed Between the Lines” with Tracee Ellis Ross.
Additionally, Warner continued to appeal to kids on the “Magic School Bus” series, where he voiced The Producer.
Warner also won a Grammy Award in 2015 for delivering the spoken outro on Robert Glasper Experiment’s “Jesus Children,” which won Best Traditional R&B Performance.”
“My friends call me the anti-celebrity celebrity,” Warner told Backstage. “But I wonder: If I had spent more time with my sights set higher, would I be in a different place? But I like my life. My ambition was never to be a star, just to be working steadily.”
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