Bill Cosby Reacts To Malcolm-Jamal Warner's Death
Warner, who famously started playing Theodore Huxtable on the '80s sitcom The Cosby Show when he was just 14, unexpectedly drowned off the coast of Costa Rica while on vacation with his family. He was reportedly caught by a high current in the water, and according to police, his official cause of death was asphyxia.
As celebrity tributes for Warner pour in, his onscreen dad, Bill Cosby, commented on the heartbreaking news.
Discussing Warner's death during a chat with CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan, Cosby said of his onscreen son, 'He was never afraid to go to his room and study. He knew his lines and that he was quite comfortable even with the growing pains of being a teenager.'
When asked about the last time that he spoke with Warner, Cosby said it was 'three months ago,' before later noting that he had been in touch with his onscreen wife Phylicia Rashad — who played Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show — about Warner's death. 'We were embracing each other over the phone about a dearly beloved friend,' he said.
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Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
NEWS OF THE WEEK: Malcolm-Jamal Warner dies at 54 in accidental drowning
Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department said on Monday, local time, that Warner drowned on Sunday afternoon on a beach on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast. The actor, who played teenager Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean. "He was rescued by people on the beach," the department's initial report outlined. First responders from Costa Rica's Red Cross found him without vital signs. Warner's Cosby Show character was the only son among four daughters in the household of Cliff and Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom.
Los Angeles Times
8 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Malcolm-Jamal Warner carried a heavy load for Black America
There were three television characters who really mattered to me as a kid: Michael, Leroy and Theo. In elementary school, 'Good Times' was the television show that most closely resembled my family. And seeing reruns of Ralph David Carter's portrayal of a precocious young boy learning what it means to be poor, gifted and Black is what moved his Michael from fiction to family for me. By middle school, I was no longer wearing cornrows like Gene Anthony Ray, but I tried everything else to be like his character Leroy from the television show 'Fame.' For some of my classmates, the performing arts were a fun way to express themselves, and the show was inspirational. For me, it was my way out of the hood, and Leroy was the blueprint. Through the Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy, I was able to take professional dance lessons for free and ultimately earned a dance scholarship for college. But it wasn't a linear journey. Despite being gifted, I struggled academically and required summer classes to graduate from high school. That's why I connected with Theo, whose challenges in the classroom were one of the running jokes on 'The Cosby Show.' The family never gave up on him, and more importantly, he didn't stop trying. Through the jokes about his intelligence, the coming-of-age miscues (and the dyslexia diagnosis), the storylines of Theo — like those of Leroy and Michael — often reflected struggles I foolishly thought no one else was experiencing when I was growing up. It is only through distance and time are we able to see moments like those more clearly. In retrospect, the three of them were like knots I held onto on a rope I had no idea I was climbing. This is why the Black community's response to the death of Malcolm-Jamal Warner this week isn't solely rooted in nostalgia but also in gratitude. We recognize the burden he's been carrying, so that others could climb. When 'The Cosby Show' debuted in 1984, there were no other examples of a successful two-parent Black family on air. We were on television but often trauma and struggle — not love and support — were at the center of the narratives. So even though Black women had been earning law degrees since the 1800s — beginning with Charlotte E. Ray in 1872 — and Black men were becoming doctors before that, the initial response from critics was that the show's premise of a doctor-and-lawyer Black couple was not authentically Black. That narrow-minded worldview continued to hang over Hollywood despite the show's success. In 1992, after nearly 10 years of 'The Cosby Show' being No. 1 — and after the success of 'Beverly Hills Cop II' and 'Coming to America' — the Eddie Murphy-led project 'Boomerang' was panned as unrealistic because the main characters were all Black and successful. The great Murphy took on the Los Angeles Times directly in a letter for its critique on what Black excellence should look like. However, Black characters like Michael, Leroy and Theo had been taking on the media since the racist film 'The Birth of a Nation' painted all of us as threats in 1915. It could not have been easy for Warner, being the face of so much for so many at an age when a person is trying to figure out who he is. And because he was able to do so with such grace, Warner's Theo defined Blackness simply by being what the world said we were not. This sentiment is embodied in his last interview, when he answered the question of his legacy by saying: 'I will be able to leave this Earth knowing and people knowing that I was a good person.' In the end, that is ultimately what made his character, along with Leroy and Michael, so important to the Black community. It wasn't the economic circumstances or family structure of the sitcoms that they all had in common. It was their refusal to allow the ugliness of this world to tear them down. To change their hearts or turn their light into darkness. They maintained their humanity and in the process gave so many of us a foothold to keep climbing higher. YouTube: @LZGrandersonShow
New York Post
9 hours ago
- New York Post
David Letterman hurls fiery rant at ‘gutless' CBS over Stephen Colbert's ‘Late Show' cancellation
David Letterman delivered a fiery rant against CBS and parent company Paramount for cancelling Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show,' calling the decision 'gutless' and 'pure cowardice' as he labeled his successor a martyr of the network. Letterman, who hosted CBS's late-night talk show for 22 years, passionately defended Colbert during his conversation with former 'Late Show' producers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay on Friday — just over a week since the show was axed. 'The fact that they killed the franchise and told Stephen to go,' Letterman said in a video posted to his YouTube channel. 'Now, for Stephen, I love this. He is a martyr. Good for him.' 6 David Letterman speaks out against CBS canceling the 'Late Show with Stephen Colbert' on July 25, 2025. Letterman/YouTube The 78-year-old comedian says Colbert had immortalized himself as the face of the network since he took over the iconic talk show in September 2015. '10 years ago, I quit and left,' Letterman said. 'Then Stephen Colbert comes along, and pretty quickly established himself as a precise, crisp, witty political satirist, and often his target has been the current administration. 'Based on that and just the overall entertainment quota of the show, drew a great audience and people became not addicted to but always looking forward to political satire from Stephen Colbert, he was very good at it. For 10 years, I think became the face of the network.' On July 17, CBS announced that it would cancel Colbert's show in 2026 due to financial reasons. The show was losing between $40 million and $50 million a year, The Post learned. 6 Letterman speaks with his former 'Late Night' staffers Barbara Gaines and Mary Barclay during a conversation posted to YouTube. Letterman/YouTube 6 Stephen Colbert sits at his desk during a shooting of 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' inside the Ed Sullivan Theater on June 25, 2025. Scott Kowalchyk/CBS Letterman didn't believe the financial hardship claims were the reason for the cancellation, instead blaming the company executives who feared Paramount's sale to Skydance wouldn't go through. 'If they were losing this kind of money, you're telling me losing this kind of money happened yesterday. Yeah right,' he said. 'I bet they were losing this kind of money six weeks ago, or they have never been losing money.' The comedian called out the network's news branch, saying CBS News doesn't make money for the company and is still around. 'Take a look at CBS News, it's still in business and I'm not certain that that's a profit center,' he said. 6 The Ed Sullivan Theater in Manhattan where 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is recorded on July 22, 2025. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post 6 Paramount and CBS News signs at the Paramount offices on Broadway in Manhattan, NY on June 13, 2025. Christopher Sadowski 'I think the idea that they're hiding behind money and they're giving him another 10 months. That's a huge chunk of money they're gonna lose,' Letterman said. Colbert's cancellation came as CBS-Paramount Holdings finalized the sale of the network to Skydance Media for $8.4 billion on July 24. 'The f–k is Skydance? Honest to Christ. Is it a discount airline?' Letterman joked. 'I think one day, if not today, the people at CBS who have manipulated and handled this are going to be embarrassed because this is gutless,' he added. 6 Stephen Colbert during his opening monologue for his 'Late Show' on July 21, 2025. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert The purported $8.4 billion sale comes in light of CBS settling a lawsuit with President Donald Trump after the commander in chief accused CBS News' '60 Minutes' of deceptively editing an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the weeks leading up to the 2024 general election. Letterman called the settlement 'pure cowardice' as the lawsuit targeted the network's 'pinnacle of journalistic integrity.' Colbert, 61, has also called himself a 'martyr' as he blamed his show's demise on Trump, telling the commander in chief to 'go f–k yourself' in his opening monologue on July 21. Letterman wished the cancellation had happened on his watch as he now has to kiss 'Colbert's ring.' The comedian had already commented on the shock ending to the long-time show. 'You can't spell CBS without BS,' Letterman captioned a YouTube video of his old jokes against the Turner network.
