Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Star of 'The Cosby Show,' Dies at 54

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, an actor and artist who rose to fame as a child as Theodore Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," has died at the age of 54. He was on vacation with his family in Costa Rica when he died in a drowning accident.

A native of New Jersey, Warner started acting at age 9, making appearances in shows like "Fame." He was a young teen when he was cast as the only son of Bill Cosby's character, Heathcliff Huxtable, in "The Cosby Show," which ran from 1984 to 1992.

Warner later reflected on the legacy of the popular sitcom. “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, there were White people and Black people talking about (how) the Huxtables don’t really exist, Black people don’t really live like that. Meanwhile, we were getting tens of thousands of fan letters from people saying, thank you so much for this show.”

Warner was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 1986 for his supporting work on “The Cosby Show.” By the time the show was over, Warner said, “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 acknowledged his sadness in 2015 when sexual misconduct allegations about Bill Cosby came to light, saying he felt the sitcom’s legacy had been “tarnished” by the allegations. “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 told The Associated Press in an interview at the time.

In a 2015 interview with Billboard magazine, Warner spoke about how “painful” it is to watch Cosby, who he described as a major influence in his life, become the subject of rape allegations. “He’s one of my mentors, and he’s been very influential and played a big role in my life as a friend and mentor,” Warner said at the time. “Just as it’s painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it’s just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this.”