Malcolm-Jamal Warner death: The Cosby Show star dies aged 54 – UK Times

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, known for his role as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died. He was 54.

Warner starred in the beloved family sitcom from 1984 to 1992, and went on to headline Malcolm & Eddie with Eddie Griffin from 1996 to 2000.

ABC News reports that Warner drowned off the coast of Costa Rica on Sunday, according to Costa Rican National Police.

His official cause of death was asphyxia, after he was caught by a strong current while swimming off Cocles, a beach in Limon, on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica.

The Independent has approached Warner’s representatives for comment.

Warner was born in Jersey City, New Jersey on August 18, 1970. He pursued acting from a young age and graduated from New York’s Professional Children’s School.

At the age of 13 he auditioned for the role of Theo, the only son of Bill Cosby’s Heathcliff Huxtable, on the final day of a nationwide search. He was chosen for the part Cosby himself.

Earlier this year, he reflected on the difficulty of always being associated with his breakout role on the Hot & Bothered with Melyssa Ford podcast.

Per Yahoo, he said his wife, who he never publicly named for privacy reasons, “got on him” for trying to “distance himself from Theo, as if Theo was a bad thing.”

He continued: “I’ve always wanted it to be separate… and there’s this narrative that I hate being called Theo…”, before admitting that it was true and he disliked being asked to sign autographs as “Theo.”

He added: “I’m always gonna be Malcolm much longer than Theo. Although to some people I’ll be Theo forever, and I can’t help that.”

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During his time on The Cosby Show, Warner became a well-known public figure and made regular guest appearances elsewhere. He hosted Saturday Night Live in 1986, at the age of 16, and also appeared in Sesame Street and in several television specials.

Warner reprised the role of Theo in the spin-off series A Different World, which ran from 1988 to 1989.

Until 1994 Warner was in a relationship with his Cosby Show co-star Michelle Thomas, who played his onscreen girlfriend Justine. The pair remained close and he was at her bedside when she died from a rare form of cancer in 1998 at the age of 30.

More recently, Warner has made appearances on comedies including Community and Key & Peele, and starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross in the 2011 sitcom Reed Between the Lines. From 2018 to 2023 he starred in the Fox medical drama The Resident.

His final screen credits came in four episodes of the procedural 9-1-1 last year.

Warner is survived by his wife and daughter.