Bill Cosby has compared the shock death of his TV son Malcolm-Jamal Warner to that of his own son Ennis.
Warner, 54, drowned accidentally in Costa Rica on Sunday. The actor, who played Theo Huxtable in The Cosby Show, was swimming when a current pulled him deeper into the water.
Andrew Wyatt, Bill Cosby’s long-term publicist, told the Daily Beast the pair had only spoken recently and that Cosby was “devastated” by the loss.
“Bill Cosby never stopped being a father to all the kids on the show, including Malcolm,” Wyatt said.
“Mr Cosby spoke to Malcolm around three or four weeks ago, Malcolm was telling him about a show he had done in Minneapolis and what a great response he got from the audience.”
Cosby, who turned 88 earlier this month, “Wanted everyone to know Malcolm was still humanizing the world. His legacy will be how he humanized the world. He manifested so much greatness.”
The tragedy also took Cosby back to the death of his only son, Ennis, who was murdered in 1997 in a failed robbery attempt. He was 27.
Cosby had based the Theo Huxtable character on Ennis, including a storyline where Theo struggled with dyslexia, which mirrored Ennis’ life.
“When I told him about Malcolm’s death he said it reminded him of getting the call on the set of The Cosby Show in 1997 that his son Ennis had been murdered,“ Wyatt said.
“Malcolm and Ennis used to play together, they were great friends, so this is obviously devastating for Mr Cosby. He is so shocked by what’s happened, he’s still in disbelief.”
Wyatt added that The Cosby Show, “is probably the only show in the history of television in America where the child actors didn’t end up on drugs. It was a family environment.”
The Cosby Show’s family image was tainted after 60 women accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault, groping and rape. Cosby has always maintained his innocence.
While he was convicted of sexual assault in 2018 and went to jail for two years, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the case in 2021.
Warner told People in 2023, “I know I can speak for all of the cast when I say The Cosby Show is something that we are still very proud of.”
Addressing the controversy around Cosby, Warner added, “Regardless of how some people may feel about the show now, I’m still proud of the legacy and having been a part of such an iconic show that had such a profound impact on – first and foremost, Black culture – but also American culture.”
As well as his acting work in shows including The Resident, Ten Days in the Valley and American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson, Warner was also a director and a musician. As a poet, he was nominated for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album at the 2022 Grammy Awards.
Warner won a Grammy in 2015 for Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Jesus Children”, his collaboration with Robert Glasper Experiment and Lalah Hathaway.
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