Bill Cosby outlives Malcolm Jamal-Warner who, like Joe Frazier, couldn't swim a lick

By Grand Rapids Anonymous
monday, july 21, 2025 at 5:23:00 p.m. edt

Bill Cosby outlives Malcolm Jamal-Warner who, like Joe Frazier, couldn't swim a lick

“San Jose, costa rica (ap) — Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who as teenage son Theo Huxtable on the Cosby show, was central to a cultural phenomenon that helped define the 1980s, died at age 54 in an accidental drowning in costa rica, authorities there said monday.

“costa rica’s judicial investigation department said Warner drowned sunday afternoon on a beach on costa rica’s caribbean coast. he 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 said, but first responders from costa rica’s red cross found him without vital signs and he was taken to the morgue.

“his Theo character was the only son among four daughters in the household of Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad’s Clair Huxtable on the nbc sitcom, and he would be one of the prime representations of American teenage boyhood on a show that was the most popular in America for much of its run from 1984 to 1992.

“he played the role for eight seasons, appearing in each of the show’s 197 episodes and earning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.”

GRA: Bill Cosby, when informed of Warner's drowning said, "You know, black people can't swim--that's not a rumor--it's a fact! How did I live to be 90 years old? I stayed out of the damn water. You remember Joe Frazier splashing around in the pool and going under on 'Battle of the Network Stars'? THAT'S all black people--even in a puddle on the street. When it rains in the ghetto, they're like fish on land, flopping around--until a gangbanger, in a boat, shoots them.”

--GRA