Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who endeared himself to millions playing Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show from 1984 (when he was just 13 years old) to 1992, died on Sunday (July 20) afternoon at the age of 54.
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Warner died by accidental drowning after a current pulled him out into the ocean off the coast of the Limón Province, according to a report from Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department, per the Associated Press.
In addition to his Emmy-nominated acting on The Cosby Show, Warner also worked as a poet and musician, winning a Grammy Award in 2015 for his work on Robert Glasper’s Black Radio 2; alongside Glasper and Lalah Hathaway, Warner won the best traditional R&B performance Grammy for a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Jesus Children” on the acclaimed album.
At the 2023 Grammy Awards, Warner was nominated for another Grammy, best spoken word poetry album, for Hiding In Plain View, an LP credited to Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Miles Long (his fourth album overall). “My band, Miles Long, is a jazz-funk spoken word band,” Warner told Billboard in 2015. “There’s jazz sensibilities, but I’m a bass player, so I’m very much into the head-bobbing vibe with sophisticated lyrics. I’ve always been a poet. My dad went to Lincoln University with Gil-Scott Heron, so I came out of the womb listening to Gil-Scott Heron. I’ve been writing all my life and playing bass came later on, when I was about 26. What I recognized with poetry and music that I had a different voice — there were things I wanted to express that I could not as an actor or even as a director. It was another avenue of expression that my soul needs.”
In addition to poetry, acting and music, Warner also worked as a director throughout his career, helming music videos for New Edition (“N.E. Special Edition,” 1989) and Brooklyn rapper Special Ed’s “I’m the Magnificent.” In 2024, Warner, Weusi Baraka and Candace O. Kelley started the Not All Hood (NAH) podcast to discuss the lives of Black Americans.
Warner is survived by his daughter.
