Malcolm-Jamal Warner, “The Cosby Show” star, dies at 54 in accidental drowning in Costa Rica

Actor and director Malcolm-Jamal Warner, best known for his role on “The Cosby Show,” has died in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, where he was vacationing with his family, officials there said. He was 54. 

Warner drowned Sunday afternoon at a beach in Cocles de Limón on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, the country’s Judicial Investigation Department said. He appeared to be pulled out to sea by a current. 

Warner was assisted by people who were at the beach, but he was declared dead by the staff of the Costa Rican Red Cross, the department said. 

In a statement Monday, the Costa Rican Red Cross said it was alerted to a water accident on Sunday at 2:10 p.m. local time, and it dispatched three ambulances.

Two adult men were treated on site. One was transferred to a local clinic in critical condition, the Costa Rican Red Cross said. They tried to resuscitate the other man, but he didn’t show vital signs and was declared dead. The Costa Rican Red Cross didn’t provide an update on the man transferred to a local clinic. 

Warner starred as Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show” from 1984 to 1992. His performance earned him an Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series in 1986. 

In 2023, Warner told CBS Pittsburgh that being part of “The Cosby Show” was an “awesome” experience.

“That show had such an impact on the culture here in America but also a global impact on how Black people saw ourselves globally and how the rest of the world saw us,” he said. “So I’m proud to have been part of that legacy and it’s been a great ride ever since.”

Warner said in a 2015 interview with The Associated Press that he was saddened that the show’s legacy was “tarnished” by “Cosby Show” patriarch Bill Cosby, who was accused of sexual assault by multiple women. Cosby’s conviction in a Pennsylvania case was later overturned.

Warner went on to star in other TV shows, including “Malcolm & Eddie” (1996-2000), “Reed Between the Lines” (2011-2015) and “The Resident” (2018-2023). He also voiced The Producer on “The Magic School Bus” (1994-1997). He made his feature film debut in “Drop Zone” in 1994. 

Warner also directed episodes of several TV shows, including “The Cosby Show,” “All That,” “Keenan & Kel” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” according to his biography on his website. 

Most recently, he appeared in a few episodes of “Alert: Missing Persons Unit” and was hosting the podcast “Not All Hood,” looking at the different experiences of Black Americans. 

Warner was also a poet and a musician. He won a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance in 2015 for his part in a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Jesus Children of America,” and was nominated for another Grammy for best spoken word poetry.

Fellow poet and author Kevin Powell, who was a friend of Warner’s, described him as a devoted husband and father who was humble, kind and supportive of other people. 

“You would have never known he was a major child star,” Powell said in an interview Monday with CBS News. “He was never someone who was into the celebrity of it. He knew what he was. He knew, you know, that he was America’s son. He literally was America’s son as the only male child on that historic show, ‘The Cosby Show.'”

Powell said he was struck by the emotional reactions from fans on social media. “It’s someone you came of age with,” he said of Warner.

Powell recalled publishing a poem Warner wrote in a special issue of the magazine “African Voices” for the 50th anniversary of hip-hop in 2023. 

Warner was a lifelong hip-hop fan, Powell said, but he also was “concerned about a lot of the images that were being put out there.”

“So that became kind of his thing in the last few years, like how are we representing ourselves as a community, as a people, with the art that we’re creating?” he said. “That sticks with me because he was someone who understood he had a huge platform. He had a famous name and people would pay attention if he said certain things. … That’s who Malcolm-Jamal was.”

The news of Warner’s death was “devastating,” a spokesperson for Bill Cosby said. The spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, said Cosby compared it to learning of the death of his son Ennis, who was shot and killed in a robbery in 1997. “It felt the same way,” Wyatt said.

Warner is survived by his wife and daughter.