Bill Cosby has paid tribute to his Cosby Show on-screen son Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who drowned while on a family trip in Costa Rica on Sunday.
Cosby’s spokesperson, Andrew Wyatt, told People that Warner’s tragic death “reminded him of the same call he received when his son died.” (Cosby’s son, Ennis Cosby, was murdered in 1997 during an attempted robbery on a Los Angeles freeway ramp as he tried to change a flat tire. He was 27.)
Authorities said Warner’s official cause of death was asphyxia, caused when the body is deprived of oxygen. He died near Playa Cocles, a beach in Limon, Costa Rica, according to police, adding that the actor was caught by a strong current in the water and his body was found Sunday afternoon.
Wyatt said Cosby’s son “played with Malcolm” and called the 54-year-old actor’s death “devastating.”
“He found a way to talk about Malcolm even though he was sad,” Wyatt said of Cosby.
Cosby, 88, said that “Malcolm was doing what he loved when he died — he was with his family.”
“He had just done a concert in Minnesota and called Mr. Cosby and talked about it. They spoke all the time. He said ‘Malcolm was changing humanity,’” Wyatt said.
Cosby’s spokesperson added that the actor was speaking with his Cosby Show co-stars following Warner’s death. He said Cosby was “on the phone with Phylicia Rashad reminiscing about Malcolm.”
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In another statement to CBS News, Cosby said that during his conversation with Rashad, who played his on-screen wife Claire Huxtable, the two were “embracing each other over the phone about a dearly beloved friend.”
“He was never afraid to go to his room and study. He knew his lines and that he was quite comfortable even with the growing pains of a being a teenager,” Cosby said, adding that he spoke to Warner “three months ago.”
Cosby’s spokesperson also told the New York Post that the actor said of his on-screen children, “While I was their TV dad, I never stopped being a father to them.”
In another statement to Us Weekly, Wyatt said Cosby praised Warner for his ability to be a role model for other teenagers, adding, “You never heard anything negative about the child actors from The Cosby Show. No drugs, no alcohol, none of that.”
Like the rest of the Cosby Show cast, Warner had to contend with the sexual assault allegations against Cosby, whose conviction in a Pennsylvania court was later overturned.
Warner told The Associated Press in 2015 that the show’s legacy was “tarnished.”
“My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of color on television and film,” Warner said. “We’ve always had The Cosby Show to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that, that’s the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale.”
In another interview, Warner referred to Cosby as his mentor and spoke about the positive interactions he’s had with the comedian throughout his life.
“The Bill Cosby I know has been great to me and great for a lot of people,” Warner said in an interview with Billboard in January 2015. “What he’s done for comedy and television has been legendary and history-making. What he’s done for the Black community and education has been invaluable. That’s the Bill Cosby I know. I can’t speak on the other stuff.”
“He’s one of my mentors, and he’s been very influential and played a big role in my life as a friend and mentor,” Warner continued. “Just as it’s painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it’s just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this.”
He played Theo Huxtable for eight seasons, appearing in each of the 197 episodes of The Cosby Show and earning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.
Warner would develop a love-hate relationship with the character.
“Theo was very good to me. And I think that show and that role is timeless. And I’m very proud of that role,” Warner said in a recent podcast interview, while noting that he’d tried to separate himself from the role and for years would recoil when fans addressed him as Theo.
“Part of the distancing for me is not wanting to see how much of Malcolm is in Theo. I remember doing the show and I always thought that Theo is corny. I want Theo to be cooler,” he told Melyssa Ford on her Hot & Bothered podcast. “Somebody called me America’s favourite white Black boy. And I was 15…. It hurt me…. That’s cultural trauma.”
Warner left behind a wife and daughter, whose identities are not known.
— With files from The Associated Press
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