Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Cosby Show Star, Dead at 54

The actor’s tragic death was first reported by TMZ.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, best known for playing Theodore “Theo” Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died. He was 54.

TMZ first broke the news, reporting his death occurred in Costa Rica and was an apparent drowning. Per AP, Costa Rican officials said he was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon when the current pulled him deeper into the ocean.

Instagram — Inside Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Private Family Life Before Death at 54 – Click image for related story

“He was rescued by people on the beach,” officials said in a report, but he was without vital signs when first responders arrived.

Notoriously private about his personal life, Warner is survived by his wife and daughter, the latter who was born in 2017. While he has shared photos of them both on social media, their identities have remained private.

TMZ — Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Family Photos with His Wife & Daughter – Click image to open gallery

Warner was just 14 when The Cosby Show premiered in 1984, with the actor starring as Bill Cosby’s only on-screen son until the show wrapped in 1992. In that time, he also hosted Saturday Night Live, appeared on Sesame Street and played his Cosby character on spinoff A Different World for a couple episodes.

He also voiced The Producer from 1994-1997 on The Magic School Bus, before costarring on Malcolm & Eddie opposite Eddie Griffin from 1996-2000. Later work included Jeremiah on Showtime, Sherri Shepherd’s sitcom Sherri, BET’s Reed between the Lines, and, most recently, The Resident and 9-1-1.

Warner was also a Grammy winner, picking up the Best Traditional R&B Performance trophy alongside Robert Glasper Experiment featuring Lala Hathaway for the song Jesus Children in 2015.

TMZ — Remembering Malcolm-Jamal Warner — Photos Through the Years – Click image to open gallery

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Daughter: Everything the Late “Cosby Show” Star Shared About His Only Child

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who died in July 2025, is survived by one daughter

Malcolm-Jamal Warner was the father of one daughter.

Although the late Cosby Show actor kept much of his private life out of the spotlight, he had previously posted pictures expressing how much he loved his only child. Warner never publicly shared his daughter’s name or birthdate and kept the identity of his wife private, but he called their child their “mini us” in a 2021 Instagram post.

Warner also posted a throwback video of him dancing with his daughter when she was a baby and noted how fast she had grown up in 2023.

“Yoooo! Y’all remember this? Man, time flies! I was playing this song in the car over the weekend and my baby didn’t even remember it,” he wrote at the time. “We used to play it all the time when she was 1. Had to go back and find this post to show her. I’m happy to say that this beautiful song is now back in rotation.”

Warner was 54 years old when he died during a family vacation in Costa Rica, a source confirmed to PEOPLE on July 21. The actor drowned while swimming.

Here’s everything to know about the late Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s daughter.

He did not disclose her name or birthdate

Malcolm-Jamal Warner and daughter
Warner chose to keep his daughter’s identity private, so he never posted a picture of her face or shared her name or birthdate. However, in an August 2021 Instagram post, Warner wrote that his daughter was 3 years old.

In September 2019, the former child actor shared a series of photos that hid her face and explained why he kept her out of the spotlight.

“Thank you for sharing in my joy as a father even though I don’t post her face. She has the rest of her life for that life. Right now I just want her to BE,” he wrote in part.

In June 2020, Warner posted a selfie with her on Facebook and wrote in the caption, “You have absolutely no idea. A love so profound that even a poet can’t find the words to describe it.”

He expressed how “proud” he was of her in 2019

Warner said that he was so “proud” to be a dad.

In 2019, he posted several photos of his daughter enjoying herself by riding a horse, playing in a water fountain and singing him happy birthday. Warner added a lengthy caption under the rare snaps where he wrote about some of her funny sayings and how he changed after becoming a dad.

“My daughter killed us twice today. For her mid-morning snack, this 2 year old girl actually asked for…wait for it…freaking…hummus! And then 20 minutes later said to us, ‘I need self care sometimes,’ ” he wrote in part.

Warner added, “Often I find myself just staring at her and wondering where she came from. I wholeheartedly own that the parents she came from/chose are special spirits in our own right and we’ve passed onto her our spiritual and vibrational riches. I am proud that we have been able to provide a wonderful, loving, and spiritually enriching environment as a home base into which ALL babies should be born and thrive. But the spirit with which she entered this world is hers and hers alone.”

Warner also used the opportunity to thank his own mother, Pam, “for being such an incredible parent.”

“And we feel honored and blessed to be backed by a village of family and intimate friends to who love our daughter deeply and share in the honor our job to nurture, support, encourage, and protect her precious light. 🙏🏾,” he wrote, while adding that he was a “proud papa!”

They celebrated holidays together

Malcolm-Jamal Warner/Instagram Malcolm-Jamal Warner and daughter — Malcolm-Jamal Warner/Instagram

Malcolm-Jamal Warner and daughter

When Warner would share rare looks into his family life, it was often about holidays or birthdays.

In 2018, Warner posted a picture of his daughter wearing a blue bunny outfit for her first Easter. He wrote, “‘Merry Christmas Easter Bunny…’ Our daughter’s 1st Easter….’ Went to Ma Duke’s and had….Easter tacos! Anyone familiar with my mom’s tacos knows how special that is.”

Warner’s little one also celebrated other big days — including her mom’s birthdays. The actor shared several photos of the two of them baking his “very first cake” in April 2021.

“Our 3 year old daughter wanted us to make Mommy a chocolate strawberry birthday cake. So we made one together. From scratch. Almond flour, brown coconut sugar, organic cacao powder, coconut oil, you know, healthy-ish side of things. Made the strawberry buttercream frosting from scratch as well. Beginner’s luck? We’ll see, but that jawn was banging,” he captioned the Instagram photos.

In 2023, Warner posted a picture showing a heart box and a $5 bill that the Tooth Fairy gave his daughter in honor of her losing her first tooth.

“Man, kids these days got it poppin’ with the tooth fairy. I remember getting a quarter for my tooth. Lil mama lost her first tooth. She has a lil box for it. Her tooth fairy left $5, baby Lapiz Lazuli crystals, and a freaking note in response to the letter she wrote to her. Sheesh, these kids got it good,” he captioned the post.

She “dug” a song he often played about Black historical figures

Warner shared a rare insight into his parenting when he shared an Instagram video of him rapping about powerful Black historical figures. He revealed in the caption that his daughter loved the song so much that she was already learning about their influence.

“I kept playing this video on loop and my daughter dug it,” he wrote in October 2022. “Soon I noticed her repeating names bc some of them she knew already. She bugged me out! So here is my first remix. I’m not really one for challenges, but l’ma get on this one right here. These are names worth knowing.”

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s notable shows and movies, from ‘The Cosby Show’ to ‘The Resident’

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, an actor and artist who rose to fame as a child as Theodore Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” has died, according to a source close to the actor.

He was 54.

Warner died in a drowning accident in Costa Rica, where he was on vacation with his family, the source said.

Warner was swimming at Playa Grande near the town of Cahuita in the province of Limón on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica around 2:30 p.m. local time Sunday, when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean, according to the Associated Press.

Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Police told CNN on Monday people who were on the beach tried to help Warner, but he was declared dead by the Red Cross.

CNN has reached out to representatives for Warner for further information.

A native of New Jersey, Warner started acting at age 9, making appearances in shows like “Fame.” He was a young teen when he was cast as the only son of Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad’s characters, Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable, in “The Cosby Show,” which ran from 1984 to 1992.

In an interview with CNN affiliate WPVI Monday, Cosby recalled his on-screen son’s dedication to his craft.

“You could depend on Malcolm always … to learn his lines, to gather his character, to come out and be ready,” Cosby said.

Cosby told WPVI he was gutted by the “shocking” news of Warner’s death, adding, “Of course, my thoughts went straight to his mother, who worked so hard. She was so wonderful with him.”

Warner often spoke about the legacy of the popular, Emmy-winning sitcom with pride.

“The fact that the Cosby Show for Black America and White America alike finally legitimized the Black middle class, which has always been around since the inception of this country but, as with everything, is not legitimate til it’s on television,” Warner said.

“When the show first came out, there were White people and Black people talking about (how) the Huxtables don’t really exist, Black people don’t really live like that. Meanwhile, we were getting tens of thousands of fan letters from people saying, thank you so much for this show,” he added.

Warner was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in 1986 for his supporting work on “The Cosby Show.”

Malcolm Jamal-Warner as Theo Huxtable for “The Cosby Show.” Al Levine/NBC/Getty Images

Lisa Bonet, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Phylicia Rashad, Sabrina Le Beauf. Front row: Keshia Knight Pulliam, Bill Cosby, Tempestt Bledsoe. Alan Singer/NBC/Getty Images

By the time the series was over, Warner said in a 2013 interview, “we were still on top enough to go out on top, but we were ready to live our own lives.”

“We were all ready to move on and as Mr. Cosby said, by that point, we had pretty much said all that we could say,” Warner added.

Warner’s comments on Cosby’s misconduct allegations

When dozens of sexual misconduct allegations against Cosby came to light years later, Warner acknowledged his sadness, saying he felt the sitcom’s legacy had been “tarnished.”

“My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of color on television and film, no matter what … negative stereotypes of people of color, we’ve always had ‘The Cosby Show’ to hold up against that,” Warner told The Associated Press in a 2015 interview. “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.”

Cosby denied all the allegations. A 2018 sexual assault conviction against him was later overturned.

Later career

As much as he honored playing Theo, Warner also worked hard to show how multifaceted he was, including being a Grammy-winning musician.

He won best traditional R&B performance in 2015 for the song “Jesus Children,” a Stevie Wonder cover Warner performed with the Robert Glasper Experiment. He was also nominated for a Grammy in 2023 for best spoken word poetry album.

Warner spoke with CNN in 2017 about his music and becoming a father.

“Being a new parent, I have a lot of new material for the music,” he said at the time. “It’s really awesome and right now, my daughter’s four months so I don’t have to tell her ‘no.’”

Warner continued working steadily in television throughout his career, with credits including “Touched by an Angel,” “Community,” “Key and Peele,” “Suits,” “Sons of Anarchy” and “American Horror Story.”

Tracee Ellis Ross, with whom Warner costarred on the BET series “Reed Between the Lines,” remembered her friend in a tribute shared on social media.

“I love you, Malcolm. First I met you as Theo with the rest of the world then you were my first TV husband,” Ross wrote. “My heart is so so sad. What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant. You made the world a brighter place. Sending so much love to your family. I’m so sorry for this unimaginable loss.”

Eddie Griffin, who starred opposite of Warner in the series “Malcolm & Eddie” for four seasons between 1996 and 2000, also paid tribute.

“My Heart is heavy today… For what the world lost was a Father a Son a Poet a Musician a Actor a Teacher a Writer a Director a Friend a Warrior that I had the pleasure of going to war with against the Hollywood machine and sometimes with each other because that’s what Brothers do but the Love was and is always there,” Griffin wrote in a statement. “You’ve taught me so much and I thank you 🙏🏾 Rest Well My Big little Brother 🙏🏾❤️🙏🏾.”

Malcolm-Jamal Warner in “The Resident.”

FOX via Getty Images

Some of Warner’s more recent acting credits include “The Resident,” “The Wonder Years” reboot, “Grownish” and “9-1-1.”

Last year, Warner launched his podcast “Not All Hood” with the goal of continuing to be a voice that explores the diverse experiences of the Black community and touch on themes of representation in media.

“When we talk about the Black community, we tend to speak of it as a monolith when the reality is there are so many different facets of the Black community, and we wanted to have a space where we can really explore, discuss, and acknowledge all of those different aspects,” he told People magazine in an interview last year.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner was more than Theo. He was a blueprint for dignity

The loss of Malcolm-Jamal Warner is devastating.

For millions of us, especially those of us who grew up Black in America during the 1980s, he wasn’t just an actor. He was family. He was possibility. He was hope.

Before Barack and Michelle Obama entered the White House, we had the Huxtables. Before college tours or career fairs, we had Theo. And for me — and for so many other young Black men — he was the first person we saw on TV who looked like us, lived like us, and was expected to become something great, not despite being Black, but while fully owning it.

When The Cosby Show premiered, it was revolutionary. Not because it had Black characters — that had been done before — but because it showed a Black family thriving. Cliff was a doctor. Clair was a lawyer. They were raising smart, funny, ambitious kids. And in the middle of it all was Theo, the every-kid: imperfect, relatable, learning life’s lessons with charm and humility.

That mattered.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner Dead: Celeb Reactions

It mattered because, for decades, portrayals of Black people on television were painfully narrow: butlers, maids, addicts, criminals, punchlines. But Theo wasn’t any of that. He was a teenager with dreams, a good heart, and two parents who demanded excellence. The image of a middle-class Black household striving together on national TV was so new, so powerful, that it drew tens of millions of viewers a week. It helped shift the national imagination.

And it shifted mine.

I had two professional parents. I wasn’t living in a junkyard like on Sanford and Son or hustling like The Jeffersons. I saw my story in Theo’s. He made me feel seen — and not alone.

But Malcolm-Jamal Warner didn’t stop with Theo. He went on to build a thoughtful, artistic, and courageous career. He didn’t chase cheap fame. He didn’t trade dignity for ratings. Instead, he used his platform to speak up about mental health, about nuance in the Black experience, about our full humanity. He invited honesty into a culture that too often demands invincibility. And he did it all with class. With grace. With quiet, unwavering strength.

That kind of consistency is rare in Hollywood — or anywhere. Malcolm weathered the pressures of child stardom with integrity. While so many struggled under the spotlight, he matured, grew and gave back. His work — from Malcolm & Eddie to his Grammy-winning music to his podcast — always carried a message: we are complex, we are diverse, we are worthy.

His passing hits hard. For those of us in our 40s, 50s, even early 60s, this feels like losing a brother. He represented an era when we had shared cultural touchstones, when families across the country sat down at the same time to laugh, learn, and witness something groundbreaking.

And yes, The Cosby Show has become complicated by the fall of its patriarch. But the contributions of its cast, especially its young stars, endure. Lisa Bonet. Tempestt Bledsoe. Keshia Knight Pulliam. And Malcolm. They carried that show’s legacy forward — not with scandal, but with substance. They embodied the excellence it promised.

It’s okay to mourn this loss loudly. It’s not “playing the race card” to remember how stunningly rare it once was to see a Black kid on TV who wasn’t in chains or trouble. It was a revelation. It was dignity in primetime.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner gave us that, and so much more. He started high. And he went higher.

May we honor him not just by remembering Theo, but by continuing the conversations he sparked, the truths he told, and the humanity he championed.

Rest in power, brother.

Bill Cosby Reacts to Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Death

Bill Cosby is mourning the loss of his onscreen son.

Shortly after news broke that The Cosby Show alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner—who portrayed Theo Huxtable on the NBC comedy—had accidentally drowned at the age of 54, the namesake star reacted to the tragic death.

The 88-year-old’s rep Andrew Wyatt confirmed to E! News that when Cosby received the call of Warner’s passing, the news was just as devastating to him as when he learned of his own son Ennis Cosby’s 1997 murder, which was the result of a failed robbery attempt.

Additionally, the rep noted that Cosby spoke of his late son and Warner playing together as children, noting they “were amazing together.”

Cosby also expressed, per the rep, that he believes Warner created a lasting impact through his life and work that will continue to change the world, just as he did as part of the Huxtable family on the NBC sitcom.

The comedian—who served nearly three years in prison for 2018 convictions of aggravated indecent assault before those convictions were overturned in 2021 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, who cited Cosby’s due process rights had been violated during trial—also spoke to Warner’s work ethic on the set of The Cosby Show.

“You could depend on Malcolm always going to the shelter, to learn his lines, to gather his character to come out and be ready,” Cosby told New York’s 6ABC in a July 21 interview. “When the news came, it was shocking.”

The Fat Albert actor added, “Of course, my thoughts went straight to his mother, who worked so hard. She was so wonderful with him.”

Prior to his passing, Warner had been vacationing in Costa Rica and was swimming in the ocean July 20, Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency confirmed to E! News in a translated statement.

NBC-TV/Kobal/Shutterstock

“Regarding the preliminary investigation, the victim appears to have entered the sea and was apparently swept away by a current,” the July 21 statement said. “The man was rescued by bystanders and taken to shore, where he received treatment from the Costa Rican Red Cross. However, he was declared lifeless at the scene.”

Costa Rican National Police later confirmed to ABC News that Warner’s cause of death was asphyxia, a condition where the body is deprived of oxygen that can be caused by drowning.

After the news of his death, many stars celebrated the life of Warner with touching tributes, including his Reed Between the Lines costar Tracee Ellis Ross.

“I love you, Malcolm,” the Black-ish star wrote in a July 21 Instagram post. “First I met you as Theo with the rest of the world then you were my first TV husband. My heart is so so sad.”

She continued, “What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant. You made the world a brighter place. Sending so much love to your family. I’m so sorry for this unimaginable loss.”

Read on for a look back at Warner’s life through pictures.

Bill Cosby, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, The Cosby Show — 1984

Malcolm Jamal-Warner, The Cosby Show, 1985 — 1985

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