Bill Cosby Responds To His Co-Star On The “Cosby Show” Sudden Death, ‘Feels Like Son’s Murder’

Ever since the Cosby Show went off air, the star-studded cast has seemed to have gone downhill.

That trend continues.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died at the age of 54.

Warner died after drowning in Costa Rica.

MSN had more details to share on Warner’s sudden death:

Malcolm-Jamal Warner the actor who played teenage son Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” has died at age 54 in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, authorities there said.

Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department said Monday that 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.

Warner created many TV moments etched in the memories of Generation X children and their parents, including a pilot-episode argument with Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable about money and an ear piercing he tries to hide from his dad. His Theo 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 in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986. For many the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly botched mock designer shirt sewed by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet. The “Gordon Gartrell” shirt later became a memeable image. Anthony Mackie wore one on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon and the profile picture on Warner’s Instagram shows a toddler sporting one.

Bill Cosby Says Malcolm-Jamal Warner's Death Feels Like Son's Murder https://t.co/O3t42grqsL

— TMZ (@TMZ) July 21, 2025

Bill Cosby has responded to Warner’s death, per TMZ:

Bill Cosby is reacting to the sudden death of “The Cosby Show” alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner … and it’s taking him back to a dark time in his life — his son’s murder.

Cosby’s rep, Andrew Wyatt, tells TMZ … when Bill got the call that Warner died on vacation in Costa Rica, it reminded him of being in the studio filming “The Cosby Show” in January 1997, when he got a call informing him that his son Ennis Cosby was shot dead in a failed robbery attempt.

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Wyatt says news of Malcolm-Jamal’s death hit him the same way as Ennis’ murder … the two used to play together when they were younger and “were amazing together.”

We’re told when Bill last talked to Warner, he was excited about a big concert in Minneapolis and felt like he was changing the world.