Former TV Dad Bill Cosby is speaking out after the death of Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played his son, Theo, on the popular 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show.”
Warner died this past weekend of accidental drowning off the coast of Limon, Costa Rica. He was 54.
After the news broke, Cosby told People through his spokesman, Andrew Wyatt, that Warner’s death “reminded him of the same call he received” in 1997 when his only son, Ennis William Cosby, was murdered during an attempted robbery on a Los Angeles freeway ramp.
Wyatt said Warner and Ennis played together when they were young and that Cosby and Warner “spoke all the time” before his death.
“He found a way to talk about Malcolm even though he was sad,” Wyatt said of Cosby, adding that the actor has spent time reminiscing about Warner with his former TV wife Phylicia Rashad.
In addition, Wyatt told the New York Post that Cosby told him he considered his relationship with his younger co-stars important to him.
“While I was their TV dad, I never stopped being a father to them,” Wyatt quoted Cosby.
Cosby did a phone interview with CBS News reporter Jericka Duncan where he praised Warner’s work ethic.
“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 being a teenager,” Cosby said, adding that he and Warner last spoke three months ago.
Although Warner did remain in contact with Cosby, there were challenges after the comedian was accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women.
Cosby was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era and spent nearly three years at a state prison near Philadelphia before a higher court overturned the conviction and released him in 2021.
In a 2015 interview with HuffPost, Warner compared Cosby’s situation to those of Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, who have both faced allegations of their own.
“When we talk about Woody Allen, we don’t talk about his controversy. When we talk about Roman Polanski now, that’s no longer part of the conversation. So if that’s how it goes, then I hope the same will be of ‘The Cosby Show,’” Warner said.
A few months later, in an interview with BET, Warner took the same mindset toward Allen and Polanski, but noted “It’s very clear the crimes they’ve committed, but there’s no one who’s calling for Woody’s movies to be pulled off the air.”
Still, he admitted he couldn’t defend his former co-star’s offscreen actions.
“I am in no position to defend [Cosby], because I can’t,” he said. “Nor will I throw him under the bus,” he added.