Malcolm-Jamal Warner, TV's Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, Dies at 54 After Drowning

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, beloved by TV audiences as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died at the age of 54.

According to ABC News, Warner was vacationing in Costa Rica and got swept up in a high current in the water near a beach in Limon. The official cause of death was asphyxia, according to police, and his body was discovered on Sunday afternoon.

Warner was best known for playing the Huxtable son for all eight seasons of The Cosby Show, earning an Emmy nomination for the role. He also starred in the television shows Malcolm & Eddie, The Resident, and Reed Between the Lines, in addition to producing the animated series The Magic School Bus. He won a Grammy in 2015 for the song “Jesus Children.”

No stranger to the stage, Warner began his career in community theater from the age of nine. Off-Broadway, he appeared in the plays Three Ways Home and Cryin’ Shame, for which he received the NAACP Theater Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He starred in Freefall at Victory Gardens in Chicago and played Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at La Jolla Playhouse.

Warner’s one-man show, Love and Other Social Issues, received critical acclaim. He also played the role of Dr. John Prentice in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner at Arena Stage and the Huntington Theatre. You can read our interview with him here.

Warner is survived by his wife and daughter, whose names have never been publicly disclosed.