Actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, ‘Cosby Show’ star, has died at the age of 54

Malcolm-Jamal Warner at the 65th GRAMMY Awards in Los Angeles, California.Frazer Harrison/Getty Images/Getty Images North Americahide caption

Actor and Grammy Award winner Malcolm-Jamal Warner, best known for his role as the sweet teenager Theo Huxtable onThe Cosby Show, has died at age 54.

Per The Associated Press, Costa Rica's Judicial Investigation Department confirmed that Warner died on Sunday in a drowning accident while on vacation with his family at a beach along the country's Caribbean coast. He was pulled into a current. Fellow beachgoers tried to rescue him, but first responders from Costa Rica's Red Cross were unable to revive him.

TV audiences initially came to know Warner as the only son of Heathcliff and Clair Huxtable, a role he played on the smash hit comedyThe Cosby Showbetween 1984 and 1992 and for which he earned an Emmy Award nomination. Later, he appeared on the sitcomsMalcolm & EddieandReed Between the Lines. More recently, he appeared on the Fox medical dramaThe Resident.

Off-Broadway, he appeared in such plays asThree Ways HomeandCryin' Shame, for which he received an NAACP Theater Award.

His interests were not limited to acting: "Jesus Children," a song by the Robert Glasper Experiment featuring vocalist Lalah Hathaway, which also features a spoken-word contribution from Warner memorializing the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, won a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance in 2015. He was also nominated for a second Grammy, for best spoken word poetry album, in 2023 for his projectHiding in Plain View.

In 2023, he spoke toAll Things Consideredabout that project, and about writing poetry during the COVID pandemic.

"Vulnerability can be a scary thing," he said, "even when we're on the mend. Black boys boast bravado not to seem broken. And often, so do Black men. I see you looking for clues, searching for cues, longing to know what I'm not telling you, as if I'm hiding in plain view."

He also played bass guitar, and told NPR that he found avenues of creative expression through music and poetry that he couldn't access through acting. In 2024, he launched a podcast, "Not All Hood"; the most recent episode, with co-host Candace Kelley and poet and activist Tamika "Georgia Me" Harper, was publishedlast week.

Warner was an executive producer for the beloved PBS children's showThe Magic School Bus, for which he also served as the voice of The Producer. He directed episodes of many television series, includingThe Cosby Show,The Resident,andTheFresh Prince of Bel-Air.