Malcolm-Jamal Warner was a talented actor, poet, musician, director, and producer, born on August 18, 1970, in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was named after the civil rights activist Malcolm X and the jazz legend Ahmad Jamal. His father, Robert Warner Jr., worked in drug intervention programs and graduated from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. After his parents’ divorce, his mother, Pamela Warner, who also became his acting manager, reared him. Following the separation, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, where Malcolm-Jamal began acting at 9, appearing in shows such as Fame. He later graduated from the Professional Children’s School in New York City in 1988.
Warner gained fame for his role as Theodore “Theo” Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, which premiered in 1983. The show was about an upper-middle class African American family living in a posh community in Brooklyn Heights, New York. The character of Theo was inspired by Cosby’s son, Ennis, who tragically lost his life in 1997 at the age of 27 during a robbery attempt.
Warner began portraying Theo at 14 and appeared in all eight show seasons. He was recognized for his performance in the Comedy Series category at the 38th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1986.
In 1992, Warner starred in his sitcom, Here and Now, and participated in the public health documentary Time Out: The Truth About HIV, AIDS, and You. He also played Malcolm McGee on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie from 1996 to 2000, portrayed Dr. Alex Reed in the sitcom Reed Between the Lines between 2011 and 2015, and played Dr. A.J. Austin in the medical drama The Resident. During this period he also performed Dr. John Prentice at the Huntington Theatre in the classic film production of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, a remake of the 1967 film where the daughter of a liberal white family brings home her Black fiancé. (Prentice is the fiancé.)
In 2015, Warner won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for the song “Jesus Children.” Two years later, in 2017, he married Diane Warner, and they welcomed a daughter.
In 2023, Warner was nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album for his work titled Hiding In Plain View. That same year, as a special guest and emcee, Warner helped raise more than a million dollars for scholarships for Berklee College of Music so that the underserved youth could develop musically, academically, socially, and emotionally.
Tragically, Malcolm-Jamal Warner died due to asphyxia from drowning on July 20, 2025, in Playa Grande, Limón Province, Costa Rica. He was 54 years old.
About the Author
Otis D. Alexander, Library Director at Saint John Vianney College Seminary & Graduate School in Miami, Florida, has also directed academic and public libraries in the District of Columbia, Indiana, Texas, and Virginia. In addition, he has been a library manager in the Virgin Islands of the United States as well as in the Republic of Liberia. His research has appeared in Public Library Quarterly, Scribner’s Encyclopedia of American Lives, and Virginia Libraries journal. Alexander received the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Science degrees from the University of the District of Columbia and the Master of Library & Information Science degree from Ball State University. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from International University and studied additionally at Harvard Graduate School of Education Leadership for Academic Librarians, Oberlin Conservatory of Music Voice Performance Pedagogy, and Atlanta University School of Library & Information Studies.
