‘The Cosby Show’ Alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Cause of Death Confirmed

The Cosby Show alum Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s cause of death has officially been revealed.

The Costa Rican Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) confirmed that Warner’s autopsy was completed on Tuesday, July 22. Warner’s cause of death was “asphyxia due to submersion.” It was ruled accidental.

On Monday, July 21, TMZ and People reported that Warner had died at age 54, citing accidental drowning as the cause of death.

Following the first report, ABC News spoke to the Costa Rican National Police, who told the outlet that Warner had drowned off the coast of Costa Rica and his official cause of death was asphyxia. Police claimed that he died near Cocles, a beach in Limon, Costa Rica, after being caught by a high current in the water. He was discovered on Sunday, July 20.

Warner, born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in August 1970, landed his breakout role as Bill Cosby’s onscreen son Theo Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show, which aired from 1984 to 1992. His performance earned him a nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series at the 1986 Emmy Awards.

After The Cosby Show, Warner continued his television career on shows such as Malcolm & Eddie from 1996 to 2000, Reed Between the Lines in 2011 and 2015, Sons of Anarchy in 2014, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story in 2016 and The Resident from 2018 to 2023. Most recently, Warner had a four-episode-stint as Amir Casey on 9-1-1 in 2024.

Aside from acting, Warner had a successful music and spoken poetry career. He won the Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance for his song “Jesus Children” with Robert Glasper Experiment and Lalah Hathaway in 2015 followed by another Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album Hiding in Plain View in 2022.

Despite Cosby’s sexual assault scandals, Warner said that the show is still “so groundbreaking” and important.

“What made it so groundbreaking was its universality,” he explained to People in February 2023. “NBC initially saw it as a show about an upper-middle class Black family. Mr Cosby diligently impressed upon them that the show was about an upper-middle-class family that happened to be Black.”

Warner went on to say that before The Cosby Show, “black sitcom humor was predicated on being Black” — and all of that changed with the NBC sitcom.

“Though the Huxtables were clearly Black — reflected quite obviously by their dress, the Black art on the walls, the music — the family issues all were universal,” he told the outlet. “And though Cliff [Cosby] was a doctor and Claire [Phylicia Rashad] was an attorney, the family dynamic was one that practically every family — no matter the ethnicity, socio-economic status or even family makeup — could find something to relate to.”

Warner is survived by his wife and a daughter, whose names he has not chosen to publicly reveal.