Source: Entertainment Weekly

Phylicia Rashad honored her late Cosby Show son, Malcolm Jamal-Warner, with an emotional remembrance at the 2025 Emmy Awards.

While introducing the ceremony’s “In Memoriam” segment from the Peacock Theater stage in Los Angeles on Sunday evening, Rashad, 77, remembered her “beloved” costar and his “light,” which she said “remains in the very fabric of our industry,” along with others who passed during the past year.

“He was a beloved teenager in an iconic television series who the world watched grow into manhood,” she said. “And like all our friends and colleagues who transitioned this past year, Malcolm Jamal-Warner remains in our hearts.”

She continued: “Tonight, as is tradition at the Emmys, we remember them not just for their immense talent but also for the way they made us believe in something bigger. And even though they may no longer be here with us, we can all smile knowing that their impact will remain, knowing that their lasting impressions will continue to live on through story, knowing that they touched our lives.”

Warner died unexpectedly in July from an accidental drowning while on a family vacation in Costa Rica. He was 54.

The actor was best known for his Emmy-nominated portrayal of Theo Huxtable on the groundbreaking 1980s sitcom The Cosby Show, the first television series to feature an affluent Black family. Rashad played Huxtable matriarch Clair, the elegant lawyer wife of obstetrician Heathcliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby).

Keshia Knight Pulliam at the premiere of “Shirley” held at The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on March 19, 2024; Malcolm-Jamal Warner attends the 65th GRAMMY Awards on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.

“Regardless of how some people may feel about the show now, I’m still proud of the legacy and having been a part of such an iconic show that had such a profound impact on — first and foremost, Black culture — but also American culture,” Warner said of the show’s enduring legacy in the wake of the controversy surrounding co-creator and star Cosby, who was convicted of sexual assault in 2018 but saw the conviction overturned in 2021.

Warner kept in touch with his former TV mom in the years since the show concluded its run in 1992, recalling the piece of advice that Rashad relayed to him during a difficult period in his life while making an appearance on Sherri Shepherd’s eponymous talk show in April, months before his untimely death.

“I was having a struggle with hopelessness. You know, the world is just in a dark place,” Warner shared. “I called Phylicia and I just asked her — she’s always grounded, always centered — so I said, ‘How do you deal with hopelessness? And she said, ‘Baby, you just have to remember that we’ve been here before.’ She said all this stuff we’re going through, we’ve been through some version of it.”

He added, “She said the light and the dark have to coexist. They always have, they always will. You can’t have the light without the dark. That really put things in perspective for me.”

Warner’s other screen credits include the 1990s sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, Reed Between the Lines, The Resident, 9-1-1, and Alert: Missing Persons Unit. He was also a celebrated musician and poet, and won a Grammy Award in 2015 for his contribution to Robert Glasper’s “Jesus Children,” from the album Black Radio 2.

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