‘The Cosby Show’ Star Geoffrey Owens Mourns Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Tragic Death

Geoffrey Owens is mourning the sudden and tragic death of his The Cosby Show co-star Malcolm-Jamal Warner.

After news broke Monday that Warner, 54, had drowned in Costa Rica while on a family vacation, Owens told Deadline he was almost “speechless” at the loss.

“This tragedy has almost left me speechless,” said Owens, who played Elvin Tibideaux on The Cosby Show. “Malcolm was a lovely man; a sweet and sensitive soul. I respected him for many reasons, including the fact that he genuinely loved the act of creation. He had the mind of an actor and the heart of a musician.”

He continued, “He was generous, too. I did a theater project long ago and asked him to participate; and he was there for me. My heart goes out to his family.”

Warner drowned off the coast of Costa Rica on Sunday near Cocles, a beach in Limon. Costa Rican police told ABC News that the actor, who was best known for his role as Theo Huxtable, was caught by a rip current Sunday afternoon. While bystanders rescued him and brought him to shore, he was declared dead not long after due to asphyxia.

Warner appeared as the son of Bill Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show from 1984 to 1992 before going on to star in Malcolm & Eddie from 1996 to 2000 and in Reed Between the Lines with Tracee Ellis Ross from 2011 to 2015.

More recently, Warner appeared as Chuck Cooper in Major Crimes and as Julius Rowe in Suits, as well as in the role of AJ Austin in The Resident. He is most recently credited on 9-1-1 and Alert: Missing Persons Unit, and was one of the hosts of the podcast Not All Hood.

Warner was also a musician and poet, winning a Grammy in 2015 for Best Traditional R&B Performance for the song “Jesus Children” alongside Robert Glasper Experiment and Lalah Hathaway, and earning a Grammy nomination in the Best Spoken Word Poetry Album category for his 2022 poetry album Hiding in Plain View.