Malcolm-Jamal Warner and the power of relatable Black male representation

With his portrayal of Theo Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” Malcolm-Jamal Warner was like a big brother to Jihad Gordon, a senior telecommunications manager.

As the former child actor became a director, producer, poet and award-winning musician, he was a modern-day renaissance man to Teowdross Williams, the chair of the Department of Fine Arts at Bowie State University.

To Walter Fields, a public policy analyst and 66-year-old doctoral student, Warner was simply the epitome of Black excellence.

As Black Americans continue to grapple with the tragic death of Warner, 54, who drowned last week while vacationing with his family in Costa Rica, many Black men are reflecting on his life, his legacy, and the indelible imprint his career, particularly his role as Theo Huxtable, had on their lives and on their culture.

Warner was born in Jersey City, NJ, on August 18, 1970, to parents Pamela and Robert Warner. He was named after slain civil rights leader Malcolm X and jazz pianist and composer Ahmad Jamal. He began acting when he was 9 and was cast as the character Theo, the only son of “The Cosby Show” characters Heathcliff and Claire Huxtable (portrayed by Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad), when he was a teenager.

“He was literally dipped in Black culture,” said Fields, 64, noting Warner’s given birth name.

On “The Cosby Show,” a global phenomenon that ran from 1984 to 1992 and reshaped the representation of Black American life on television, Warner’s role as Theo allowed Black boys to see themselves in a way they had never been portrayed before on television. He was not a drug dealer living in public housing, but the son of upper-middle-class parents living in a Brooklyn Heights brownstone. His story was their story. His challenges were their challenges.

They remember episodes when Theo got his ear pierced without his parents’ permission, when he wanted to be a “regular person” and not a lawyer like his mother or a doctor like his father, and when he struggled with school, was diagnosed with dyslexia, and ultimately graduated from New York University.

Williams, 54, said watching Warner as Theo opened up a world of possibilities for many Black boys. Because of “The Cosby Show” and Warner’s representation, there is a generation of Black boys who obtained higher education, Williams said, himself included.

Throughout his career, Warner took roles that uplifted Black men, and he would later use his poetry to speak about social justice and racial equality.

“He was just a solid representation of a good Black man,” said Gordon, 40, a New Jersey native and member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.

Warner told Melyssa Ford on her “Hot and Bothered” podcast in one of his final interviews that he was intentional about his work.

“I have a body of work that I will never have to be embarrassed that I misrepresented my people or to continue to perpetuate stereotypes of our people,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate to be able to pick and choose…I’ve never had to take a role that I felt would compromise my soul.”

Fields, who lives in Maryland, said from The Cosby Show to his 2015 Grammy award win for Best Traditional R&B performance, Warner’s work has left a lasting mark for generations to come.

“For Black people, our icons are family members. They are part of our larger Black collective,” he said. “And what people don’t understand about Black celebrities we understand how difficult it is for those people to become that celebrity….So when we see someone reach this status, it’s like ‘go ‘head that’s my boy, Malcolm, on the screen doing his thing.’ It’s one aspect of Black culture that I don’t think people appreciate. We just applaud because we know for them to reach that plateau, they must have went through hell and high water.”

Gordon said he was somewhat taken aback by his visceral reaction to Warner’s death. The grief was similar to what he felt after the loss of Prince and Michael Jackson.

It was personal.

“I felt a heaviness,” he said. “It was a mourning for someone that I didn’t expect to mourn because I never thought about him having an impact on me that way – but he did. It stung and really sat with me.”