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Bill Cosby
Bill Cosby Infobox
'
Vital Information
Gender: Male
Nationality American
Ethnicity African-American
Born: July 12, 1937 (currently 78 years old)
Place of birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Family/Career Information
Occupation/
Career:
Author, Actor, Comedian
Spouse(s): Camille Hanks Cosby (m. 1968)
Related to: Ensa Cosby, Ennis Cosby, Ennis Cosby, Erinn Chalene Cosby, Evin Harrah Cosby, Erika Ranee Cosby
Website/URL: http://www.billcosby.com/
Character/series information
Appeared on
/involved with:
The Cosby Show
Episodes appeared in/
involved with:
Entire Series
Character played Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable, M.D.

William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. (born July 12, 1937) is an American former comedian, actor, spokesman, and media personality who played the part of Dr. Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable on The Cosby Show. Cosby was famous for his versatility over his long career; he made significant contributions to American and African-American culture and was almost unanimously seen by Americans of all walks of life as a role model, earning him the nickname of "America's Dad" — at least until 2014, after news of his sexual assault crimes came to light, which tarnished his reputation. Court documents from 2005 revealed that Cosby admitted to drugging women to have sex with them.

Cosby's crimes of rape, drug facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse, and sexual misconduct spanned from 1965 to 2008 across ten U.S. states and one Canadian province. Following the revelation of his crimes, numerous organizations severed ties with Cosby and revoked honors and titles previously awarded to him. Media organizations pulled reruns of The Cosby Show and other television programs featuring Cosby from syndication. In 2018, Cosby was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in state prison for sexual assault.

Biography[]

Early life and further education[]

Bill Cosby was born on July 12, 1937, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is one of four sons of Anna Pearl (née Hite), a maid, and William Henry Cosby Sr., who served as a mess steward in the U.S. Navy.

Cosby was the class president as well as captain of both the baseball and track-and-field teams at Mary Channing Wister Public School in Philadelphia. Teachers noted his propensity for joking around instead of studying, and he described himself as the class clown. At FitzSimons Junior High School, Cosby acted in plays and continued to compete in sports. Cosby attended Philadelphia's Central High School, a magnet school and academically rigorous college prep school, where he ran track and played baseball, football, and basketball. He transferred to Germantown High School but failed the tenth grade.

In 1956, Cosby enlisted in the Navy and served as a hospital corpsman at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia; at Naval Station Argentia in Newfoundland, Canada; and at the National Naval Medical Center in Maryland. He worked in physical therapy with Navy and Marine Corps personnel who were injured during the Korean War. He served until 1960 and became a petty officer 3rd class.

Cosby earned his high school equivalency diploma through correspondence courses and was awarded a track-and-field scholarship to Temple University in 1961. At Temple, he studied physical education while he ran track and played fullback on the college's football team. Cosby began bartending at a Philadelphia club, where he earned bigger tips by making the customers laugh. He then began performing on stage, and left his university studies to pursue a career in comedy.

Cosby resumed his formal education in 1971. Temple University granted him his bachelor's degree on the basis of what it referred to as life experience. He then began graduate work at UMass Amherst, receiving his Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1972.

He returned to UMass Amherst, and in 1976, while producing Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, he earned his Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree. His dissertation was titled An Integration of the Visual Media Via 'Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids' into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning.

Comedy and television career[]

Cosby began his career as a stand-up comic at the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco during the 1960s. Throughout the decade, he released several standup comedy records which consecutively earned him the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album from 1965 to 1970. He also had a starring role in the television crime show I Spy (1965–1968) opposite Robert Culp. Cosby made history when he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1966, making him the first African American to earn an Emmy Award for acting. His acting career continued as he starred in the sitcom The Bill Cosby Show, which ran for two seasons from 1969 to 1971.

In 1972, using the Fat Albert character developed during his stand-up routines, Cosby created, produced, and hosted the animated comedy television series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids which ran until 1985, centering on a group of young friends growing up in an urban area. Throughout the 1970s, Cosby starred in various films including Sidney Poitier's Uptown Saturday Night (1974), and Let's Do It Again (1975), and Neil Simon's California Suite (1978) alongside Richard Pryor. He also starred in the original cast of The Electric Company alongside Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman from 1971 to 1973. In 1976, he earned his Doctor of Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, returning to the school after completing his Masters of Arts there in 1972. His dissertation discussed the use of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids as a teaching tool in elementary schools.

Beginning in the 1980s, Cosby produced and starred in the television sitcom The Cosby Show, which aired from 1984 to 1992 and was rated as the number one show in America from 1985 through 1989. The sitcom highlighted the experiences and growth of an affluent African-American family. During this time, Cosby gained a reputation as "America's Dad" for his portrayal of Cliff Huxtable. Cosby produced the spin-off sitcom A Different World, which aired from 1987 to 1993. He also starred in The Cosby Mysteries (1994–1995), the sitcom Cosby (1996–2000) and hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things (1998–2000). He then created and produced the animated children's program Little Bill (1999–2004).

In November 2013, Cosby did his first stand-up special in nearly 30 years, Far From Finished, which aired on Comedy Central. In spite of that title suggesting that he would have more stand-up shows in the future, including a planned Netflix special featuring a show he did on his 77th birthday, this would prove to be his last hurrah due to circumstances that would ultimately end his career and tarnish his image as "America's Dad" forever.

Sexual assault revelations[]

Cosby had been accused of sexual assault as early as 2002, but things kicked into high gear in 2014, when comedian Hannibal Buress brought them up in a stand-up bit that went viral. At least 55 women came forth accusing Cosby of sexual assault, permanently damaging his public image and more or less ending his career. Out of the more than 70 awards and honorary degrees that Cosby has received from various colleges, universities, and organizations, all but a small handful have been rescinded in light of the revelation of his crimes. Media organizations pulled reruns of The Cosby Show and other television programs featuring Cosby from syndication. As of July 2016, he has also lost his eyesight and is considered legally blind.

Cosby was charged with several sexual assaults, and was tried for two of them in June 2017. The case was such a matter of interest in the Philadelphia area that they bused in a jury all the way from Pittsburgh to Norristown (a western suburb of Philadelphia, where the trial was held because it is the seat of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where Cosby lives and is alleged to have committed the assaults) to ensure a fair trial. This trial ended up with a hung jury, so the judge declared a mistrial. A new trial was held in April 2018, in which Cosby was found guilty of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. He received a sentence of three to ten years in September 2018. However, on June 30, 2021, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overturned his conviction on a technicality. He became a free man the same day, and subsequently announced that he planned to write a documentary about his case and then return to the stage, but later canceled his comeback plans.

On March 7, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States declined a request from the district attorney to review the state court's decision, leaving the conviction overturned. Still, on June 21, 2022, he was found liable in a California civil trial for sexually assaulting Judith Huth in 1975 when she was 16, awarding her half a million dollars in damages and further damaging his already tarnished reputation.

Works[]

Stand-up comedy[]

Cosby lined up stand-up jobs at clubs in Philadelphia and then in New York City, where he appeared at The Gaslight Cafe beginning in 1961. He booked dates in cities such as Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. In the summer of 1963, he received national exposure on NBC's The Tonight Show. This led to a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records which, in 1964, released his debut LP, Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow...Right!, the first of a series of comedy albums. His album To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With was number one on Spin magazine's list of "The 40 Greatest Comedy Albums of All Time", calling it "stand-up comedy's masterpiece".

While many comics of the time were using the growing freedom of that decade to explore controversial and sometimes risqué material, Cosby was making his reputation with humorous recollections of his childhood. Many Americans wondered about the absence of race as a topic in Cosby's stories. As Cosby's success grew he had to defend his choice of material regularly; as he argued, "A white person listens to my act and he laughs and he thinks, 'Yeah, that's the way I see it too.' Okay. He's white. I'm Negro. And we both see things the same way. That must mean that we are alike. Right? So I figure this way I'm doing as much for good race relations as the next guy."

In 1983, Cosby released the concert film Bill Cosby: Himself which is widely regarded as "the greatest comedy concert film ever". Cosby performed his first TV stand-up special in 30 years, Bill Cosby: Far from Finished, on Comedy Central on November 23, 2013. His last show of the "Far from Finished" tour was performed at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia on May 2, 2015. In 2014, Cosby was set to release his new standup special Bill Cosby 77 on Netflix. The release of the film was canceled due to allegations of sexual assault against Cosby. His last known standup performance prior to his conviction was held at the LaRose Jazz Club in Philadelphia on January 23, 2018.

Filmography[]

Cosby got his start on television in the drama series I Spy (1965-1968) with Robert Culp. He then starred in The Bill Cosby Show, (1970-1972), The New Bill Cosby Show (1972), The Electric Company (1971-1973), and Cosby (1996-2000). He created, and voiced characters in the animated television projects Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert (1969), and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972-1985). Cosby produced the spin-off sitcom A Different World, which aired from 1987 to 1993. He starred in The Cosby Mysteries from 1994 to 1995 and hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things from 1998 to 2000. he also hosted the TV special Sesame Street... 20 Years & Still Counting from 1989.

He made his film debut in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) before starring opposite Robert Culp in Hickey & Boggs (1972). He then starred in Sidney Poitier's comedies Uptown Saturday Night (1974), and Let's Do it Again (1975). He then starred in the Peter Yates directed comedy Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976) alongside Raquel Welsh and Harvey Keitel and the Neil Simon ensemble comedy California Suite (1978) opposite Richard Pryor. He then wrote, produced and starred in the critically panned and box office bomb Leonard Part 6 (1987). He reunited with Poitier in Ghost Dad (1990), and appeared in minor roles in The Meteor Man (1993), Jack (1996), and Fat Albert (2004).

Discography[]

Cosby released a number of albums, including live recordings of his stand-up comedy as well as studio albums of both vocal and instrumental music. Cosby charted a number of times on the Billboard Hot 100, including the 1967 single "Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)" from his album Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings. Cosby won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album six years in a row, 1965 to 1970. He also won the Grammy Award in 1972 for Best Recording for Children for the ironically titled 1971 album Bill Cosby Talks to Kids About Drugs.

Advertising[]

Cosby was a popular spokesperson for advertising from the 1960s – before his first starring television role – until the early 2000s. He started with White Owl cigars, and later endorsed the Jell-O frosty ice pop treats Pudding Pop, gelatin, Del Monte, Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola (including New Coke), American Red Cross, Texas Instruments, E. F. Hutton & Co., Kodak, and the 1990 United States Census. As of 2002, Cosby held the record for being the longest-serving celebrity spokesperson for a product, through his work with Jell-O. In 2011, he won the President's Award for Contributions to Advertising from the Advertising Hall of Fame.

Cosby was one of the first black people to appear in the United States as an advertising spokesperson. He was known for his appeal to white consumers in the second half of the 20th century, in an industry seen as slow to accept diversity. In spite of making contradictory soft drink pitches and endorsing a disgraced financial company, he continued to be considered effective and believable. In the 1980s, studies found Cosby the "most familiar" and "most persuasive" spokesperson, to the point where Cosby attributed his wealth to these contracts, as opposed to his television series.

External links[]

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