Overview (4)

Born July 12, 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Birth Name William Henry Cosby Jr. Nickname The Cos Height 6' (1.83 m)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (4)

Stories of his childhood and fatherhood



His only prop onstage is a chair



His loud, gregarious voice.



Periodically wears Temple University shirts on camera



Trivia (66)



National Enquirer offers $100,000 reward for the capture of the killer of Bill's son, Ennis Cosby . [January 1997]

Bill's son, Ennis Cosby (27), was shot dead while fixing a flat tire off the San Diego Freeway. [January 1997]





He and wife Camille O. Cosby have five children: Erika (b. 8 April 1965), Erinn (b. 23 July 1966), Ennis (15 April 1969 - 16 January 1997), Ensa (8 April 1973 - 23 February 2018) and Evin (b. 27 August 1976).



In 1976, he earned a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His dissertation was titled "An Integration of the Visual Media Via Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972) into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning."

At one time expressed a very public interest in purchasing the National Broadcasting Company.



Sang on a number of albums in the 1970s.



In addition to numerous best-selling comedy albums over the years, for which he won several Grammy awards, Cosby had a top-40 hit as a singer in 1969 with "Little Old Man."





Insisted that The Cosby Show (1984) be filmed in New York; he disliked working in Hollywood.

Grand marshal, Tournament of Roses parade [2003]





Many elements of The Cosby Show (1984) were references to his own family. Phylicia Rashad 's (Clair Huxtable's) maiden name was Hanks, like his wife Camille's maiden name. Also, like he has in real life, the Huxtables had four daughters and one son.

Is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.





Son Ennis Cosby is buried on Cosby family estate in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.



First black performer to win an Emmy, for I Spy (1965).

Biography in "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pp. 120-122. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387





Cliff Huxtable, Cosby's character on The Cosby Show (1984), was ranked #1 by TV Guide in its list of the 50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time [20 June 2004 issue].

Inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1994.



Broke Radio City's 53-year-old attendance record for his concert appearance. (1986)





Was an Honoree at the Kennedy Center Awards, and attended the ceremony with Bill Clinton , and Hillary Clinton

Is a best-selling author.



Fat Albert, Old Weird Harold, and Dumb Donald were based on his series of comedy routines about his school pals, and he tested them on his most appreciative audience: his mother.



Was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA) for his commitment to advancing higher education and for his longtime love and promotion of jazz. [May 2004]



Was once part-owner of the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association.





The character Dr. Hibbert from The Simpsons (1989) is based on him.



When The Simpsons (1989)) started competing with The Cosby Show (1984) in 1990, the already declining audience of the show decreased even more. Because of this, both shows had a playful attitude toward each other. "The Cosby Show" made small references to the "The Simpsons", including one episode where Bill wore a Bart Simpson mask, and "The Simpsons" made small references to "The Cosby Show", including the character of Dr. Hibbert, a direct reference to Cosby.

He decided to become a stand-up comedian when he was a bartender. Many of the bar's customers would comment on how funny he was and tell him to try his act on stage for an audience. He is one of the most successful stand-up comics in history, releasing numerous hit records of his shows and still selling out venues to this date.





When The Cosby Show (1984) was ruling the NBC line-up in the mid-'80s, he insisted that his newly produced show, A Different World (1987), a spin-off of "The Cosby Show", follow after his show instead of the hit Family Ties (1982). He wanted this because he felt there was a lack of shows on TV that featured African-Americans in a positive light. NBC made the move, which led to two things happening: "The Cosby Show" audience was cut by 20% and never fully recovered, and "Family Ties" struggled to get the high numbers it once received. It was canceled in 1989.



Dyslexia ran in the Cosby family. Bill didn't inherit it, but brother Russell Cosby did (not finding out until he was an adult). Bill's son Ennis was dyslexic, but overcame it well enough to graduate from college.



Like Bob Newhart , has the ability to be funny without resorting to profanity.

All his children name's start with the letter E for excellence



Outstanding athlete at Temple University, in football and track and field.





When The Cosby Show (1984) was ruling the NBC line-up in the mid-'80s, he insisted that NBC purchase and use Ikegami studio cameras for the production of his show. At the time NBC was owned by RCA, whose studio cameras NBC used exclusively. But Cosby felt that Ikegami's product produced a better picture. NBC agreed and used the cameras.

Won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album six years in a row, 1965 to 1970.





Upon receiving his Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2003 Emmys, Cosby paid tribute to two people: children's show host Fred Rogers (who had died earlier that year) and, poignantly, his late son, Ennis.



Did not submit himself for Emmy consideration during the eight-year run of The Cosby Show (1984).

Holds a Doctorate in Education.



Played as Running Back for Temple University (Philadelphia, PA, USA) football team during the 1962-1964 seasons.



Received the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor [October 2009].





Best known by the public for his starring role as Dr. Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show (1984).

He was the first entertainer to win an Emmy Award, the Mark Twain Prize, and the Spingarn Medal.





Bill Cosby: Far from Finished (2013) was the first of his televised concerts which was specifically produced to accommodate the inclusion of television commercials.

He walked his Cosby Show co-star Phylicia Rashad down the aisle at her wedding to Ahmad Rashad. OJ Simpson was Rashad's best man.





Lifelong friend of 30 years of Phylicia Rashad



In the wake of court documents from 2005 being revealed in which Cosby admitted to drugging women to have sex with them, Walt Disney World removed a Bust of Cosby from its Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame Plaza in the Hollywood Studios theme park in Florida. Furthermore, Bounce TV pulled reruns of Cosby (1996) while Centric Network no longer aired reruns of The Cosby Show (1984). [July 2015]

In July 2015, New York Magazine depicted 35 of the 46 women who had accused Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them on its cover. The cover story included interviews from 35 of Cosby's accusers.



The Navy revoked Cosby's title of honorary chief petty officer, which he was presented in 2011, saying allegations of sexual abuse made against the comedian are serious and conflict with the Navy's core values. Cosby enlisted in the Navy in 1956 and served four years as a hospital corpsman before being honorably discharged in 1960 as a 3rd Class Petty Officer. Furthermore, Cosby resigned from Temple University's board of trustees, a seat he had held since 1982. [December 2014]





Admitted to giving prescription Quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with during a civil lawsuit filed in 2005 by Andrea Constand - one of the dozens of women who have publicly accused the comedian of sexual assault. The documents were made public in July 2015. As of 2015, more than 25 women have publicly accused Cosby of raping or assaulting them over the past 40 years. The comedian has never been criminally charged and has vehemently denied wrongdoing. Among the accusers is Janice Dickinson

Both Marquette University in Wisconsin and Fordham University in New York have both decided to pull the honorary degrees they bestowed to the comedian years ago, in wake of the sexual allegations made against Cosby.



The district attorney for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, charged Bill Cosby with one count of aggravated indecent assault on 30th December, 2015. The criminal charge stems from an investigation into an incident of alleged sexual assault against Andrea Constand, an employee at Temple University between 2001 and 2004, that occurred at the comedian's home in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, in 2004.



On 9/25/2018 Bill Cosby was sentenced to 3-10 years in prison in Montgomery County PA and was immediately taken into custody.



On Tuesday, May 1st 2018 the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to expel Bill Cosby from its membership ranks.



On September 26, 2018, CNN reported that Cosby's first lunch at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institute at Phoenix included a half-cup of Jell-o. For many years, Cosby was a commercial pitchman for Jell-o products.



Has 3 younger brothers named Russell, Robert and James (deceased).



Many of Cosby's awards and honorary degrees were rescinded during and after his trial for and conviction on sexual assault charges.





Cosby once live in the Manhattan townhouse at 18 East 71st Street, opposite financier Jeffrey Epstein 's palatial mansion (9 East 71st) on New York's Upper East Side. Cosby bought the property for a reported $6.2 million in 1987.

Personal Quotes (29)

[on his murdered son, Ennis] He was my hero.



The problem is that your daughter has given her heart to a 15-year-old boy, and a 15-year-old boy does not yet qualify as a human being.



It's the little things that count when you're a daddy. Like taking your little girl for ice cream. First, you have to teach her about the concept of gravity. I can't tell you how many ice creams I've had to pick up off the floor, rinse off and stick back on my kid's cone. Now that may sound strange, but have you bought ice cream lately? Good gosh, it's up to 75 cents a scoop. A scoop! What's in it, gold?



Gray hair is God's graffiti.



A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones who need the advice.



Don't worry about senility--when it hits you, you won't know it.



Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come home.



I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.



My mother and father ate oink. And they loved oink grease. Lard is what they ate. And they soaked up grease with a biscuit. And they loved butter too. And they sopped up and drank and ate grease. Sausage. Bacon. Ham. They loved it. Fatback. Salt pork. Oink. And I was born with lard all on my head, in the cracks of my arms and the back of my leg. So now my cholesterol is 741. So what? It doesn't bother me that it's 741. You eat what I eat, it's supposed to be. Every once in awhile my left arm will go numb. Okay. But if you shake it, it'll go away.



Because of my father, I thought my name was Jesus Christ. My brother Russell thought that his name was Dammit.



[speaking in Washington, DC, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that eradicated segregated schooling in America] These people marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids--$500 sneakers for what? I can't even talk the way these people talk, "Why you ain't," "Where you is?" You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth!



Kids will spend $500 on sneakers but won't spend $200 on "Hooked-on-Phonics".





[on The Cosby Show (1984)] I wanted to give the house back to the parents.

No parent must ever say, "Get the kids out of here, I'm trying to watch TV." The father who does start saying this is likely to see one of his children on the 6:00 news.



[commenting that many young actors don't give their parents proper credit] I'm still waiting for some actor to win, say, an Oscar . . . and deliver the following acceptance speech: "I would like to thank my parents, first of all, for letting me live."



What best defines a child is the total inability to receive information from anything not plugged in.



If you're a parent, the five worst words you can say to your children are, "When I was your age . . . " You were NEVER their age. You were older in the womb.



I can tell you, from experience, that whoever said "Children and fools cannot lie" was one or the other himself. There's only one way to guarantee that your children are telling the truth: limit your questions to the names of their schools.



[on Detroit's large population of people in poverty] When I come back and come back and come back I'm making a statement that this is for real. You're about to listen, absorb and to challenge yourself to move in a positive direction. Strength, that's what we're after.





Phil Woods said the following: Death is the last thing he wants to do. Don't worry about it! You don't worry about what's going to be the last thing. You know you're going to be dead. So do I. And if I go before you, am I worried? No. Jealous? Yeah.

[on artist, Varnette Honeywood, in 1997]: You can depict segregation, starving, and homelessness, but in Varnette's work, you can see teenagers doing homework, a family cooking a meal, girls doing their hair. Certain art in our culture depicts a down feeling about African American people are treated. They are poor and needy and need help in the Rightings the wrongs. Varnette's work let us not forget the personal joys.



I don't want sitcom jokes. I don't want jokes about behinds or breasts or pimples or characters saying, 'Oh, my God' every other line. What we want to deal with is human behavior. If we can put it on paper and have it come to life through the actors, then we can have people identifying with us.



Some people have said our show is about a white family in blackface. What does that mean? Does it mean only white people have a lock on living together in a home where the father is a doctor and the mother is a lawyer and the children are constantly being told to study by their parents?



My mother was an authority on pigsties. She would look at my room and say, 'This is the worst pigsty I've ever seen'.





Richard Pryor was unique. Many misunderstood his humor. He lit up the hallway, but they didn't understand his use of profanity. He didn't use it just to be using it; he used it in the context of his satire. For instance: In one of his routines, a man wants to be the king of his house, he gets angry and drunk through frustration and takes it out on his wife. Pryor's word choice is in the context of the story, not just to use bad language.

The past is a ghost, the future is a dream, and all we ever have is now.



My father was a sucker for a good book. He was enjoying one in our apartment one evening, when my brother and I decided we could play basketball right there without breaking anything. When I took a shot that redesigned a glass table, my mother came in with a yardstick and said, "So help me, I'll bust you in half."



Without even looking up from the page he was on, my father replied, "Why would you want twice as many?"



I keep telling myself, the older I get, the luckier I am.



Salary (1)