Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show character Theo, has drowned in Costa Rica, according to authorities.
The country’s Judicial Investigation Department said the 54-year-old actor drowned on Sunday afternoon off a beach on the Caribbean coast.
It is understood he was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when he was pulled underwater by a current.
“He was rescued by people on the beach,” according to the department’s early report, but emergency workers from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without any signs of life and he was taken to the morgue.
Warner was on holiday with his family at the time, according to US celebrity news site People.
The Cosby Show aired from 1984 to 1992 on NBC in the US and is regarded as a groundbreaking show for its portrayal of a successful black middle-class family. It was also shown on Channel 4 in the UK at around the same time.
Image: Malcolm-Jamal Warner in September 2017. Pic: Reuters
Its star, Bill Cosby, played a doctor named Cliff Huxtable, with Warner in the role of Theo, his only son.
The NBC sitcom was the most popular show in America for much of its run between 1984 and 1992.
Warner played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.
For many, the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly-botched mock designer shirt sewn by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.
Warner ‘proud’ of show despite Cosby claims
The legacy of The Cosby Show has been tarnished after Cosby was jailed in 2018 following a conviction for sexual assault.
Warner told the Associated Press in 2015: “My biggest concern is when it comes to images of people of colour on television and film… We’ve always had ‘The Cosby Show’ to hold up against that. And the fact that we no longer have that, that’s the thing that saddens me the most because in a few generations the Huxtables will have been just a fairy tale.”
In 2023, Warner told People in an interview: “I know I can speak for all the cast when I say The Cosby Show is something that we are all still very proud of.”
Image: Warner (left) on stage with Stevie Wonder and Bill Cosby at an awards show in 2011. Pic: AP
Warner wins a Grammy
Following his career on The Cosby Show,Warner later appeared on the sitcom Malcolm & Eddie, co-starring with comedian Eddie Griffin in the series on the UPN network from 1996 to 2000.
In the 2010s he starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross as a family-blending couple for two seasons on the BET sitcom Read Between The Lines.
He also had a role as OJ Simpson’s friend Al Cowlings in American Crime Story and was a series regular on Fox’s The Resident.
Films he has appeared in include the 2008 rom-com Fool’s Gold with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson.
A poet and a musician, Warner won a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance for the song Jesus Children with Robert Glasper and Lalah Hathaway. He was also nominated for best spoken word poetry album for Hiding In Plain View.
Warner was married with a daughter, but chose to not publicly disclose their names.
American presidents have travelled to Britain to meet the Royal Family for more than 100 years.
Donald Trump will meet King Charles for the second time when he arrives in Windsor on Wednesday, having been hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth II on his previous state visit during his first term.
For the King, it will be the first time he welcomes a US president as monarch.
Some presidents’ visits have run more smoothly than others. Here, we look back at some of the most memorable.
Woodrow Wilson was the first US president to visit the Royal Family while in office, making the long journey on SS Washington in December 1918 – weeks after the First World War came to an end.
Image: President Woodrow Wilson and King George V outside Buckingham Palace. Pic: PA
Arriving in London on Boxing Day, thousands of people lined the route to Buckingham Palace, where he appeared on the balcony alongside King George V and Queen Mary after chants of “we want Wilson” from the crowd.
King George VI also made history when he met Franklin D Roosevelt, after becoming the first reigning British monarch to travel to the US in June 1939.
Image: King George VI and Franklin Roosevelt in Washington DC. Pic: AP
Image: King George VI with Sara D. Roosevelt and New York governor Herbert Lehman eating hot dogs in Hyde Park. Pic: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
People flocked to greet him and the Queen Mother as they rode through the streets of Washington DC. After state dinner formalities at the White House, they travelled to New York, where they enjoyed a more relaxed hot dog picnic in Hyde Park.
Harry Truman was the first US president to meet Queen Elizabeth – while she was still a princess in 1951.
Image: Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh are greeted by Harry Truman in Washington DC in 1951. Pic: PA
Seven years after she took the throne, Dwight D Eisenhower met her at Balmoral, where a young Princess Anne and Prince Charles were pictured alongside him, wearing kilts.
Image: Dwight Eisenhower with the Queen, Prince Philip, a young Prince Charles, and Princess Anne at Balmoral in August 1959. Pic: AP
John F Kennedy met the then-35-year-old Queen Elizabeth in June 1961, just six months into his presidency.
Image: The Queen poses with John and Jackie Kennedy in June 1961. Pic: AP
A state banquet was held at Buckingham Palace, with the glamorous visit dramatised in the Netflix series The Crown.
Just two years later, on 22 November 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
Gerald Ford didn’t visit the UK during his two-and-a-half years in office, but the Queen met him on a visit to the US in July 1976.
Image: Gerald Ford dancing with the Queen in Washington. Pic: Rex
The pair danced together at a White House state dinner, but with unfortunate timing, the band played The Lady Is A Tramp just as the Queen took to the floor – a now infamous faux pas.
Jimmy Carter met the late Queen at Buckingham Palace in May 1977.
Image: Jimmy Carter and the Queen in London in May 1977. Pic: AP
His more memorable interaction was with the Queen Mother, however, when he abandoned protocol and greeted her with a kiss on the lips.
According to biographer William Shawcross, she later wrote: “I took a sharp step backwards – not quite far enough.”
Among the most memorable meetings of a British monarch and a US president was that of Ronald Reagan and the late Queen.
When he came to Windsor Castle in 1982, the pair were famously pictured riding horses together in the grounds.
He met her a further three times in London throughout the 1980s and she gave him an honorary knighthood when he left the White House in 1989.
George HW Bush, wasted no time in making the Queen’s acquaintance, travelling to the UK in May 1989, just five months after he was sworn in.
Image: The Queen and Prince Philip with George HW Bush and his wife Barbara in May 1991. Pic: AP
There were a few red faces when Her Majesty travelled to the US to visit him a year later.
As she stood up to give a speech on the White House lawn, she was partially obscured behind a cluster of microphones that had been arranged for the much taller Mr Bush. He later reassured reporters that the Queen laughed off the incident.
George W Bush‘s state visit in November 2003 was met with huge protests over the Iraq War. Tens of thousands of people crowded into Trafalgar Square, where an effigy of the president was toppled by demonstrators.
Image: The Queen and George W Bush at the White House in May 2007. Pic: AP
The protests did not appear to affect the ‘special relationship’, however, with the Queen visiting the US to meet Mr Bush in 2007, and him returning to the UK to see her a year later.
Barack Obama first met the Queen on a visit to the UK in 2009 when his wife, First Lady Michelle, made headlines for breaking royal protocol and giving Her Majesty a hug.
Image: The Queen and Prince Philip alongside the Obamas at a state banquet in London in May 2011. Pic: AP
Image: The Queen greets Barack Obama during his final UK visit in November 2016. Pic: AP
The Obamas received the full pomp of an official state visit in May 2011.
They visited a final time during the president’s second term in April 2016, when Marine One landed in the grounds of Windsor Castle and the royal couple walked to greet them.
Donald Trump first met the King while he was still Prince of Wales in December 2019, when his mother hosted a state visit to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Image: Donald Trump and the Queen in July 2018. Pic: AP
Image: Donald Trump and the Queen during 75th D-Day anniversary commemorations in June 2019. Pic: AP
Despite being accused of breaching royal protocol on several occasions, he described the Queen as an “incredible woman” in one of his speeches.
When Joe Biden visited Windsor Castle in June 2021 it was the first time the Queen had met a head of state alone – following the death of her husband Prince Philip.
Image: The Queen with Joe and Dr Jill Biden at Windsor Castle in 2021. Pic: PA
It was also the first state visit of any foreign leader after the coronavirus pandemic saw Her Majesty halt royal duties and quarantine at Windsor as part of ‘HMS Bubble’.
Hollywood actor and Oscar-winning director Robert Redford, known for films including Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, All The President’s Men and The Sting, has died at the age of 89.
Redford, who was also the founder of the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the US, died on Tuesday morning.
In a statement, his representative said he was “surrounded by those he loved”, at home in “the place he loved” in the mountains of Utah. “He will be missed greatly,” she added.
Image: The actor and filmmaker won the Oscar for best director for Ordinary People in 1981. Pic: AP
Born Charles Robert Redford Jr in Santa Monica, California, in 1936, he attended college on a baseball scholarship but later went on to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
He debuted on Broadway in the late 1950s before moving into television, in shows such as The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Untouchables.
Rising to stardom in the 1960s, Redford became a go-to leading man in Hollywood and a huge star of the following decade, leading films including The Candidate, All the President’s Men and The Way We Were.
He worked hard to transcend being typecast for his good looks, through his political advocacy and a willingness to take on unglamorous roles.
Image: Starring alongside Charles Dierkop and Robert Shaw in The Sting. Pic: Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock
Image: On set behind the camera during the filming of A River Runs Through It. Pic: AP
In the 1990s and 2000s, his film credits included Indecent Proposal, The Last Castle and Spy Game, and he also worked actively as a filmmaker – helming movies including A River Runs Through It and The Legend Of Bagger Vance. In 1998, he both starred in and directed The Horse Whisperer.
But he was best known for his role as wily outlaw the Sundance Kid, opposite Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy in the 1969 film. The pair became a famous screen partnership, starring opposite each other again in The Sting a few years later, and good friends.
As well as his starring roles, Redford was also an activist and an accomplished filmmaker – winning the Oscar for best director for Ordinary People in 1981. It was the second of his two Academy Awards – the first won for his acting performance in The Sting – as well as an honorary prize in 2002.
Image: Redford and Dustin Hoffman in All The President’s Men, released in 1976. Pic: Everett/Shutterstock
In a career spanning seven decades, he also received three Golden Globe Awards, including the Cecil B DeMille lifetime achievement honor in 1994.
In his later years, Redford took on a challenging role in All Is Lost, a 2013 survival story that featured virtually no other characters and barely any dialogue. His performance earned a standing ovation after the film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2018, he received critical acclaim again in what he called his farewell movie, The Old Man And The Gun.
His legacy lives on in the Sundance Film Festival, which grew into a cornerstone of the film industry and provided a launching pad for filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Darren Aronofsky.
And in 2016, former President Barack Obama awarded him the presidential medal of freedom – considered the US government’s highest civilian honour – saying at the time that Americans “admire Bob not just for his remarkable acting, but for having figured out what to do next”.
Image: Pic: Reuters
Robert Redford leaves behind his wife Sibylle Szaggars and two daughters – Shauna, a painter, and Amy, an actress and director.
He was previously married to Lola Van Wagenen. One of their children, Scott, died at the age of two months from sudden infant death syndrome. Another, James, died of cancer in 2020.
‘One of the lions has passed’
Image: Meryl Streep starred alongside Redford in Out Of Africa in 1985. Pic: Cover Images via AP
Tributes have been shared across social media following the announcement of Redford’s death.
Meryl Streep, who starred in Out Of Africa and Lions For Lambs opposite Redford, said: “One of the lions has passed. Rest in peace my lovely friend.”
Filmmaker Ron Howard, known for Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, described Redford as “a tremendously influential cultural figure for the creative choices” he made as an actor, producer and director, and said Sundance had been a “gamechanger”.
Image: Pictured with his wife Sibylle Szaggars in 2012. Pic: Reuters
Marlee Matlin, star of the Oscar-winning CODA, said the film “came to the attention of everyone” because of the Sundance Festival.
“Sundance happened because of Robert Redford. A genius has passed,” she said.
“He was part of a new and exciting Hollywood in the 70s and 80s,” wrote author Stephen King. “Hard to believe he was 89.”
Spencer Cox, the governor of Utah, wrote: “Decades ago, Robert Redford came to Utah and fell in love with this place.
“He cherished our landscapes and built a legacy that made Utah a home for storytelling and creativity.
“Through Sundance and his devotion to conservation, he shared Utah with the world. Today we honor his life, his vision, and his lasting contribution to our state.”
Donald Trump has announced he’s suing The New York Times, just days after he threatened to do so over its reporting into his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president said he had “the Great Honor of bringing a $15bn Defamation and Libel Lawsuit” against “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the History of our Country”.
Mr Trump’s lengthy post – made late on Monday – is focused on his belief the outlet is bias towards the Democrats, citing the endorsement of Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election.
It has “been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long”, he added.
The lawsuit – which has been brought in Florida – comes after Mr Trump raised the prospect of suing the newspaper last week for publishing articles about alleged notes he had sent Epstein.
The collection of birthday tributes include a hand-drawing of a woman’s body, signed “Donald”. They also contain a picture of Epstein holding an outsized cheque, signed by “DJTRUMP”.
Mr Trump has maintained the note wasn’t written by him, claiming the handwriting and signature do not match his own.
Image: An alleged note written by Trump for Epstein. Pics: US Congress/NBC News
Mr Trump has repeatedly denied any impropriety involving Epstein, whom he once counted as a friend.
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Handwriting expert analyses signature on Epstein card
Responding to his initial threat to sue, a spokeswoman for The New York Times said last week: “Our journalists reported the facts, provided the visual evidence and printed the president’s denial. It’s all there for the American people to see and to make up their own minds about.
“We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favour and stand up for journalists’ First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people.”