ATLANTA — The art and entertainment industry in Atlanta is mourning the sudden death of Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
Warner, 54, died after getting swept away in a current on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast Sunday afternoon.
Investigators said people on the beach managed to get him back to shore, but first responders could not revive him.
“My heart is broken,” Ramona DeBreaux told Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco.
DeBreaux is one of several Atlanta radio personalities who had to make the announcement to listeners Monday.
“Our community is heartbroken. Especially, in Atlanta,” said DeBreaux.
Frank Ski said Warner was deeply embedded in the Atlanta’s entertainment industry. Most recently, he played a role in The Resident filmed at the city’s High Museum of Art.
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Warner is well-known for his role as Theo Huxtable in The Cosby Show.
“I remember when we were going through the situations with Bill Cosby, and the networks taking the show off, and he really came on my show that day and explained how that would hurt everyone on the team,” said Ski. “The way he eloquently spoke about that, and how that hurt everyone on the shows livelihood who, unfortunately, they count on those residuals.”
Ski said Warner had a way with words and ideals that provoked thought.
“I remember when he was first doing his poetry. He had come by our morning show here in Atlanta,” said Ski. “He was always like this super artistic person who had so much in him. He was the guy who could do everything.”
Warner was an Emmy-nominated actor and a Grammy award-winning musician.
He was also a poet, director and writer.
“He’s breathing a new life into a legacy that was always there but now being introduced to other people that may not have known,” said Dr. Courtney Hammonds, Ph.D.
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Hammonds worked with Warner when he graced the cover of Upscale Magazine and walked the halls of the Art Institute of Atlanta.
“He would actually come and mentor students,” said Hammonds.
Warner would share sustainable fashion ideas with staff and students there.
“What I really want to hone in on is the “more than” of Malcolm-Jamal Warner. He was more than The Cosby Show,” said Hammonds. “He was so personable, so relatable, so in th enow. That is what I will always remember. The he rested, not in the celebrity of him, but the human.”
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