Bill Cosby

Dr. William Henry "Bill" Cosby, Jr. (born July 12, 1937) is an American actor, comedian, educator, television producer and philanthropist.

Career

Cosby was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Northwest Philadelphia's Germantown Hospital at 3:00 A.M to William Henry Cosby and Anna Pearl Hite. He joined the Navy in tenth grade and completed high school through correspondence courses (GED). Later, he won an athletic scholarship to Temple University. After working as a bartender for several years, he began his career as a stand-up comic, winning fame for his performances and a series of best-selling record albums beginning in 1963. As a comedian, Cosby told stories rather than jokes. His breakout routine was an imagined conversation between God and a skeptical Noah, but Cosby found his richest vein of humor in his Philadelphia childhood, particularly in tales about his little brother Russell and friends Old Weird Harold and Fat Albert.

Related Topics:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Navy - Temple University - Stand-up comic - Record albums - 1963 - God - Noah

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TV producer Sheldon Leonard landed Cosby a break-out television role in I Spy (1965), the first time an African-American actor starred in a weekly dramatic television series. Cosby won two Emmy Awards for his portrayal of an undercover CIA agent.

Related Topics:
Sheldon Leonard - I Spy - 1965 - Emmy Award - CIA

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Cosby then appeared in a series of shows named after himself: The Bill Cosby Show, The New Bill Cosby Show, the animated Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Cos, The Cosby Show, The Cosby Mysteries, and Cosby (based upon the British series One Foot In The Grave). He has producer, writer, director and even composer credits on many of his projects.

Related Topics:
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids - Cos - The Cosby Show - Cosby - British - One Foot In The Grave

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Cosby was a regular on the Captain Kangaroo show in the 1980s, presenting the "Picture Pages" segment which was later syndicated on its own.

Related Topics:
Captain Kangaroo - 1980s - Picture Pages

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He won several Grammy awards for his comedy albums, had a top forty song ("Little Old Man") in 1969, and sang on a number of albums. He won more Grammies for comedy than any other artist, winning every year from 1965 to 1970 and again in 1987. As of 2005, he had 3 gold- and 6 platinum-certified comedy albums. He has also written several humorous books about different aspects of life, based on his stand-up comedy such as Fatherhood and Love and Marriage. In fact, Fatherhood and Time Flies were the best selling non-fiction hardback books of 1986 and 1987, respectively.

Related Topics:
Grammy awards - 1969 - 1965 - 1970 - 1987 - 2005 - 1986

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Cosby has also made occasional forays into film acting, but the critical and popular success which came so abundantly to his stage and television work has not blessed his movie performances: His natural charisma has often been undermined by mediocre scripts in films like The Devil and Max Devlin (1981) and Ghost Dad (1990), and the notorious flop Leonard Part 6 (1987), although his work in ensemble casts in Uptown Saturday Night and Let's Do it Again, a pair of productions headed up by Sidney Poitier in the mid-1970s, received favorable reviews, as did his supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola's Jack (1996).

Related Topics:
Film - 1981 - Ghost Dad - 1990 - Leonard Part 6 - 1987 - Sidney Poitier - 1970s - Francis Ford Coppola - Jack - 1996

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One of Cosby's more colorful performances was his portrayal as a bigot in Bill Cosby on Prejudice (1971).

Related Topics:
Bigot - Bill Cosby on Prejudice - 1971

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His many commercial endorsements, made at the height of his popularity in the 1970s and '80s for products such as Jell-O, Eastman Kodak, and Coca-Cola, have been widely parodied.

Related Topics:
Commercial - Jell-O - Eastman Kodak - Coca-Cola

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Cosby earned a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1977: his thesis concerned the use of the Fat Albert series as a teaching aid. He has attempted to integrate education with television in some projects, such as Picture Pages, where Cosby taught children how to draw in a series of shorts aired by PBS. Notably, he structured the 80's Cosby family to represent children at all ages, and the addition of daughter Sondra (Sabrina LaBeouf) as a Princeton-educated lawyer is meant to send the message that good parenting and education of children leads to success. The Cosby Show also addressed social issues, such as drugs, illiteracy, teen pregnancy, and gang violence.

Related Topics:
Education - University of Massachusetts - 1977 - Thesis - PBS - Princeton - Lawyer - Drugs - Illiteracy - Teen pregnancy - Gang violence

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Cosby is now a leading educational philanthropist.

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He hosted the television program Kids Say the Darndest Things, which aired from 1996 through 2002.

Related Topics:
1996 - 2002

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He is married to Camille Hanks and they have four daughters. Their only son Ennis Cosby, aged 27, was murdered on January 16, 1997, while changing a flat tire in Los Angeles, California. On March 12, 1997, his assailant, Mikail Markhasev, was arrested in Los Angeles and charged with attempted robbery and murder. He was convicted on July 7 1998 and is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Related Topics:
Ennis Cosby - Murder - January 16 - 1997 - Los Angeles, California - March 12 - Los Angeles - July 7 - 1998 - Life sentence - Parole

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Cosby, as of 2005 maintains a home in Shelburne, Massachusetts.

Related Topics:
As of 2005 - Shelburne, Massachusetts

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