As Hollywood mourns the death of Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Anthony Mackie reflected on his connection to the late actor.
“Malcolm was someone who I considered a friend, and we always had great times together,” he shared on the third hour of Today‘s Wednesday, July 23, episode. “But the crazy part about it is, I grew up with him. He was my brother. Watching The Cosby Show as a kid, because I watched every episode, and I could relate to him, in a way, because he was the goofy kid that was in a house full of sisters, like me, who didn’t fit in, like me, who wanted to be cool, like me. So, all of those experiences he had, I was having in real life.”
Mackie noted that he and “everybody” he knew “wanted to be Theo Huxtable” growing up, adding, “Even just the lessons he learned on the show about money, like, I had those same conversations with my dad.”
The Marvel star continued, “Losing him is a huge loss, not just in the film community, but in the friend community, ‘cause he was such a good guy. And all of us knew him and all of us appreciated him, and it was always a delight to have him around. So, it’s a sad day, but a great time to be able to celebrate the mark that he left not only on our business, but an entire generation.”
Mackie is one of many celebrities to pay tribute to Warner following his death at age 54 on Sunday, July 20. The actor died of asphyxiation by submersion after swimming in the ocean during a family vacation in Costa Rica.
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Mackie previously paid tribute to his friendship with Warner by sporting Theo Huxtable’s infamous knockoff designer shirt made by his sister Denise (Lisa Bonet) in Season 1 of The Cosby Show during a Halloween appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in October 2024.
“This is an authentic Gordon Gartrell, custom-made,” Mackie joked on the late-night show, referring to the fictional designer from The Cosby Show. Mackie noted that he also tried to grow Theo’s “nine-lined-up fro,” quipping that the show “used to do my man dirty.”
Following The Cosby Show — for which Warner scored an Emmy nomination in 1986 — the actor went on to appear on the series’ spinoff, A Different World, and shows such as Here and Now, The Magic School Bus, Malcolm & Eddie, The Resident, 9-1-1, and Community.
Warner’s former TV dad, Bill Cosby, reacted to his death in a statement to ABC News on Monday, July 21. “He was always a great studier, and I enjoyed working with him very much,” Cosby shared. “Malcolm calls here regularly. He was very professional. He always knew his part… He always knew his lines, and he always knew where to go.”
Andrew Wyatt, a spokesperson for Cosby, also told People that Warner’s death “reminded [Bill] of the same call he received when his son [Ennis] died” in 1997 after being shot during an attempted Los Angeles robbery.
Calling Warner’s death “devastating,” Wyatt added, “He found a way to talk about Malcolm even though he was sad. He had just done a concert in Minnesota and called Mr. Cosby and talked about it. They spoke all the time. He said ‘Malcolm was changing humanity.’”
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