Celebrity Featured: Bill Cosby
Artist: Lee Wilde
About Bill Cosby
Born on July 12, 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, comedian, Bill Cosby has had a remarkable career most recognizably as a comedian but also as a writer and TV producer.
While attending Temple University on an athletic scholarship, he appeared at New York's Gaslight Cafe (1962), where his comic routines were so successful that he left college to pursue a career in entertainment.
In 1965, Cosby became the first African American actor to star in a weekly TV show, I Spy (1965-8), winning two Emmys as an undercover CIA agent. Later series were The Bill Cosby Show (1969-71), The New Bill Cosby Show (1972-3), and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972-84). His interest in children and education led him to earn MA and EdD degrees at the University of Massachusetts.
As obstetrician Cliff Huxtable in The Cosby Show (1984-1992), he projected a new image of middle-class African-American families, and the program was one of the most popular and lucrative in television history. His gentle, wry clowning appealed to both children and adults, leading to a series of successful TV commercials, comedy records, and books, and making him one of the wealthiest people in the history of the American entertainment industry.
Tragically, in 1997 one of Cosby's five children, Ennis was shot dead while changing a flat tyre on the side of a Los Angeles freeway. In later years, Cosby has become a generous contributor to various causes and institutions, particularly Atlanta's Spelman College, and is often seen at track-and-field meets for amateur athletes, to which he also contributes. In 2003 he was honored with the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.