Back in the '50s, Cosby dropped out of high school and joined the Navy. Years later, he went to college on a football scholarship. Not exactly the most auspicious beginning for a man who would later become one of the nation's richest entertainers. After college, Cosby started performing stand-up routines ("Fat Albert" and "Weird Harold"), which were a nightclub draw in the '60s. Within a couple of years, he was co-starring with Robert Culp in the adventure series I Spy (1965-68); his performance earned him three of his five Emmys. Cosby's stature at that time was a breakthrough for blacks, and he continued to press the frontier with television and comedy successes (his comedy albums were frequent Grammy honorees). In the '70s, Cosby returned to school to get his doctorate in education, and has remained involved in the cause, frequently donating large sums to educational institutions. (He made a gift of $20 million to Spelman College in Atlanta in 1989.) During the '80s, the endearing comedian had the nation's top-rated TV series, The Cosby Show, and he was Madison Avenue's favorite pitchman. His series of humorous books about the vicissitudes of just plain living, starting with Fatherhood, were stunningly successful best-sellers. Nevertheless, not all of his television launches got past lift-off, and big-screen success has always been elusive. Leonard Part 6, which he also produced, was a big-screen bomb. His latest television series, Cosby, re-teams him in comedy with Phylicia Rashad, his Cosby Show wife. Fate dealt a cruel blow to Cosby in January 1997, when his son Ennis, a 27-year-old doctoral student of special education at Columbia University, was killed by a single gunshot to the head as he changed a flat tire on his Mercedes. Police believed that the murder was the result of a bungled robbery attempt, and two months after the slaying, they arrested a suspect, 18-year-old Ukrainian TmigrT Mikhail Markhasev, who was subsequently charged with the murder. A jury found him guilty in July 1998 and he was subsequently sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Cosby persevered in his work throughout the long, difficult ordeals of 1997, and signed on with CBS not just for another season of Cosby, but also as host of a series of Kids Say the Darndest Things specials, which follow the time-honored format engendered by the classic Art Linkletter series of the same name.
Bill Cosby