Bill Cosby is a stand-up comedian and actor.
He became an American icon, and someone who millions of people looked to as a father figure,
and a moral compass.
He would disappoint the entire world when they began to learn that he was not at all
the wonderful person that he portrayed himself to be.
Today on Biographics, we are going to talk about the life, career, and downfall of Bill
Cosby.
Early Life and Career William H. Cosby Jr. was born in Philadelphia
in 1937, and he was one of four children.
His mother, Anna Pearl, was a maid, and his father William Henry Cosby Sr. was a steward
in the US Navy.
He was always the class clown, and never took his education very seriously.
He had failed so many classes that he decided to drop out of High School in the 10th grade
to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the navy.
He eventually earned his GED through a military program.
He went to Temple University in Philadelphia under an athletic scholarship to be on their
track and field team.
While in college, he worked part-time as a bartender, and would enjoy entertaining his
customers by telling jokes and making witty comments.
His customers encouraged him to get into stand-up comedy, so he began going to east coast comedy
clubs in Philadelphia and New York City.
People enjoyed his comedy so much that he was able to book tours to major cities around
the country.
He dropped out of college when he was 20 years old in favor of trying to make a career in
stand-up.
He appeared in several TV series telling his jokes, including The Tonight Show.
In 1964, he married a woman named Camille Hanks.
She was only 20 years old and in her sophomore year of college at that time, and Bill Cosby
was 27.
They met on a blind date, and did not know each other for very long before getting married.
They went on to have 5 kids together.
During his stand up routines, Cosby was known for mostly complaining about his kids and
how difficult it was to be a father.
Most parents could relate to everything he was saying, and it was considered to be clean,
wholesome comedy.
In 1965, Bill Cosby landed a starring on the TV show I Spy.
He became the first African American to star in a network television show.
He was an inspiration to people everywhere, and young black men looked up to him as a
role model.
However, I Spy was seen almost as a one-hit-wonder, and Cosby was not given any more of these
dashing roles in the future.
Since he was so popular with parents, and he had experience raising kids of his own,
he turned one of his stand-up characters, Fat Albert, into a cartoon series geared towards
young urban kids.
After making some money from his career, he went on to finish his Bachelor’s and also
receive a master’s degree and PhD in Education from the University of Massachusetts in the
1970’s.
He used Fat Albert as his thesis statement, explaining all the ways he used the cartoon
to education children.
He put all of this on his resume for creating educational content for TV, which helped him
land gigs on future shows like Picture Pages, The Electric Company, and more.
Deep down, Bill Cosby did not want to continue making children’s content, and he was really
only doing it for a paycheck.
He took a break from TV to come out with comedy albums, and they did extremely well.
He won 6 Grammy awards, and he was suddenly thrust into the limelight as being one of
the best-selling comedians.
He would pride himself in writing clean comedy that anyone could listen to, and he would
often criticize other black comedians like Eddie Murphy for using obscenities.
The Impact of The Cosby Show When he was 47 years old, Bill Cosby starred
as a character named Dr. Cliff Huxtable in The Cosby Show.
The Huxtables had 5 kids, just Bill Cosby and his real wife, Camille.
People assumed that this story was parallel to who he was in real life.
It became so popular, the TV ratings showed that half of the country was tuning in to
watch.
At that time, black people were almost exclusively portrayed negatively in the media.
America witnessed criminal activity and controversial protests from the black community.
This was the first show to ever portray an upper-middle class black family.
Both parents were funny, intelligent, and hardworking people who got an education.
A black American family was finally seen in a positive light, and it was so genuinely
funny, even white people were watching it too.
It helped to bring society together and help them understand that we truly are all the
same.
Unbeknownst to the audience, none of this was ever Bill Cosby’s idea.
The show was created by two television producers named Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner.
They wanted to come up with a concept for a sitcom that no one had ever done before,
and after seeing Bill Cosby’s standup, they approached him about doing a series.
Bill Cosby insisted that he would not work for less than a million dollars a year, and
the show needed to have his name in the title.
He wanted to make it all about him.
Even though the producers already knew what they wanted to do with the series, Bill Cosby
tried to control the narrative.
He pitched the idea that the show should be about a taxi driver who is tasked with taking
care of the kids.
He wanted to be married to a Latina woman, and he thought it would be funny if she worked
a traditionally male role, like a carpenter or plumber.
He chose a taxi driver for his character, because he wanted to be able to go on monologues
for the majority of episodes in order to tell the jokes he normally told in his stand-up
routines.
The producers pushed back with Cosby, explaining their original vision for portraying the new
black American family.
They eventually convinced him to give it a try, and it exploded into a cultural phenomenon.
However, Bill Cosby received all of the praise and recognition for all of the positive changes
it made in society.
The show was filmed in New York City, and it attracted a lot of emerging African American
talent.
People loved Bill Cosby’s character of Cliff Huxtable, and most people believed that he
was just playing an exaggerated version of himself.
He was giving black people acting jobs when they had never had the opportunity to work
in the industry before as anything more than a background character or extra.
He would have a “parade” of women who would come to audition to be on The Cosby
Show.
People who worked with him knew that he was constantly cheating on his wife, but they
assumed that these relationships were consensual.
A girl would be seen speaking to Cosby, she would get one or two lines on the show, and
then she was never seen again, but no one could have imagined how dark the situation
with Bill Cosby actually was behind closed doors.
In a lot of ways, The Cosby Show truly did revolutionize the industry.
And no matter who he was as a person, there is no denying that.
He was the first African American to win an Emmy.
But for fans of the show, he was America’s dad.
People idolized him, and he knew it.
He wasn’t afraid to take advantage of people’s trust and respect to the fullest extent.
Even though the vast majority of the show was fiction, there were moments when Bill
Cosby incorporated stories from his real life into the Cosby Show, like his relationship
with his son, Ennis, who was the parallel to the character Theo.
He grew up getting bad grades in school, and Bill Cosby constantly called his son lazy,
and told him that he wasn’t trying hard enough.
It was later revealed that Ennis actually had dyslexia.
Once he was given a tutor to help him cope with his disability, he began to do much better
in school, and went on to attend Columbia University Teachers College, hoping to become
a special education teacher.
Bill Cosby told the writers of the show what had happened.
They used a parallel storyline with the character Theo.
The actors playing Cosby’s children all grew up, and the show ended in 1992.
In 1997, Ennis was on vacation in Los Angeles, driving a Mercedes.
His car got a flat tire, so he pulled over on the side of the road to fix it.
In a completely freak act of violence, a young white man was high on drugs, and attempted
to rob Ennis.
Ennis reached for his wallet, but the man shot him in the head.
When the paparazzi showed up at Bill Cosby’s house asking for a comment about the death
of his only son, he quietly said, “He was my hero,” and shut the door.
His True Colors After taking some time off to grieve, Bill
Cosby took time off from show business.
He tried and failed to start more TV series, as well.
He came back in the public eye after his famous Jello commercials.
He was having financial trouble, and his shows were no longer doing well in the ratings.
Behind the scenes of the Jello commercials, he scolded parents and kicked children off
the set if they were not behaving well enough.
He would get into arguments with business executives over how to sell the product, because
he thought he knew better than them.
He would often ad-lib riff instead of following the actual lines.
Despite being so difficult to work with, he earned $3 million a year doing these ads.
Bill Cosby realized that the image of a perfect father was working, and people loved it.
So, he decided that he wanted the world to believe that he truly was this great person.
He gave college scholarships to African American students, and participated in multiple charities
in his name.
However, his true colors would come out on set, and whenever he would go on lecture tours.
He spoke down to African Americans under the guise of giving people tough love.
If his words were spoken by a white person, they would be considered to be disgustingly
racist.
He was always very degrading, talking down to other black people as if he was on this
pedestal of a moral high ground.
One of the most famous examples of this is known as “The Pound Cake Speech”.
During this speech given at the NAACP on the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education,
Bill Cosby blamed black parents for their children’s poor behavior, and he went on
a 20 minute rant lecturing and talking down to African Americans who are living in poverty.
He said that if it were not for their laziness and irresponsibility, then white people would
have more respect for African Americans.
He said, “We are not Africans.
Those people are not Africans; they don’t know a damned thing about Africa.
With names like Shaniqua, Shaligua, Mohammed and all that crap, and all of them are in
jail.”
It was so bad, that in the transcripts, the NAACP had to add their own commentary in parenthesis
after some of Cosby’s worst comments, just so that people would know that they disagree
with a lot of what he said.
Some people agreed with Bill Cosby, and applauded him.
Others called him a “race traitor”.
In 2005, a sociologist and professor from the University of Pennsylvania named Michael
Eric Dyson wrote an entire book in response called Is Bill Cosby Right, or Has The Black
Middle Class Losts Its Mind?
Dyson breaks down point by point just how wrong Bill Cosby is, and how truly difficult
it is for African Americans to overcome racial bias, white privilege, and socio-economic
disadvantages.
The Open Secret It was never a secret that Bill Cosby was
cheated on his wife.
He was often called a “womanizer”, and openly admitted in multiple interviews that
he had girlfriends outside of his marriage, as well.
Once, in Ebony Magazine, he said, “(When you turn 40) You look at the enjoyment you
may get from a given activity, and then you look at the amount of work that may have to
go into it … for example, sex with a young beautiful woman who has plenty of energy."
A talented young actress named Lili Bernard was mentoring under Bill Cosby for over a
year in hopes that she could get a part on the show.
She was honored that he was taking the time to teach her about acting.
He always told her that she was “one of his kids”, and she truly did see him as
a father.
She never had any intentions of sleeping with him, and believed that everything was strictly
professional.
She became friends with the other actors on set, and everyone believed that she would
eventually become a new character on the show.
When Cosby thought she was ready, she finally got the part in the TV show, which was a speaking
role that only lasted a few seconds.
After knowing her for a year, Bill Cosby convinced her to go to Atlantic City with the promise
that she would meet an agent to help with her acting career.
She had no reason not to trust him.
After all, she felt like Bill Cosby was like her dad.
When she got there, he gave her a drink, and she blacked out.
She woke up to him raping her on the floor.
It was so surreal, she couldn’t believe it was happening.
She was in denial, hoping it was just a bad dream.
When it was over, and reality sank it, she told him that she would go to the police.
He threatened to sue her for defamation, and told her that she would go to jail.
He also threatened to completely ruin her acting career.
He told her; “You’re dead to me Bernard, you hear me?
You’re dead.”
Lili Bernard was no longer allowed on the set of the Cosby Show.
Not only did she lose her mentor and father figure, but she also lost all of her friends
that she got to see every day.
The event was beyond traumatizing.
She attempted to get a few more roles in other TV shows, but gave up on acting to become
an artist, instead.
Even years after the rape, Lili Bernard was afraid to come forward, because she truly
did believe he would make good on the promise to sue her for false defamation.
She was a struggling actress in New York who could not pay her rent, let alone hire a lawyer.
She also knew that if the idea of Bill Cosby meant so much to her, it would also crush
the hopes and dreams of African Americans across the country.
She knew that no one would believe her, either.
This is just one of many stories, and we couldn’t possibly go over all of them in this video.
A total of 60 women came forward with similar stories.
Andrea Constand was the first woman to come forward and publicly accuse him of rape.
He offered to pay for her college degree, but she brought him to court, instead.
Several journalists wrote about the case, but many people brushed it off as a false
accusation.
People said that Constand was just trying to make money from Bill Cosby, and that he
couldn’t possibly be anything but this perfect Cliff Huxtable the grew up with as kids.
Despite all of the proof being out there, the issue was not reignited again until 2014.
A standup comedian named Hannibal Buress was gaining a lot of recognition for his role
in the Comedy Central series Broad City.
During one of his standup shows, he called out Bill Cosby, saying that he had no right
to lecture black people on their bad behavior when he is a rapist.
The story went viral.
Suddenly, people knew, and they actually listened, because another black man was confirming the
truth.
Soon after she went public, 13 women approached Andrea Constand to say that they had also
been rape victims of Bill Cosby.
Soon after the comments by Hannibal Buress went viral, a reporter from The Associated
Press attempted to ask him about the accusations.
During this interview, we can see first-hand how Bill Cosby uses intimidation to make the
reporter back down from revealing his comments on the rape accusations.
He tells the reporter that if he wants to have a “serious” career, he will not show
the questions in their film.
He was seen as being so powerful, he was untouchable.
Trial and Sentencing Despite all of these accusations coming forward
in the media, people truly could not fathom that Bill Cosby was a rapist.
Many of his friends came forward to defend him, including Whoopi Goldberg.
She later recanted her statement.
The first trial had a hung jury.
They could not decide if he was guilty or not.
Trials are supposed to be unbiased, and jurors are not supposed to learn too much about a
defendant outside of the courtroom.
But decades of seeing seeing Cliff Huxtable from The Cosby Show on TV, it was nearly impossible
for people to separate the two, no matter how hard they tried.
They just couldn’t believe that this sweet man was capable of such a thing.
Bill Cosby admitted more than once that yes- he gave quaaludes to women in order to have
sex with them.
But he didn’t define that as a ”rape”.
He had actually admitted this in interviews with magazines years before, but after hearing
him say this so casually on the witness stand, the jurors knew that he truly was guilty.
Even though 60 women have come forward, only three brought their claims to court.
Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean the rest are lying.
It just means that they want to move on with their lives, and not have to retell the stories
of the worst moment in their life, and have their personal and family lives exposed in
the media.
In September of 2018, he was convicted of aggravated indecent assault, and was sentenced
to 3 to 10 years in prison.
At 81 years old, it is very likely that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.