Bill Cosby has made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and gained a reputation as "America's Dad" for his portrayal of Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show.
95 Facts About Bill Cosby
2.
Bill Cosby had a starring role in the television crime show I Spy opposite Robert Culp.
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Bill Cosby made history when he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1966, making him the first African American to earn an Emmy Award for acting.
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Bill Cosby's acting career continued as he starred in the sitcom The Bill Cosby Show, which ran for two seasons from 1969 to 1971.
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In 1972, using the Fat Albert character developed during his stand-up routines, Bill Cosby created, produced, and hosted the animated comedy television series Fat Albert and the Bill Cosby Kids which ran until 1985, centering on a group of young friends growing up in an urban area.
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Bill Cosby starred in the original cast of The Electric Company alongside Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman from 1971 to 1973.
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Bill Cosby was a popular spokesperson in advertising for decades, for various products including the Jell-O ice pop treats Pudding Pop.
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Bill Cosby produced the spin-off sitcom A Different World, which aired from 1987 to 1993.
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Bill Cosby starred in The Cosby Mysteries, the sitcom Cosby and hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things.
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Bill Cosby then created and produced the animated children's program Little Bill.
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Bill Cosby was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W Bush in 2002.
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Bill Cosby was imprisoned until the conviction was vacated in June 2021 by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, for violations of Cosby's 5th Amendment and 14th Amendment due process rights.
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Bill Cosby was born on July 12,1937, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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Bill Cosby is one of four sons of Anna Pearl, a maid, and William Henry Cosby Sr.
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Bill Cosby was the class president as well as captain of both the baseball and track-and-field teams at Mary Channing Wister Public School in Philadelphia.
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At FitzSimons Junior High School, Bill Cosby acted in plays and continued to compete in sports.
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Bill Cosby attended Philadelphia's Central High School, a magnet school and academically rigorous college prep school, where he ran track and played baseball, football, and basketball.
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Bill Cosby transferred to Germantown High School but failed the tenth grade.
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In 1956, Bill Cosby enlisted in the Navy and served as a hospital corpsman at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia; at Naval Station Argentia in Newfoundland, Canada; and at the National Naval Medical Center in Maryland.
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Bill Cosby worked in physical therapy with Navy and Marine Corps personnel who were injured during the Korean War.
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Bill Cosby served until 1960 and became a petty officer 3rd class.
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Bill Cosby earned his high school equivalency diploma through correspondence courses and was awarded a track-and-field scholarship to Temple University in 1961.
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Bill Cosby began bartending at a Philadelphia club, where he earned bigger tips by making the customers laugh.
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Bill Cosby then began performing on stage, and left his university studies to pursue a career in comedy.
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Bill Cosby then began graduate work at UMass Amherst, receiving his Master of Arts degree in 1972.
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Bill Cosby's dissertation was titled An Integration of the Visual Media Via 'Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids' into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning.
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Bill Cosby lined up stand-up jobs at clubs in Philadelphia and then in New York City, where he appeared at The Gaslight Cafe beginning in 1961.
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Bill Cosby booked dates in cities such as Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Washington, DC In the summer of 1963, he received national exposure on NBC's The Tonight Show.
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Records which, in 1964, released his debut LP, Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow.
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Bill Cosby's last show of the "Far from Finished" tour was performed at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre in Atlanta, Georgia on May 2,2015.
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Bill Cosby's last known standup performance prior to his conviction was held at the LaRose Jazz Club in Philadelphia on January 23,2018.
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In 1965, Bill Cosby was cast alongside Robert Culp in the I Spy espionage adventure series on NBC.
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Bill Cosby began to dabble in singing, recording Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings in 1967.
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In June 1968, Billboard magazine reported that Cosby had turned down a five-year, $3.5million contract renewal offer and would leave the label in August that year to record for his own record label.
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In July 1968, Bill Cosby narrated Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed, a CBS documentary addressing the representation of black people in popular culture.
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Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson said it was one of "the rare exceptions when Bill Cosby took off the gloves and blinders, to discuss race in public with candor and discernment".
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In 1969, he returned with another series, The Bill Cosby Show, a situation comedy that ran for two seasons.
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Bill Cosby played a physical education teacher at a Los Angeles high school.
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Bill Cosby was lauded for using African-American performers such as Lillian Randolph, Moms Mabley, and Rex Ingram as characters.
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Bill Cosby resumed his formal education in 1971; he began graduate work at UMass Amherst.
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In 1976, Bill Cosby starred in A Piece of the Action with Poitier; and California Suite, a compilation of four Neil Simon plays.
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Bill Cosby was a regular on children's public television programs starting in the 1970s, hosting the "Picture Pages" segments that lasted into the early 1980s.
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Plots were often based on ideas that Bill Cosby suggested while in meetings with the writing staff.
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Much of the material from the pilot and first season of The Cosby Show was taken from his video Bill Cosby: Himself, released in 1983.
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In 1987, Bill Cosby attempted to return to film with the spy spoof Leonard Part 6.
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Later in the 1980s, Bill Cosby served as an advisor to the Los Angeles Student Film Institute.
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Also in 1996, he started up a new show for CBS, Bill Cosby, again co-starring Phylicia Rashad, his onscreen wife on The Bill Cosby Show.
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Bill Cosby was hired by CBS to be the official spokesman of its Detroit affiliate WWJ-TV during an advertising campaign from 1995 to 1998.
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Bill Cosby hosted a CBS special, Kids Say the Darndest Things on February 6,1995, which was followed after as a full season show, with Bill Cosby as host, from January 9,1998, to June 23,2000.
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In 2001, Bill Cosby's agenda included the publication of a new book, as well as delivering the commencement addresses at Morris Brown College, Ohio State University, and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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In May 2007, Bill Cosby spoke at the commencement of High Point University.
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Bill Cosby was one of the first black people to appear in the United States as an advertising spokesperson.
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Bill Cosby was known for his appeal to white consumers in the second half of the 20th century, in an industry seen as slow to accept diversity.
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Bill Cosby pleaded for African-American families to educate their children on the many different aspects of American culture.
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Bill Cosby further described those who needed attention as blacks who "had forgotten the sacrifices of those in the Civil Rights Movement".
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Dyson suggested that Bill Cosby's comments "betray classist, elitist viewpoints rooted in generational warfare".
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Bill Cosby is trying to speak honestly and freely and lovingly, and I think that's a very positive thing.
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Bill Cosby stood his ground against criticism and affirmed that African-American parents were continuing to fail to inculcate proper standards of moral behavior.
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Bill Cosby has been critical of conservative Republican politicians in regard to their views on socioeconomic and racial issues.
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Williams said Bill Cosby called her boss in the middle of the broadcast demanding that Williams be fired.
61.
On February 1,2000, according to a statement provided by Detective Jose McCallion of the New York County District Attorney's Special Victims Bureau, Lachele Covington, who was 20 years old at the time, filed a criminal complaint against Bill Cosby alleging that on January 28,2000, at his Manhattan townhouse, he had tried to put her hands down his pants and then exposed himself.
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Covington alleged that Bill Cosby grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hands down her pants.
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In January 2004, Andrea Constand, a former Temple University employee, accused Bill Cosby of drugging and fondling her; however, in February 2005, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania's District Attorney said there would be no charges due to insufficient credible and admissible evidence.
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Bill Cosby settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in November 2006.
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Bill Cosby's lawyer said Bill Cosby did not know her and that the events did not happen.
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Charlotte Laws wrote a November 2014 article published by Salon accusing Bill Cosby of assaulting a friend of hers, with whom she subsequently had lost contact.
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Bill Cosby got away with it because he was hiding behind the image of Cliff Huxtable.
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Bill Cosby has repeatedly denied the allegations and maintained his innocence.
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Reruns of The Bill Cosby Show and other shows featuring Bill Cosby have been pulled from syndication by many organizations.
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In July 2015, some of the court records from Andrea Constand's 2005 civil suit against Bill Cosby were unsealed and released to the public.
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On January 28,2019, Bill Cosby was moved from administrative segregation into the general population.
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On June 30,2021, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Bill Cosby's conviction, citing violations of his due process rights.
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Castor said he did so to compel Bill Cosby to testify in a civil lawsuit, brought by Constand, without the right to not incriminate himself as accorded by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, so that Constand could win damages from Bill Cosby.
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Bill Cosby was released from prison on the same day that his conviction was overturned.
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Bill Cosby served nearly three years before Pennsylvania's Supreme Court overturned his conviction.
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Bill Cosby's attorney filed a response in late January 2022, urging the Supreme Court to decline review.
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Bill Cosby created the whole idea of taking a quote-unquote 'comic' and developing a TV show just from a persona that you see on stage.
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Joan Tarshis, who had accused Bill Cosby of raping her, within a Salon.
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Bill Cosby hosted the Los Angeles Playboy Jazz Festival from 1979 to 2012.
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Bill Cosby has become an active member of The Jazz Foundation of America.
81.
Bill Cosby is a supporter of his alma mater, Temple University, particularly its men's basketball team, the Temple Owls, whose games Bill Cosby frequently attended prior to his arrest.
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Bill Cosby is a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity; he was initiated in the fraternity's Beta Alpha Alpha graduate chapter in White Plains, New York, in 1988, and served briefly on the Board of Directors for the CDC Foundation.
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In 2016, Bill Cosby's attorneys reported that he is legally blind.
84.
Plans for the comeback included a comedy tour that would go from the United States to Canada to London, with Bill Cosby's team having contacted a number of promoters and comedy clubs about performance opportunities.
85.
Bill Cosby has received various awards and numerous honorary degrees for his work as a standup comedian and actor in both television and film including five Primetime Emmy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, two Daytime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.
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Bill Cosby received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002, and the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award in 2003.
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Bill Cosby received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1977.
88.
On May 3,2018, Bill Cosby was expelled as a member of the Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, along with Roman Polanski and Harvey Weinstein, due to their breach of the Academy's standards of conduct.
89.
Bill Cosby got his start on television in the drama series I Spy with Robert Culp.
90.
Bill Cosby created, and voiced characters in the animated television projects Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert, and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
91.
Bill Cosby produced the spin-off sitcom A Different World, which aired from 1987 to 1993.
92.
Bill Cosby starred in The Cosby Mysteries from 1994 to 1995 and hosted Kids Say the Darndest Things from 1998 to 2000.
93.
Bill Cosby then starred in Sidney Poitier's comedies Uptown Saturday Night, and Let's Do it Again.
94.
Bill Cosby then wrote, produced and starred in the critically panned and box office bomb Leonard Part 6.
95.
Bill Cosby reunited with Poitier in Ghost Dad, and appeared in minor roles in The Meteor Man, Jack, and Fat Albert.