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Bill Cosby : Role: Heathcliff “Cliff” Huxtable
Birthday : 12th July 1937
Birthplace : Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Recent Role : Guest on Late Show with David Letterman
Birth Name : William Henry “Bill” Cosby, Jr.
Height : 6′ 1″ (1.85 m)
Gender : Male

Bill Cosby was born as one of the four sons of Anna Pearl and William Henry Cosby, Sr. His mother worked as a maid while his father worked as a cook for the U.S. Navy. He spent most of his childhood without his father, who was away serving in the US armed forces and fighting in World War II.

He studied at Mary Channing Wister Elementary School in Philadelphia, where he was the captain of the baseball and track & field teams as well as the class president. He later attended the Glynn Academy where his devotion towards sports activities continued and he also began to act in plays. He then continued his studies at the Central High School, which was an academically demanding magnet school.

However, his full program of playing football, basketball, baseball, and running track in addition to the work that he did to help his family before and after the school time, made it difficult for him. As such Bill transferred to Germantown High School, where he failed in his tenth grade exams.

But rather than repeating the exam, he took up the job of an apprentice at a shoe repair shop. Later, he joined the Navy and worked there for four years. It was there that he realized the importance of education and went on to complete his equivalency diploma through correspondence courses. He then went on to study physical education at Philadelphia’s Temple University, on a track and field scholarship.

After studying at Temple University for only one year, he left his studies to pursue a career in comedy. However, later in the 1970’s, Billy returned to complete his collegiate studies. In 1976, at Amherst, Bill received a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts.

Bill’s comic talent was recognized by his teachers at a very young age. He loved humor and called himself the clown of the class. He had a hold over comedy and possessed the ability to make people laugh. He strengthened his comical skills while pursuing his undergraduate studies by cracking jokes on his fellow enlistees in the service and later with college friends.

Bill has been married to his wife Camille Olivia Hanks since January 1964. The couple met during a stand-up performance of Bill in Washington, D.C., in the early 1960s when Camille was still studying at the University of Maryland. The couple has five children named, Erika Ranee who was born in1965, Erinn Chalene who was born in 1966, Ennis William who was born in 1969, Ensa Camille who was born in 1973 and Evin Harrah who was born in 1976.

The couple faced great personal tragedy when their only son Ennis William was shot dead on Interstate 405 in Los Angeles on January 16, 1997, while he was changing a flat tire. He was buried on family estate of the Cosby family in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.

Bill Cosby is an active alumni supporter of Temple University and specifically takes great interest in its men’s basketball team. He is a great fan of the Philadelphia Eagles and enjoys smoking cigar. He is also an avid musician and is known to be a talented best known as a jazz drummer. He has also received many honorary degrees from various prestigious colleges and universities.

Bill Cosby is undoubtedly one of the greatest comedians of the twentieth century. He is a man of multiple talents who has been entertaining his audiences as a comedian, actor, author, television producer, and musician. Starting his career as a stand-up comedian, Bill went on to give remarkable performances on stage, television as well as the big screen.

Bill made his first starring appearance on the 1960’s TV show I Spy. He later went on to appear in more than 25 other TV shows in which he played varying roles. His most prominent appearances on Television have been on shows like, The Bill Cosby Show, The Electric Company, A Different World, The Cosby Show, The Cosby Mysteries, Touched by an Angel, Cosby and Sylvia’s Path etc.

Besides winning the hearts of millions of TV audiences, Bill also managed to impress innumerous movie buffs through his histrionics in various movies. He still is remembered for his great performances in movies like, Man and Boy, Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again, A Piece of the Action, The Devil and Max Devlin, Ghost Dad, The Meteor Man, Jack and many other flicks.

Besides being a great actor, Bill has also proved himself to be a successful writer and producer. He has written and produced projects like Fatherhood, Little Bill, A Different World, Leonard Part 6, and The Bill Cosby Show to name just a few. He has also worked separately as a writer and a producer for many other projects. In addition, he has also been involved in the music department of projects like The Cosby Show, You Bet Your Life, Cosby, Little Bill and Fatherhood etc.

For his enormous contribution to the entertainment industry, Bill has been no less than 57 prestigious awards and has also been nominated for ten other awards. He was the first black performer who won an Emmy Award in 1965. The other awards he has won include eight BMI TV Music Awards, six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and nine People’s Choice Awards plus many others.

Role In The Cosby Show

In The Cosby Show, he plays the role of Dr. Heathcliff “Cliff” Huxtable, the patriarch of the Huxtable family. Although most of the people around him consider him to be somewhat eccentric and silly, he is a very kind-hearted and dedicated father. His competitive nature makes him to often place bets with his wife Clair, over various things. The humor in the series comes mostly from the interactions, Cliff has with his family. The character of Cliff was loosely woven around the real life of Bill Cosby himself.