Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor best known as Theodore Huxtable on the groundbreaking sitcom The Cosby Show, has died at the age of 54.

Warner died on Sunday in an accidental drowning while on a family vacation, a source confirms to Entertainment Weekly. The actor was caught by a high current in the water off the coast of Costa Rica, Costa Rican National Police told ABC News. 

Representatives for the actor didn’t immediately respond to EW’s request for comment. A rep for Cosby said he would not be making a statement on his TV son’s death.

Born August 1970 and named after Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, Warner began his career with episodes of Matt Houston and Fame before he broke out as Theodore “Theo” Huxtable, the only son of Bill Cosby‘s patriarch, Cliff Huxtable, on The Cosby Show. The NBC comedy, groundbreaking at its time for its depiction of an affluent African-American family, ran for eight seasons between 1984 and 1992.

Malcolm Jamal-Warner on ‘The Cosby Show’.

Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

The sitcom also starred Phylicia Rashad as matriarch Clair Huxtable, as well as Lisa Bonet, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight Pulliam, and Sabrina Le Beauf as the Huxtable daughters and Warner’s oscreen sisters.

“Regardless of how some people may feel about the show now, I’m still proud of the legacy and having been a part of such an iconic show that had such a profound impact on — first and foremost, Black culture — but also American culture,” Warner said of the show’s enduring legacy in the wake of controversy surrounding co-creator and star Cosby, whose 2018 sexual assault conviction was overturned in 2021.

Warner reprised his role as Theo across two episodes of 1987 spinoff series A Different World, centered on Bonet’s Denise Huxtable during her time at Hillman College.

The actor went on to co-lead the 1996 sitcom Malcolm & Eddie opposite comedian Eddie Griffin, playing polar opposite best friends and roommates on the UPN comedy that ran for four seasons. His expansive television credits include Here and Now, Listen Up, Community, Suits, American Horror Story, Reed Between the Lines, The Resident, 9-1-1, and most recently, Alert: Missing Persons Unit. Warner also had a memorable guest arc as Eric Sanders, pompous boyfriend of Karyn Parsons‘ Hilary Banks, on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. His movie credits include Drop Zone, Tyson, Fool’s Gold, and Shot.

Warner opened up to EW last May about his excitement over playing a villain on 9-1-1, and getting to wear prosthetic makeup for the first time in his career.

“And I’d never done a show where I’ve had to wear a prosthetic, so it felt like this was something that would definitely take me out of my comfort zone, and I thought that was exciting,” Warner said at the time. “The first two days were awesome. I was taking videos and pictures. Then, I think when I had to start wearing it the third day in a row and the fourth day, I was like, ‘This isn’t fun.’ It was two and a half hours every morning. When I think about the Star Trek actors or actors who have to go on, and they spend four or five hours just in makeup alone, I do not envy those guys.”

Warner’s latest venture was Not All Hood, a podcast launched last year with Weusi Baraka and Candace Kelley that examines the lived experiences and identifies of Black people in America.

Warner is survived by his wife and daughter.