Actor / Comedian

Bill Cosby began as a stand-up comic, went on to become one of Americas most beloved television stars, and then saw his reputation and career disintegrate under the weight of dozens of sexual assault allegations from five decades. Bill Cosby began doing stand-up in the early 1960s while attending Temple University, and his comedy career was kick-started by a 1963 appearance on Johnny Carsons Tonight Show. His first comedy album was Bill Cosby Is a Very Funny Fellow... Right! in 1964, and Cosby won multiple Grammy Awards for comedy recordings throughout the 1960s. He was particularly known for routines about childhood friends like Fat Albert and Old Weird Harold (both of whom later appeared in the 1970s cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids). Bill Cosby starred with Robert Culp in the spoofy TV series I Spy from 1965-68, winning three Emmy Awards and becoming one of the few African-American stars on primetime TV. Cosby appeared in many other TV shows (including the PBS educational show The Electric Company) and in movies including Uptown Saturday Night (1974, with Sidney Poitier) and Mother, Juggs and Speed (1976, with Raquel Welch). From 1984-92, Bill Cosby dominated Americas primetime TV ratings with The Cosby Show, a family comedy in which he and Phylicia Rashad starred as Cliff and Claire Huxtable, and upscale New York couple raising their lovable and exasperating children. The show was a huge hit and, along with the 1986 book Fatherhood, re-established Bill Cosby as a leading comedian. From 1996-2000 he starred in a similar sitcom, Cosby, again with Rashad playing his wife. He is the author of many books, including the 1986 bestseller Fatherhood. He was given Kennedy Center Honors in 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. Beginning in about 2014, however, Cosby faced a new surge of publicity around longstanding rumors of rape and other sexually inapproprite behavior. More than 40 women eventually came forward with stories stretching back to the 1960s that shared a