The Cosby Show's Theo actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner drowns in Costa Rica

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played The Cosby Show character Theo, has drowned in Costa Rica, according to authorities.

The Judicial Investigation Department in Costa Rica said the 54-year-old actor drowned on Sunday afternoon off a beach on the country's Caribbean coast.

It is understood he was swimming at Playa Grande de Cocles in Limon province when he was pulled underwater by a current.

"He was rescued by people on the beach," according to the department's early report, but emergency workers from Costa Rica's Red Cross found him without any signs of life and he was taken to the morgue.

Warner was on holiday with his family at the time, according to US celebrity news site People.

The Cosby Show aired from 1984 to 1992 on NBC in the US and is regarded as a groundbreaking show for its portrayal of a successful black middle-class family. It was also shown on British television's Channel 4 around the same time.

Its star, Bill Cosby, played a doctor named Cliff Huxtable, with Warner in the role of Theo, his only son on the NBC sitcom.

The sitcom was the most popular show in America for much of its run between 1984 and 1992.

Warner played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986.

For many, the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly botched mock designer shirt sewn by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet.

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