It breaks our heart to inform our readers that legendary actor Earle Hyman, who was known for his role as grandfather Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has passed away. Hyman was a beloved actor, with a Norwegian accent, and he was even the cousin of the late Phylis Hyman.
Remembering Earle Hyman:
Veteran actor Earle Hyman was not just a television actor but he was a Broadway and film actor as well. Hyman was born on October 11th in 1926, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. His parents were both teachers of Native-American and African-American roots. At the young age of 4, Hyman knew that he wanted to be an actor. According to Black Doctor, Hyman memorized a poem for his Christmas play and the reaction from the crowd ignited something inside of him.
“I wanted to become an actor at the age of four in church. I was asked to learn a little poem for the Christmas pageant and when I did and finished it, people stood up and applauded and I said ‘woo, I like that.’ Then in the same play, my mother played the virgin Mary. But when she passed me, she didn’t look at me, didn’t say anything to me. At that moment, I saw that she wasn’t my mother anymore, she was ‘Mary’ in the play. That’s when I began to see the magic of acting, Hyman said to Black Doctor.“
Hyman’s love for acting grew stronger when he moved to Brooklyn. His parents moved their for better educational opportunities for African-Americans. Hyman often traveled back to his hometown. To his dismay, there were no libraries for African-Americans and then one day, a community center was built with a library inside. Upon being introduced to Shakespere, Hyman knew that acting was for him. At the young age of 17, Hyman was in his first film, the Oscar best picture winner The Lost Weekend. However, his appearance wasn’t credited in the film.
Hyman’s first television job wasn’t on The Cosby Show. He guest-starred on many TV shows in the 1950s and ’60s, including Camera Three, East Side/West Side and The Defenders, and he appeared on the big screen in the war film The Bamboo Prison (1954) and in the crime drama Fighting Back (1982). In 1985, Hyman was hired as the voice of the iconic action cartoon series, Thundercats, as the voice of Panthro. The show had legions of fans worldwide with Panthro being one of the fan favorites. He worked on 125 episodes of that cartoon series in the 1980s.
I loved doing it because I love cats. I’m passionate about cats… They taught me a great deal about acting—about relaxation, not giving too much, about so much.
While he was only 11 years older than Bill Cosby, many fans remember Hyman from his role as Russell Huxtable, Cliff Huxtable’s father. Hyman played the beloved grandfather from 1984-1992. In 1986, Hyman received an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest performer in a comedy series for his work on the episode “Happy Anniversary.” Due to the success of The Cosby show, Hyman continued to play the beloved character in the sitcom’s Lisa Bonet led spin-off A Different World.
That’s the one episode that was the most loved, most seen. People just loved it. It just shot off the charts, Hyman recalled in 2009 on the podcast Just My Show. We just had a ball, and the atmosphere just went over into a kind of reality. We were no longer Clarice and Earle, we were really Anna and Russell Huxtable.
While the cause of death has not been confirmed, Hyman died on November 17th at the age of 91. May he rest in peace.
