Celebrity News November 19, 2017
'Cosby Show' Grandpa Earle Hyman Dead at 91
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Earle Hyman, a distinguished theater actor who became a familiar face to TV audiences playing Russell Huxtable on "The Cosby Show" (1984-1992), has died at 91, Deadline reports.
Hyman made his Broadway debut in 1943 and went on to appear in nearly a dozen shows on the Great White Way through the early '90s, garnering a Tony nomination along the way for "The Lady from Dubuque" (1980).
He had prominent roles in TV versions of "Macbeth" (1968), "Julius Caesar" (1979) and "Coriolanus" (1979), and from 1985-1989 was the voice of Panthro on "Thundercats."
It was "The Cosby Show" that gave him his most high-profile role, playing the part of Bill Cosby's character's father in spite of being just 11 years older than the star.
Hyman died Friday at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey.
