- Wife Camille O. Cosby (nee Hanks) is related to Tom Hanks, and both share lineage with Abraham Lincoln through Lincoln's mother, Nancy Hanks.
- Did not submit himself for Emmy Award consideration during the eight-year run of The Cosby Show (1984).
- The character Dr. Hibbert from The Simpsons (1989) is based on him.
- Bill's son, Ennis Cosby (27), was shot dead while fixing a flat tire off the San Diego Freeway. (January 16, 1997)
- In the wake of court documents from 2005 being revealed in which Cosby admitted to drugging women to have sex with them, Walt Disney World removed a Bust of Cosby from its Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame Plaza in the Hollywood Studios theme park in Florida. Furthermore, Bounce TV pulled reruns of Cosby (1996) while Centric Network no longer aired reruns of The Cosby Show (1984). (July 2015)
- On September 25, 2018, Bill Cosby was sentenced to 3-10 years in prison in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and was immediately taken into custody.
- Upon receiving his Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2003 Emmy Awards, Cosby paid tribute to two people: children's show host Fred Rogers (who had died earlier that year) and, poignantly, his late son, Ennis.
- Won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album six years in a row, 1965 to 1970.
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 6930 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on November 23, 1977.
- Admitted to giving prescription Quaaludes to women he wanted to have sex with during a civil lawsuit filed in 2005 by Andrea Constand - one of the dozens of women who have publicly accused the comedian of sexual assault. The documents were made public in July 2015. As of 2015, more than 25 women have publicly accused Cosby of raping or assaulting them over the past 40 years. The comedian has never been criminally charged and has vehemently denied wrongdoing. Among the accusers is Janice Dickinson.
- First black performer to win an Emmy Award, for I Spy (1965).
- Cliff Huxtable, Cosby's character on The Cosby Show (1984), was ranked #1 by TV Guide in its list of the 50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time [20 June 2004 issue].
- Insisted that The Cosby Show (1984) be filmed in New York; he disliked working in Hollywood.
- The Navy revoked Cosby's title of honorary chief petty officer, which he was presented in 2011, saying allegations of sexual abuse made against the comedian are serious and conflict with the Navy's core values. Cosby enlisted in the Navy in 1956 and served four years as a hospital corpsman before being honorably discharged in 1960 as a 3rd Class Petty Officer. Furthermore, Cosby resigned from Temple University's board of trustees, a seat he had held since 1982. (December 2014)
- His wife, Camille O. Cosby, is a direct descendant of Nancy Hanks, Abraham Lincoln's mother.
- Dyslexia ran in the Cosby family. Bill didn't inherit it, but brother Russell Cosby did (not finding out until he was an adult). Bill's son Ennis was dyslexic, but overcame it well enough to graduate from college.
- When The Simpsons (1989) began competing with The Cosby Show (1984) in 1990, the already declining audience of the show decreased even more. Because of this, both shows had a playful attitude toward each other. "The Cosby Show" made small references to "The Simpsons", including one episode where Bill wore a Bart Simpson mask, and "The Simpsons" made small references to "The Cosby Show", including the character Dr. Hibbert, a direct reference to Cosby.
- National Enquirer offers $100,000 reward for the capture of the killer of Bill's son, Ennis Cosby. (January 1997)
- He decided to become a stand-up comedian when he was a bartender. Many of the bar's customers would comment on how funny he was and tell him to try his act on stage for an audience. He is one of the most successful stand-up comics in history, releasing numerous hit records of his shows and still selling out venues to this date.
- Many elements of The Cosby Show (1984) were references to his own family. Phylicia Rashad's (Clair Huxtable's) maiden name was Hanks, like his wife Camille's maiden name. Also, like he has in real life, the Huxtables had four daughters and one son.
- Son Ennis Cosby is buried on Cosby family estate in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.
- Was once part-owner of the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association.
- When The Cosby Show (1984) was ruling the NBC line-up in the mid-1980s, he insisted that NBC purchase and use Ikegami studio cameras for the production of his show. At the time NBC was owned by RCA, whose studio cameras NBC used exclusively. But Cosby felt that Ikegami's product produced a better picture. NBC agreed and used the cameras.
- Within 15 seconds after watching Kenan Thompson's Fat Albert (2004) audition tape, he said to director Joel Zwick, "Hire him!".
- At one time, he expressed a very public interest in purchasing the National Broadcasting Company.
- Many of Cosby's awards and honorary degrees were rescinded during and after his trial for and conviction on sexual assault charges.
- In July 2015, New York magazine depicted 35 of the 46 women who had accused Bill Cosby of sexually assaulting them on its cover. The cover story included interviews from 35 of Cosby's accusers.
- Broke Radio City's 53-year-old attendance record for his concert appearance (1986).
- All his children name's start with the letter E for excellence.
- The district attorney for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, charged Bill Cosby with one count of aggravated indecent assault on December 30, 2015. The criminal charge stems from an investigation into an incident of alleged sexual assault against Andrea Constand, an employee at Temple University between 2001 and 2004, that occurred at the comedian's home in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, in 2004.
- On Tuesday, May 1, 2018 the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) voted to expel Bill Cosby from its membership ranks.
- Fat Albert, Old Weird Harold and Dumb Donald were based on his series of comedy routines about his school friends, and he tested them on his most appreciative audience: his mother.
- When The Cosby Show (1984) was ruling the NBC line-up in the mid-1980s, he insisted that his newly produced show, A Different World (1987), a spin-off of "The Cosby Show", follow after his show instead of the hit Family Ties (1982). He wanted this because he felt there was a lack of shows on television that featured African Americans in a positive light. NBC made the move, which led to two things happening: "The Cosby Show" audience was cut by 20% and never fully recovered, and "Family Ties" struggled to get the high numbers it once received. It was canceled in 1989.
- Both Marquette University in Wisconsin and Fordham University in New York have both decided to pull the honorary degrees they bestowed to the comedian years ago, in wake of the sexual allegations made against Cosby.
- In 1976, he received an honorary doctorate in Education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His dissertation was titled "An Integration of the Visual Media Via Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972) into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increased Learning".
- Inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame (1994).
- He and wife Camille O. Cosby have five children: Erika (b. 8 April 1965), Erinn (b. 23 July 1966), Ennis (15 April 1969 - 16 January 1997), Ensa (8 April 1973 - 23 February 2018) and Evin (b. 27 August 1976).
- He was the first entertainer to win an Emmy Award, the Mark Twain Prize, and the Spingarn Medal.
- Outstanding athlete at Temple University (Philadelphia, PA), in football and track and field. Played as Running Back for the university's football team during the 1962-1964 seasons.
- Like Bob Newhart, has the ability to be funny without resorting to profanity.
- As a child, he listened to great comedians such as Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, Jimmy Durante and Fred Allen.
- In addition to numerous best-selling comedy albums over the years, for which he won several Grammy Awards, Cosby had a top-40 hit as a singer in 1969 with "Little Old Man".
- Lifelong friends with Phylicia Rashad. He walked her down the aisle at her wedding to Ahmad Rashad. O.J. Simpson was Rashad's best man.
- Is a best-selling author.
- Received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA) for his commitment to advancing higher education and for his longtime love and promotion of jazz. (May 2004)
- Cosby once live in the Manhattan townhouse at 18 East 71st Street, opposite financier Jeffrey Epstein's palatial mansion (9 East 71st) on New York's Upper East Side. Cosby bought the property for a reported $6.2 million in 1987.
- Bill Cosby's television debut was on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), on August 6, 1963. Allan Sherman was the guest host and after his six-minute stand-up comedy routine ("Karate"), he was "called over" to chat.
- On September 26, 2018, CNN reported that Cosby's first lunch at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institute at Phoenix included a half-cup of Jell-O. For many years, Cosby was a commercial pitchman for Jell-O products.
- Bill Cosby: Far from Finished (2013) was the first of his televised concerts which was specifically produced to accommodate the inclusion of television commercials.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content