Bill Cosby: The rise, fall and release of ‘America’s Dad’
Bill Cosby was once known to millions as “America’s Dad”, but the comedian had his reputation shattered when he was sentenced to three to 10 years in jail after being convicted of sexual assault.
That judgement has now been overturned, and the 83-year-old has walked free from prison after serving two years of the sentence.
His role as the benevolent, jumper-wearing Dr Cliff Huxtable in 1980s hit sitcom The Cosby Show made him a national treasure in the US.
But more than a dozen women accused Mr Cosby of misconduct, and one case made it to court.
Although a jury failed to reach a verdict in June 2017, a retrial originally led to a conviction less than a year later. But in June 2021, Pennsylvania’s highest court ruled he had been denied a fair trial, quashing the guilty verdict.
How did this man, a household name for so long in America, rise and fall so far?
How did his career begin?
Born in 1937 in a social housing complex in Philadelphia, the young William Henry Cosby Jr shone shoes and worked at a local supermarket to help his family make ends meet.
His early life was touched by tragedy when one of his four brothers died and he, the oldest, became a father figure.
Accounts of his school years portray a joker and a storyteller who loved to entertain classmates. After school he joined the US Navy, then went to university and worked part-time as a bartender.
Filling in for a club comedian, he laid the path for his future fame.
His debut on NBC’s Tonight Show in 1963 led to a recording contract with Warner Brothers, and the release of a series of award-winning comedy albums.
On one of those, 1968’s To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With, he established the themes that would define his work – the father as a loving disciplinarian; siblings who could plot together one minute, then scream blue murder the next; and a confidence in the bonds of family.
