He played Bud on “The Cosby Show”. Meet Deon Richmond Now at age 44.
His real name may be Kenny, but to Rudy Huxtable (Keshia Knight Pulliam), he’s always just “Bud”. As her memorably misogynistic childhood friend on The Cosby Show, young Deon Richmond attempted to make statements such as: “A man must wear pants in the family; if he If not worn, the woman will put on her shoes and step on him.” ,” sounds almost charming—even if the off-screen teenager imparting such wisdom certainly isn’t.
Decades later, Richmond said he is still frequently recognized for the role (and asked, “Where’s Rudy?”). Although widely remembered for her visits to the Huxtable family, the former child actor has added many other credits to her resume. Read on to see where he is now at age 44 and learn about the surprising new business he has outside of the entertainment world. Bud was hardly the end of the acting road for Richmond, who has racked up 37 credits since debuting aside as Cosby guest star Stacey Dash in 1987’s Enemy Territory. He spent many years after the show appeared on other primetime television series, including Getting By, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, The Parent ‘Hood, and Sister, Sister, where he regularly played Jordan, Tamera’s college boyfriend. At the same time, Richmond began acting in teen films of the era, landing the lead role in 1999’s Trippin’ as well as roles in Scream 3, Not Another Teen Movie and National Lampoon’s Van Wilder.
He started joking about Psych. Richmond’s career subsided somewhat in the mid-2000s. However, he had a role on the short-lived television series Teachers, appeared in several parody films, and played starring role in the horror film Hatchet around that time. And he has barely escaped the cultural imagination. His most memorable character references became a running joke on the popular television series Psych, when James Roday jokingly referred to co-star Dulé Hill’s character Burton “Gus” Guster as “Bud “. (In addition to the actors’ resemblance, the joke also implies that Hill’s role as “Token Black Guy” Preston in She’s All That was the basis for Richmond’s Not Another Teen Movie character Malik Token.)
The joke continued throughout Psych’s eight seasons, with Pulliam Knight appearing as Gus’s wife in an alternate universe episode in Season 5 and Phylicia Rashad—a.k.a. Clair Huxtable—plays a recurring role as Gus’s mother. The series’ Easter eggs reach glorious fruition in the series finale, when Gus meets his new boss, played by none other than Richmond, who ends their interactions on a whim. naturally by saying “Calm down, Bud.” Richmond still keeps in touch with his ex. co-star, frequently tagging Knight Pulliam in social media response posts. In 2017, the two collaborated on her podcast Kandidly Keshia, revealing that they were not only on-screen friends growing up, but also friends in real life. Pulliam Knight recounts her teenage mountain bike adventures and other games of hide and seek with her “other brother”, Richmond. On the podcast, Richmond also shared that he’s still auditioning and “trying to get [his] productions off the ground.”
Reminded by his former co-star, the actor also shared about the character he likes to play the most. “There’s a story about Louis Armstrong that they’ve been trying to do for a minute,” Richmond replied. “It was a dream role for me.” Over the years, many websites have administratively reported that Richmond was a survivor of both colon and breast cancer and a graduate of Texas Christian University who became a disc jockey. In fact, these biographical details, as well as related quotes in the articles, can be attributed to the late Price is Right broadcaster Rod Roddy.
Richmond responded to the strange discrepancy on Twitter in June 2018 when a user tagged him in a post pointing out the problem. “I’m trying to figure out how that happened?!” he replied. The former Cosby Show star addressed the inaccuracy again in 2021, firmly stating that he “nvr has cancer…someone copied and pasted the announcer from price is right’s bio into mine and thts [sic] where the carcinogen comes from.”
