About the mother and father of the deceased actor

Malcolm Jamal Warner was survived by his parents.

The Cosby Show star was welcomed in 1970 by his mothers Pamela Warner, Pamela Warner and father Robert Warner Jr. Robert Warner Jr. in New Jersey in 1970. Warner’s life was tragically shortened at age 54, 54, after he died from his family Torica from Costa Rica on July 20, 2025. “Unspeakable pain” resonated through her body as she learned the news.

In one of his final interviews before his death, Warner reflected on how his father played a role in what his legacy wanted. “Part of me will be able to leave me knowing this planet and people knowing that I was a good person,” he said in a hot & troubled episode in May 2025.

“People love you, and people always talk about your career, your success and all of that, but what makes me most proud is you being a good person,” Warner recalled what his father said.

The actor continued, “But my father is a good person, so I am a good person.”

From the impact on his career to what they said about his death, there’s everything you need to know about Malcolm Jamal Warner’s parents.

They welcomed him in New Jersey

Warner’s parents welcomed him on August 18, 1970 in Jersey City, New Jersey. According to the Los Angeles Times, they named him after activist Malcolm X and jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal.

According to the outlet, Pamela and Robert divorced when their son was three years old.

Warner believes he set him for greatness in his father

Appearing on the Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM radio show in January 2023, Warner opened up about growing up and shared a story about how his father reads a “fat book” entitled “The Great American Black Man” during his childhood summer vacation.

“He’ll read these chapters and write a book report,” he said. “He was hardcore about understanding his history and making sure he understood where he came from.”

Warner explained that his love for poetry is rooted in the way his father “instills all this in me and does it through art.”

After being teased for carrying around for Malcolm, after Malcolm X’s life and death poems and death in elementary school, Warner realized that other children didn’t read material that his age was “as refined as me.”

“That’s when I signed up with me what my dad was doing,” the actor said. It was noted that he began to gain platform and influence over other children that he noticed the real influence of his father.

“I called my dad, I was like, ‘You’re a guy, you set me up,'” he said. “He set me up for greatness. Whatever my path was, he set me up.”

His mother was his manager

When Warner rose to fame as a child star, Pamela was leading the way behind the scenes as a manager. However, she previously told Ebony Magazine that she was a “reluctant stage parent” and initially placed her son in her son’s theatre as an extracurricular activity.

“It’s the farthest thing I’m from my heart,” she said, explaining that she tested his commitment to pursuing it as a career by increasing his chores and setting rules about school and homework as a priority.

However, Pamela supported his career and later continued to write a parent’s guide to managing showbiz Kids, published in January 2024.

About how Pamela influenced her son’s position in the industry, Warner spoke with people almost a year before his death, sharing the advice his mother gave him when the success of the Cosby Show first began.

“When the Cosby Show was the first hit and it was this phenomenon… I was 14 years old and my mother sat me down and said, ‘Listen to the baby, it’s great that this show is, but at some point this show ends,” he recalled. “This show could be next year. What are you going to do when this show is over?”

Warner believed his mother to be his biggest influence

Almost a year before his death, Warner told people how his mother “had the most impact” on his life.

“I think it’s probably the biggest influence – and I’m always talking about this. I’ll probably continue to talk about this until the day of my death – my mother. I think she really had the most impact on me,” he said.

Shortly after his death, sources told people that Warner and his mother no longer live in the same city, but they remained “incredibly close.”

“She was a mother, but she was also his best friend,” the source said.

Pamela was opened up about the “unexpressed pain” of her son’s death

On September 16, Pamela appeared on Good Morning America, where she gave her first sit-in interview since Warner’s death, opening up about the “unexpressed pain” she felt while learning the news.

“It was from the bottom of my soul,” Pamela said of her cry that her neighbor had heard. “And what came out was huge. It was an indescribable pain that resonated throughout my body.”

But she felt that it was just the “physical part.”

“The mental part of it – that was his time,” she said. “This is what I believe and what I feel.”

The interview did not mark Pamela’s first statement after her son’s death, as she created a “Malcolm Jamal Warner Living Legacy” Instagram account in August 2025. In her first post, she confirmed that the account is “lovingly run by her mother, Pamela Warner.”