Ennis Cosby

All you want to know about Ennis Cosby

Ennis William Cosby (April 15, 1969 – January 16, 1997) was the son of comedian-actor Bill Cosby and Camille Cosby. He was murdered in 1997 on the shoulder of Los Angeles' 405 Freeway by Mikhail Markhasev.

Contents

Life

Ennis' father Bill Cosby mined family life for much of his material, but kept the family itself quite private. Thus much of what is known of Ennis's early life is seen through the filter of his father's comedy sketches and TV shows.

Several events in the life of Ennis Cosby were intentionally mirrored by the events in the life of his father's fictional son Theo Huxtable on NBC's The Cosby Show (1984-1992). Theo was portrayed by Malcolm-Jamal Warner. Both Ennis and Theo had four sisters: two older, two younger. Both had academic problems in middle school and high school. Both were diagnosed dyslexics and excelled academically in college. And both sought master's degrees in education from elite colleges in New York City: Ennis at Columbia University, Theo at New York University.

Similarly, the character Griffin Vesey -- portrayed by Doug E. Doug on CBS' Cosby (1996-2000) -- was a surrogate son to Bill Cosby's character on that series. Griffin eventually became a teacher, as Ennis aspired to do.

He was an admirer of the comedian Eddie Murphy, of whom his father disapproved because of Murphy's vulgar language and jokes. In one of his early standup routines, later released in theaters as Raw, Murphy mentioned Ennis Cosby in a sketch involving Bill Cosby: the bit involved a teenage Ennis asking his parents for money to see a live performance by Murphy; after hearing Murphy's act and the language he used onstage, the elder Cosby called Murphy to scold him on his performance. Murphy responded back with an expletive.

Ennis Cosby attended Landmark College in 1990.

Although he performed on stage in high school, Ennis was not a public figure. He graduated from George School, Newtown, Pennsylvania, and Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia.

Cosby aspired to become a special education teacher after he overcame dyslexia. At the time of his death he was a student at Teachers College, Columbia University, and was a Sunday-school teacher in the Bronx.

Murder

On January 16, 1997, Cosby had pulled his Mercedes to the side of Interstate 405, Los Angeles, to change a flat tire when he was confronted by Mikhail Markhasev. According to prosecutors, Markhasev, a Ukrainian-born immigrant, demanded money from Cosby, then shot him in the head and fled the scene. Markhasev was convicted after a jury trial and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The main evidence used to convict him was that his DNA was found in a cap wrapped around the murder weapon, and the testimony of a man to whom he had sent incriminating letters and told of the location of the murder weapon. Markhasev confessed his guilt in 2001 in a letter to the court stating he wished to discontinue his appeals, also stating in the letter that he "wanted to do the right thing … More than anything, [he] wanted to apologize to the victim's family." Markhasev is serving his sentence in Corcoran State Prison.

Legacy

The Hello Friend/Ennis William Cosby Foundation was established in 1997 by Bill and Camille Cosby to assist educating those with learning difficulties.

In 2000, Bill Cosby started a scholarship in Ennis Cosby's name at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

External links

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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennis_Cosby"

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