Phylicia Rashad will forever be remembered as being the wife of Bill Cosby…even though they were never married. I began watching Cosby’s groundbreaking series The Cosby Show when it first debuted in 1984, back in the day when she was still going by her maiden name Phylicia Ayers-Allen. Her named changed, naturally enough, when she was married to her third husband, NFL wide reciever and sportcaster Ahmad Rashad. Fresh from the stage, The Cosby Show was her first major screen work and she was called upon by Bill Cosby once again to be his screen wife when he began his new series Cosby in 1996, four years after the former series ended. And I might add that she starred in the pre-show of the Dinosaur ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
As good as Phylicia Rashad was on television, the stage was always where she really excelled. In fact, she became the first black actress to win a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress for her performance in A Raisin in the Sun in 2004. I had to agree with the accolades she had received for stage work when I saw her perform in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the London West End district at the Novello Theatre on Monday, March 29, 2010.
She portrayed the role of Big Mama to such perfection that I literally thought that she had aged a quite a bit more than I would have expected. But when she appeared at the stage door exit behind the theatre (while Bob and I were waiting to get a signature from co-star James Earl Jones), it became apparent that her aged haggard appearance in the play was brought about by some good makeup and amazing acting.
She was kind enough to both pose for pictures and sign autographs for anyone who wanted one. In fact, I got two pictures with her – first with my camera (below) when she first appeared and then again with Bob’s camera (at top) when he came over to get an autograph and photo. A stranger had taken the first one and I wasn’t yet sure how it had come out. It was starting to sprinkle at that time and Ms. Rashad showed concern that my photo (seen above) was going to get wet as she carefully signed it. Like her character of Claire Huxtable, she was quite a nice lady.
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I got her autograph several times. Many years ago, she and her husband lived in my city, and for a period of time, through my job, I had deliveries for her husband Ahmad. Phyllis was usually home and signed for the envelope.
Bill
May 15th, 2010