Where Is She Now: Phylicia Rashad (Actress) as Clair Huxtable - The Cosby Show.
Updated: 1/8/09
Name: Phylicia Rashad
Birth Name: Phylicia Ayers-Allen
Born: June 19, 1948, Houston, Texas
Claim To Fame: We all know Phylicia as attorney and matriarch Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show.
The show starred Bill Cosby as obstetrician Cliff Huxtable, and focused on their life with their five children.
Family Life: Rashad was married to William Lancelot Bowles Jr. from 1972-1975. They had one son, William Lancelot Bowles III. Her second husband, Victor Willis, was a lead singer for the Village People. The two divorced because of Willis' cocaine drug addiction.
She married former NFL wide receiver and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad on December 14, 1985. Their daughter, Condola Phylea Rashad, was born in 1986.
Info: After graduating from Howard University, Rashad
appeared in a string of Broadway productions, including Deena Jones in Dreamgirls and playing a Munchkin in The Wiz. In 1978, she released the album Josephine Superstar, a disco concept record telling the life story of Josephine Baker.
Her first big television role was on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live in 1983, but she is best known for her role as attorney Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom The Cosby Show.
In 1996, Bill Cosby returned to TV comedy and asked Rashad to play Ruth Lucas, his character's wife, on CBS's Cosby. The sitcom ran from 1996 to 2000. He then called on Rashad to work on his animated television series Little Bill, in which the actress voiced Bill's mother, Brenda, until the
show's end in 2002.
Trivia: Father and first husband were both dentists.
Appears in the video pre-show of the "Dinosaur" ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park.
Is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
Wears a size 9 shoe.
Her Cosby Show character Claire Huxtable was voted "TV mom closest to your own mom in spirit" by an Opinion Research Corporation poll in April of 2004.
Nominated for a 2004 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a play for "A Raisin in the Sun" on Broadway.
Tied for the 2004 Drama Desk award for Best Actress in a play for "A Raisin in the Sun" with Viola Davis for "Intimate Apparel".
Became the first African-American actress to win the Best Actress (Play) Tony Award for her 2004 performance as Lena Younger in a revival of Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun".
She and her sister were partly raised in Mexico, which is why they both speak Spanish so fluently.
Shares a birthday with comic-strip feline "Garfield" who made his newspaper premiere on June 19, 1978, making her exactly 30 years older than Garfield.
Recorded the Narration for Epcot's Candlelight Processional Soundtrack, sold all over Walt Disney World during Christmas.
Where Is She Now: In 2005, Rashad received an honorary
Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A.) degree from Brown University. She played Kill Moves' affluent mother in a 2007 episode of Everybody Hates Chris. She also appeared in the Psych episode Gus' Dad May Have Killed an Old Guy. In 2008, she appeared in the television adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun.
She currently stars on Broadway as Big Mama in an all-African American production of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof directed by her sister Debbie Allen.
