Biography:

William H. "Bill" Cosby was born in 1937 in Philadelphia. He was recognized early as a charmer with an amazing sense of humor. He was involved in sports of all kind in high school, but dropped out after failing the 10th grade. He then joined the Navy and while in the Navy saw the importance of education. He completed his high school equivalency exams in the military and then received an athletic scholarship from Temple University, but his knack for comedy led him to drop out of college and pursue his career in entertainment.

He starred in the television program I Spy with Robert Culp and in the early Bill Cosby Show.

He returned to Temple University where he finished his bachelor's degree and his masters degree. He also received a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts. He is best know, however, for the long-running Cosby Show, known for its warmth and its positive portrayal of a successful African-American family.

Bill Cosby has also been a tireless advocate for responsible fatherhood, especially in the black community. He has written several books including Fatherhood and Come on People.

Partner:

Bill Cosby and Camille Hanks Cosby were married in 1964.

Children:

• Erika Renee, born 1965
• Erinn Chalene, born 1966
• Ensa Camille, born 1973
• Evin Harrah, born 1976
• Ennis William, born 1969 and killed 1997

Quotations from Bill Cosby on Fatherhood:

If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right.

~ Fatherhood Quotes

Even though your kids will consistently do the exact opposite of what you're telling them to do, you have to keep loving them just as much. - BrainyQuote.com

Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit. - BrainyQuote.com

No matter how calmly you try to referee, parenting will eventually produce bizarre behavior, and I'm not talking about the kids. Their behavior is always normal. - BrainyQuote.com

Raising children is an incredibly hard and risky business in which no cumulative wisdom is gained: each generation repeats the mistakes the previous one made. - BrainyQuote.com

In spite of the six thousand manuals on child raising in the bookstores, child raising is still a dark continent and no one really knows anything. You just need a lot of love and luck - and, of course, courage. - QuoteGarden.com

I'm talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was two? Where were you when he was twelve? Where were you when he was eighteen, and how come you don't know he had a pistol? And where is his father, and why don't you know where he is? And why doesn't the father show up to talk to this boy? American Rhetoric

If there was parenting, he wouldn't have picked up the Coca Cola bottle and walked out with it to get shot in the back of the head. He wouldn't have. Not if he loved his parents. And not if they were parenting! Not if the father would come home. Not if the boy hadn't dropped the sperm cell inside of the girl and the girl had said, "No, you have to come back here and be the father of this child." Not .."I don't have to." American Rhetoric