Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s final performance airs this week on FOX: How to watch

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s final performance will air this week following his tragic death over the summer.

The late actor, best known for playing Theo Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," died at age 54 in July in an accidental drowning in Costa Rica, according to local authorities.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner acts in ‘Murder in a Small Town’

Warner’s final role will air in Tuesday’s episode of "Murder in a Small Town" on FOX.

What they're saying:

"I only got to know him as an actor. It's so fast moving, those sets, that unfortunately, other than the work, there isn't all that much space," his co-star of the mystery drama series Rossif Sutherland told FOX News, adding, "But he was very generous and he was very quick on his feet. Our set is an environment where things shift, change, on the fly, and he was so wonderfully adaptable."

Sutherland continued: "He plays this father who's raising his daughter on his own. His ex-wife, the mother of his child, is found dead, and he's accused of having murdered her. And there were ways, obviously, to play that part as a righteous, angry man. But he brought so much heart to it."

How to watch Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s final performance

What you can do:

Fans can watch Warner’s final role in "Murder in a Small Town" Tuesday, October 7 on FOX. The episode airs at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death

The backstory:

Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department said that Warner drowned on a beach on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast. He was swimming at Playa Cocles in Limon province when a current pulled him deeper into the ocean.

Warner was married with a daughter, but chose not to publicly disclose their names.

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"He was rescued by people on the beach," the department's initial report said, but first responders from Costa Rica’s Red Cross found him without vital signs, and he was taken to the morgue.

Legacy of Malcolm-Jamal Warner

Big picture view:

Warner created many TV moments etched in the memories of Generation X children and their parents, including a pilot-episode argument with Bill Cosby's Cliff Huxtable about money and an ear-piercing he tries to hide from his dad. 

Theo was the only son among four daughters in the household of Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad’s Clair Huxtable on the NBC sitcom, and he would be one of the prime representations of American teenage boyhood on a show that was the most popular in America for much of its run from 1984 to 1992.

He played the role for eight seasons in all 197 episodes, winning an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy in 1986. For many, the lasting image of the character, and of Warner, is of him wearing a badly botched mock designer shirt sewed by his sister Denise, played by Lisa Bonet. The "Gordon Gartrell" shirt later became a memeable image. Anthony Mackie wore one on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon, and the profile picture on Warner's Instagram shows a toddler sporting one.

Warner later appeared on the sitcom "Malcolm & Eddie," co-starring with comedian Eddie Griffin in the series on the defunct UPN network from 1996 to 2000. And in the 2010s he starred opposite Tracee Ellis Ross as a family-blending couple for two seasons on the BET sitcom "Read Between The Lines." He also had a role as O.J. Simpson's friend Al Cowlings on "American Crime Story" and was a series regular on Fox's "The Resident."

His film roles include the 2008 rom-com "Fool’s Gold" with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. A poet and a musician, Warner was also a Grammy winner for best traditional R&B performance, and he was nominated for best spoken word poetry album for "Hiding in Plain View."