Bill Cosby example essay topic

In today's society, to be a successful communicator, you must be able to reach many people on many different levels. Bill Cosby is by any standard, one of the most popular and beloved stars in America today. Whether through concert appearances or recordings, television or feature films, commercials or education, he has the ability to touch people's lives (web). William Cosby, Jr. was born on July 12, 1937 in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a small rundown area called Germantown; also known to its inhabitants as "The Jungle" because of the lack of money and the poor families. Jobs were scarce back then in that area, most of the people that lived there did not work.

As a child, Bill found himself surrounded by drugs and violence. Most of the children at that time ran together in gangs or groups. It was then that Bill formed life long friendships with a group of kids that would become known to him as "the gang". This group of boys stayed out of trouble for the most part, as much as boys can when surrounded by other boys. These friends would become a big part in Cosby's future career, as he used his life experiences for material in his comedy and tv shows. Around the middle of the 1940's, with the Great Depression over and the United States entering into World War II, Bills family would be put to the test.

His parents, William Cosby, Sr. and Anna Pearl Cosby, struggled to make ends meet. William was a welder and had a hard time finding work while Ann stayed home with the kids, Bill, James, and Russell. At age six, Bill's younger brother passed away after coming down with rheumatic fever, Bill was only eight years old. A year later Bill's father joined the Navy and left for six months at a time, leaving Bill to take the role as "man of the house". Anna took a job cleaning houses and Bill took a full-time summer job at a local grocery store, forcing to Bill to become responsible before his time. In 1956, after World War II ended, Bill dropped out of high school and joined the Navy like his father.

He was assigned to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland because of his choice to go into the field of Medical Corpsman. As he continued in the service, he continued to play sports and make people laugh. After returning home from the Navy, and getting his High School Equivalency Diploma, Bill dreamed of going to college. He applied for scholarships to attend Temple University. He soared in the sports he played and won awards in football, basketball and track.

In 1960, he dropped out of Temple soon after his freshman year, feeling the effects of racial discrimination; he headed to the West Coast to look for work. Bill found it very easy to make those around him laugh. He soon started to tell jokes about racial issues and himself as a black man. He found that this was his calling and made the decision to work in the direction of comedy, which would be his foundation for communication. Bill has spent his career making people laugh, he first gained prominence as a comedian in the early 1960's when he vaulted from telling jokes in Philadelphia night - spots to the Top Ten night clubs. Cosby got his first job telling jokes while attending a Philadelphia coffeehouse called the Cellar, while earning five dollars a night.

According to Cosby, this was the beginning of his comedic career in comedy. In 1962, he went to New York City's Greenwich Village, to work at the Gaslight Caf'e for sixty dollars a week and a room without plumbing. In 1965, Cosby decided to venture out and look into doing television, he became the first African American to star in a television drama, I Spy. In the 1979 hit television series, The Fat Albert Show, (1979-1984), Cosby starred in the lead role as Fat Albert. It was this show that the friends that Cosby grew up with would become an instrumental part of his career. The show was based on his experiences as a child with "the gang".

In the eighties, Cosby took the role as Dr. Heath Cliff Huxtable. He headed televisions first educated, middle class, black family in the wildly successful Cosby Show. The Cosby Show turned out to be his best television appearance. Throughout his career, Cosby has made more than twenty comedy albums, appeared in films, published a string of humor books and endorsed products such as Jell-O, Kodak and a variety of other companies. As a writer, Bill wrote part of the script for the recent movie, Jack, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Cosby's first Grammy nomination was for his first comedy album, Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow, Right?

(1963-1969). During his career he has won thirty - seven awards from Best Comedy to Outstanding Man. He has also won several Golden Globes, Emmys and People Choice awards. In 1994, he won the Academy of Television arts and Science Hall of Fame Inductee and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 1998.

Although Cosby dropped out of High School and made a failed attempt at college, he went on to earn a Bachelor's Degree from Temple University, a Master Degree in Education in 1972, and his Doctorate in education in 1977 from the University of Massachusetts. Not only does Bill Cosby communicate through his comedy and writing, he has also been involved in several charities over the years. These charities rage from helping schools, libraries, and many other things for educational purposes. Cosby is also involved in many medical charities as well. He has participated in the "Sweet Charity", a benefit for the Colorado Neurological Institute; the "ART MA, an art auction to help benefit brain cancer research; "Operation Smile", volunteer doctors and nurses fly to other countries and help children in need of surgery, the list goes on and on.

Bill Cosby has also founded the "Hello Friend, the Ennis William Cosby Foundation". Cosby and his wife Camille Hanks set up this foundation after the murder of their son Ennis William Cosby, to help children with learning disabilities in school. The name of the foundation was a saying that Ennis would say when he would meet friends or strangers, "Hello Friend.".