![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/packages/flash/multimedia/ICONS/transparent.png)
Earle Hyman, center, as Russell Huxtable on "The Cosby Show."
NBC, via Everett Collection; thumbnail, Ron Frehm, Associated Press, 1997
Earle Hyman
Died on November 17, 2017 at age 91
Mr. Hyman broke racial stereotypes on Broadway and in Scandinavia in works by Shakespeare and Ibsen but was better known to millions of Americans as Bill Cosby’s father on “The Cosby Show.”
Notable Deaths 2017
Remembering Mary Tyler Moore, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lewis, David Rockefeller, Trisha Brown, Glen Campbell, Dick Gregory, Edith Windsor, Sam Shepard, Tom Petty and many others who died this year.