By AFPMore by this AuthorFrom US cultural icon blazing past racial barriers to convicted sex offender: Thursday's guilty verdict will now likely see Bill Cosby, "America's Dad" swap a life of wealth and privilege for prison. It was a name that once evoked so much — treasured father figure, a seemingly model citizen with gentle, self-deprecating comedy and a playful voice that would go from deep to screeching for a laugh. The first African American actor to grace primetime US television and the man who brought upper-middle-class black family bliss to television is now a frail convict who risks losing everything. His cultural influence was once so great that chat show queen Oprah Winfrey credited the now 80-year-old Cosby with helping to pave the way for America's first black president, Barack Obama. Both a first and a second trial in Norristown, Pennsylvania revealed a dark underside to his signature role of benevolent father figure and affable obstetrician Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

Source: Daily Nation April 27, 2018 04:41 UTC