As Rudy Huxtable’s first “boyfriend” Kenny (aka Bud) on The Cosby Show, Deon Richmond played a small, but very memorable, role on the family sitcom. It’s hard to believe that the adorable young man we saw on TV is now 46 years old (yes, you and I both are getting old)! He is grown, continues to flourish and is doing well.
After the show ended, he was able to segue into other popular TV series of the time, such as Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper and Sister, Sister. Even though Richmond’s acting seemed to dwindle in more recent years, he has landed a few roles of note. In 2006, he starred in the slasher flick Hatchet, which was set in the bayou of Louisiana.
Richmond got his start in the entertainment business after graduating from Texas Christian University (TCU). Richmond began in professional broadcasting as a disc jockey and talk show host on KLIF and KNUS-FM (Dallas, Texas). He also worked overnights and mid-days at the Buffalo, New York radio station WKBW AM, a big-signal station covering the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, and at other high-profile stations.
Returning to KLIF and KNUS during the 1990s, Richmond hosted a call-in program, Deon Richmond’s Hotline, whose controversial host and topics made him a frequent target of death threats. He conducted a long-running on-air feud with an elderly woman (dubbed “Granny Hate” by an earlier host), who claimed to represent the local Ku Klux Klan.
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Richmond also voiced a number of national television commercials, including those for Pennzoil and Public Storage.
One Richmond’s earliest roles was an appearance in the music video for the 1985 Kool & the Gang song “Cherish”. In 1986, Richmond first appeared as Kenny on The Cosby Show, in the episode “Theo’s Flight”; he would go on to appear on the show in 32 episodes, until the show ended in 1992. In 1987, Richmond played a young Eddie Murphy in the beginning scenes of the film Eddie Murphy Raw, and also appeared in the film Enemy Territory as Chet.
Richmond appeared in the Kris Kross music video “Warm It Up” in 1992. He played the role of Darren Dixon in the 1993–94 sitcom Getting By alongside Merlin Santana as his brother Marcus, they were cast as brothers due to their interaction on The Cosby Show. In 1997, Richmond began a role as Tamera Campbell’s boyfriend, Jordan Bennett, on the fifth season of the hit series Sister, Sister. He became a regular cast member during the sixth and final season. In later years, Richmond appeared in films such as Trippin’, Scream 3, Not Another Teen Movie, National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, and the independent horror film Hatchet.
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Richmond has twin daughters, Lilac and Leone Richmond, born in 2009. According to multiple websites, in 2001 Richmond was diagnosed with colon cancer. He took a leave of absence from acting to undergo and recover from surgery and chemotherapy and returned a month later. One year later, the colon cancer returned, and Richmond temporarily took another leave of absence to undergo and recover from surgery on September 20, 2002. Again, he recovered within a month. In March 2003, Richmond was diagnosed with male breast cancer. He underwent surgery and afterward experienced major complications. As a result, Richmond was unable to join any TV series as a regular. The diagnoses led to Richmond becoming a spokesperson for early detection of cancer in his last years. In an interview with CBS, Richmond commented to the general public:
I could have prevented all this with a colonoscopy, and of course, that’s the campaign I’ve been on since I had the first surgery. To everybody out there, get a mammogram! It can happen to men, too. In 2003, Richmond recovered from his cancer but it left him with permanent health issues.
He now stars in an independent film called “Oliver’s Twist”. A synopsis of the film and is on his website, here.
