Watch Martin Kendall from “The Cosby Show” at age 60
A few seasons into The Cosby Show, audiences were introduced to two new characters who quickly made their mark on the show. In Season 6, the Huxtable family is surprised to learn that Denise (Lisa Bonet) has secretly married a soldier named Martin Kendall and become stepmother to his daughter, Olivia (Raven-Symoné). Both Martin and Olivia became series regulars and remained so until its conclusion with the ninth season. Today, Joseph C. Phillips, who plays Martin, is still acting, but he also takes on another career speaking to audiences for a very different reason. Read on to learn more about the 60-year-old actor’s life and career today.
From 1989 to 1991, Phillips appeared in many episodes of The Cosby Show as Martin, but years before that, he played another role. In a Season 2 episode, Phillips plays a character named Daryl, who dates the oldest Huxtable child, Sondra (Sabrina Le Beauf).
As Martin, Phillips also appeared in an episode of The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World.
He’s still acting today.
In addition to his starring role on The Cosby Show, Phillips also had recurring roles on the series The District, General Hospital, Without a Trace, The Young and the Restless, Crime Minds and 13 Reasons Why.
He is a political commentator.
Although Phillips is still active as an actor, this is not his only public appearance. He is also a conservative political commentator and journalist, who has worked for NPR’s News&Notes and the American Urban Radio Network. He addressed being a black conservative in his 2006 book He Talks Like a White Boy: Reflections on Faith, Family, Politics, and Authenticity.
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He just got a new position.
In October 2022, it was announced that Phillips would join Clark Atlanta University as a professor of Theater and Media Studies. According to a press release from the school, he previously served as a fellow at the “Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University; the Abraham Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute; and the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, where he designed, wrote the curriculum, and taught a seven-week course titled ‘Black Conservatism in America.'”