'Cosby Show' actor Geoffrey Owens defended after he is spotted working at Trader Joe's
Actor Geoffrey Owens appears in a season 2 episode of Fox series "Lucifer" in 2017. Credit: Fox via Getty Images
Performers, producers and others have taken issue with Fox News and the British tabloid Daily Mail after those outlets posted photos of former "Cosby Show" actor Geoffrey Owens working the checkout counter at a Trader Joe's supermarket in New Jersey.
"#LaborDay celebrates the value of our country's workers," Oscar-winner Halle Berry tweeted Monday. "I'm just so sad to hear that an American felt the need to 'expose' a man for working hard. I wish there were more people with as much integrity as #GeoffreyOwens," who played the recurring role of Elvin Tibideaux, son-in-law of star Bill Cosby's character Cliff Huxtable, throughout most of the hit show's 1984-92 run. "Love you, Geoff - keep shining!!"
"I had been a working actor for years," tweeted Emmy Award-winner Pamela Adlon, who received her seventh nomination this year as star of the FX series "Better Things." "Jobs stopped, as they do. I worked in retail. At a flower shop. I passed out flyers. It's about the work. Work gives you pride and purpose. Your visibility as an actor never goes away. But the money sure does."
Newsman Dan Rather tweeted: "So Fox News shames a man for working at Trader Joe's because he was once on a hit TV show? Demonizing hard work while abetting grifters enriching themselves on tax dollars is a potent stew of hypocrisy and irony."
Even Fox News host Laura Ingraham chimed in, tweeting, "He's working and there is pride in every job! Good for him!"
Performers including Justine Bateman, Terry Crews, Patricia Heaton, Donnie Wahlberg and James Woods also tweeted their support, as did such producers as Judd Apatow. The charitable foundation of the actors union SAG-AFTRA tweeted, "This #LaborDay, we honor #geoffreyowens and ALL of the hard-working actors who work 1, 2, 3 day jobs in order to pay the bills, take care of their families & still work to entertain us."
Owens, 57, has continued to work as an actor, appearing last year in series including "The Blacklist," "Blue Bloods" and "Lucifer," and this year in "Elementary." He performed on Broadway as recently as 2013, in the revival of "Romeo and Juliet" starring Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad, daughter of Owens' former "Cosby Show" castmate Phylicia Rashad.
