| Mostly Credited As: | Phylicia Rashad |
| Sometimes Credited As: | Phylicia Ayres Allen
Phylicia Allen
Phylicia Ayers-Allen
|
| Birth Name: | Phylicia Ayers-Allen |
| Date Of Birth: | June 19, 1948 |
| Country Of Birth: |  USA |
| Birth Place: | Houston, Texas |
| Height: | 5' 4" (1.62 m) |
Phylicia Ayers-Allen was born in Houston, Texas on June 14, 1948. Her first big break occurred on Broadway when she acted in the critically acclaimed
The Wiz,
Dreamgirls, and
The Wizard of Oz. While these were great moments in her acting career, she became a star once she was cast as Clair Huxtable on
The Cosby Show. Phylicia, later, played Ruth Lucas on the spin-off to
The Cosby Show,
Cosby, followed by Brenda Glover on the animated Cosby series,
Little Bill.
She was first married to William Lancelot Bowles, Jr., a dentist, in 1972, which she had a child, Billy, in 1973, with, though their marriage ended in 1975. Three years later, she married Victor Willis of the Village People, though their marriage ended as well, due to his excessive cocaine-use, in 1980. Finally, she married Ahmad Rashad on December 14, 1985, who was a popular television sportscaster. He proposed to her live, on television, and she accepted. Their marriage lasted over fifteen years, though it ended in 2001.
