<Tr> <Th> Occupation </Th> <Td> Stage, film and television actor </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Years active </Th> <Td> 1943--2001 </Td> </Tr> <P> Earle Hyman (October 11, 1926--November 17, 2017) was an American stage, television, and film actor . Hyman is known for his role on ThunderCats as the voice of Panthro and various other characters . He also appeared on The Cosby Show as Cliff's father, Russell Huxtable . </P> <P> Hyman was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, as George Earle Plummer according to the North Carolina Birth Index . He is believed to have been of Native American ancestry . His parents, Zachariah Hyman (Tuscarora / Meherrin) and Maria Lilly Plummer (Haliwa - Saponi / Nottoway), moved their family to Brooklyn, New York in the late 1920s, where Hyman primarily grew up . Hyman became interested in acting after seeing a production of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts . </P>

Who played cliff's dad on the cosby show