‘Ugly duckling’ found beauty and attention

Press, 11 October 1985, Page 9

‘Ugly duckling’ found beauty and attention

Phylicia Ayers-Allen, who plays Bill Cosby’s attractive wife Clair in “The Cosby Show,” started life as a gangly, outgoing little girl in Houston, whose good elocution won her parts in her elementary school’s Thanksgiving plays. At the age of 11, she was, chosen to MC a city-wide music festival. She had never felt beautiful before.

“My father was very handsome, my mother stopped traffic, my sister was cute as a button and my older brother Tex had girlfriends everywhere — and I was just there. But this particular night when the house-lights went down it was just me and the spotlight; I felt very beautiful. I think it was then that I decided when I grew up I would be an actress.”

Her father, Tex Allen, was a dentist who loved jazz and supported the theatrical aspirations of Phylicia and her sister Debbie (from “Fame”). Their mother, Vivian Ayers, was a noted poet and cultural activist in Houston.

In 1966, Phylicia AyersAllen entered Howard University, joined a sorority and majored in theatre, eventually becoming vicepresident of the Howard Players.

She worked as a freelance actress in New York, married dentist Dr William L. Bowles jun. and had a son, William Lancelot Bowles 111, now aged 12. The marriage ended in divorce. In the late 19705,

Ayers-Allen married again, to Victor Willis, a singer with the rock group Village People, but this marriage also broke up.

Since then, the 37-year-old actress has come into contact with Swami Muktananda and begun the practice of Siddha meditation,

now an important part of her life. “The Cosby Show” screens on One on Saturday evenings.