Who Knew? Whitney Houston Turned Down Role Of Sondra Huxtable on 'The Cosby Show!'

[Brian Damage]

She's being remembered around the world as a sublime international music superstar following her tragic passing last weekend.

But as the world mourns the passing of Whitney Houston, it has also been revealed that the critically acclaimed songstress almost became a sitcom star.

According to director Jay Sandrich, the Grammy and Emmy-Award winning artist was given the role of Sondra Huxtable on The Cosby Show.

Houston auditioned in the early eighties and after getting the job she turned it down to pursue her music career.

Sandrich, who directed the first three seasons of the hugely successful sitcom, recalls a young Houston reluctant to sign her contract because she thought it would jepordize her not yet developed music career.

'So we gather in this room and there are kids from New York and Los Angeles and they are all signing their contracts, and this girl who we brought from New York said "I can't sign this contract."

'And I said "Why?" She said, "Well, I want to be a singer...I can't be in every show... I have to be in every tour."

Sandrich says that he then asked Houston if she had a recording contract or whether she had ever toured to which she replied "no" to both.

He suggested that if she appeared on the show that it might help her singing career, but Houston was convinced.

'I said "Well who told you can sing?" and she said "My mother, my aunt."

Sandrich believes that the then teenager knew right there and then that she was going to be a huge singing star.

'Whitney Houston, she knew,' he said.

Sabrina Le Beauf went on to play the role of Sondra Huxtable for nearly all eight seasons of the sitcom, which TV Guide has called 'TV's biggest hit in the 1980s'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...#ixzz1nDiNPhRV