Bill Cosby

NORRISTOWN — More than a decade after Bill Cosby invited a college basketball manager to his home to discuss her career, the 79-year-old comedian goes on trial today in a sexual assault case that is sure to define his legacy.

Cosby’s image as a father and family man, on screen and off, helped fuel his extraordinary 50-year career in entertainment. He created TV characters, most notably Dr. Cliff Huxtable, with crossover appeal among blacks and whites, young and old, rich and poor. His shows, films and comedy tours earned him an estimated $400 million.

Then a deposition unsealed in 2015 revealed an unsavory private life marked by a long history of sexual liaisons with young women. Dozens came forward to say he had drugged and assaulted them.

The trial involves just one of those complaints, that of the former Temple University basketball staffer. Andrea Constand, 44, of the Toronto area, will take the stand in suburban Philadelphia and tell her story in public for the first time.

Holding a wooden cane, Cosby got to the courthouse around 8:40 a.m. today, amid a heavy media presence. He chatted amiably with actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, who played his youngest daughter on “The Cosby Show,” and they walked together past dozens of cameras and into the courthouse. Cosby smiled but said nothing when someone asked how he was feeling.

Montgomery County Judge Steven O’Neill hopes to keep the media frenzy from influencing the case as it did at O.J. Simpson’s murder trial. The cameras that dominated Simpson’s trial aren’t allowed in Pennsylvania courtrooms, but scores of photographers will be lined up outside the courthouse.

“We’ve had an O.J. hangover for many years,” said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson. “What you worry about as the judge is that the lawyers don’t showboat, the evidence gets presented fairly, and that you have a jury that does its job and is not being thrown into the whole milieu of the trial outside the courtroom.”