Even as far back as the 1980s, was it well-known he was a creep in Hollywood?
--Michael D. Clarke
I can't remember hearing anything about it back then.
It seems these allegations about him started when he began speaking up about black criminality & the normalization of "Ghetto/Gangsta Culture",
& how he (rightfully) felt it was
detrimental to black communities.
Coincidence?
Maybe. Maybe not.
The timing doesn't really make sense. Andrea Constand accused Cosby in January 2004 (and wasn't the first to do so.) Cosby's controversial "Pound Cake" speech was delivered months later. Hannibal Buress' stand-up routine calling Cosby a rapist took place a decade later.
Cosby's speech did get a lot of attention at the time he delivered it, but by the time of Buress' routine it seemed pretty much forgotten, and I don't think it's unfair to say Cosby's influence on pop culture was less relevant in 2014 compared to 2004.
Also he was by no means the first person to complain about problems among black people. Louis Farrakhan and Calvin O. Butts among others were making similar speeches many years before Cosby and would have made more obvious targets for a discrediting campaign than an aging comedian.