I can hardly remember a time I wasn’t a Bill Cosby fan.

That’s what makes the repeated allegations he drugged and sexually assaulted young women — the count is up to 16 as I write this but it may have grown — so troubling. Like millions of people, I want to trust Cosby.

But it’s getting more and more difficult to do so.

The women’s stories are remarkably similar. They were young, ambitious and eager to gain such a powerful sponsor. They trusted and admired him. We all did.

I first saw him in the late 1960s, as his series “I Spy” was winding down its three-year run on NBC. I was around 10, so I didn’t get a lot of the jokes or references to politics. The chemistry between the two stars, suave, handsome Robert Culp and Cosby, the charming, funny partner in espionage, however, was compelling.

At the same time, I started to listen to Cosby’s comedy albums with my friend Raymond. We were delighted by his rambling, intensely funny stories.

I remained a fan as he starred in “The Bill Cosby Show,” a forgotten gem, and made other TV appearances. It was also fun to see Dr. William H. Cosby Jr., as he was credited, introduce the Saturday morning cartoon series “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.”

Hey, hey, hey, I was a big fan.

When he came to my hometown for a show in the mid-1970s, my sisters Anita and Julie went with me and we laughed and laughed. He said the young crowd probably wanted to see Grand Funk Railroad but was willing to put up with him.

In the early 1980s, I worked at Harrah’s casino in Reno, Nev., and Cosby was a frequent headliner at the club. I didn’t see his show; tickets were expensive and I had lost some interest in his humor. But I watched the movie he did of his act, “Bill Cosby: Himself,” and enjoyed it.

Cosby was a regular presence in the casino, which was not unusual for the performers. The employees and customers saw them gambling, drinking and playing around. The stories I could tell about Mickey Gilley ....

Not so much Cosby, although my friend Ellen said she saw him holding hands with a woman who was not his wife in a darkened corner of the club. But what happens in Reno ...

Another close friend, Phyllis, said he asked her to meet him for drinks. She turned him down, since she knew he was married and twice her age. Good thing, too, it looks like.

But Phyllis was a fan of “The Cosby Show,” which started its long run at the top of the ratings in 1984. I recall her and my friend Gary raving about it — I rarely watched it. Cosby seemed too, well, paternal in that role for me.

I always thought he was a little edgier than that. He lived a sort of dual existence, partying with “Playboy” Publisher Hugh Hefner and other celebrities while also maintaining a family like with his wife and kids.

By the late 1980s, as his show dominated the ratings and he continued to serve as a commercial pitchman, he morphed into the perfect dad and that was how he was known for years. The old swinging “Cos,” with the cigar wedged into his mouth and the edgy humor, was pushed into the shadows.

Cosby’s image was damaged in recent years as he has admitted to affairs and settled at least one civil suit alleging he assaulted a woman.

But these latest stories, of drugging women and then engaging in a variety of sexual acts with them when they were unconscious or vulnerable, burst his carefully maintained front.

It reminds me of the decline of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and the O.J. Simpson murder case. We thought we knew these celebrities but ...

Cosby, for the most part, has refused to discuss the accusations in any detail. Is he a victim of false charges? Was any sexual contact consensual? Are these woman just seeking headlines and cash?

He says he will not respond to these accusations while his lawyer fires back at the women and the media. But for a lot of old fans, Bill Cosby’s sudden reticence says a lot.