When you think of top TV dads, a foul-mouthed, junk-peddling, chest-clutching crank probably isn’t top of mind. But in a sea of advice-doling, endlessly patient papas, that’s exactly what made Redd Foxx‘s curmudgeonly Fred Sanford of Sanford and Son fame a legend.
The show’s iconic catchphrases stemmed from Fred’s efforts to bend his son and business partner Lamont (Demond Wilson) to his will, using methods that would make modern dads blanch. Fred regularly barked “You big dummy!” at poor Lamont, but both the chuckling audience and Lamont knew it was just Fred’s ham-handed way of saying he’d always be there as Lamont’s dad and protector. The widowed Fred also loved threatening Lamont with orphanhood when he didn’t get his way, clutching his chest and bellowing, “This is the big one! I’m coming to join you, Elizabeth!” Oof.
Series creator Norman Lear knew that casting raunchy nightclub comic Foxx to headline a show NBC hoped would rival CBS’ All in the Family was a gamble. But Foxx promised to literally clean up his act if the show stayed true to its characters and their circumstance. Born John Sanford, Foxx requested that characters — including his own, a tribute to his father — be named for real friends and family. He also championed his childhood pal LaWanda Page for the role of Fred’s sister-in-law Esther, threatening to walk if she wasn’t cast.
After multiple salary disputes with NBC, Foxx eventually left Sanford and Son, moving to ABC after they offered him a big payday for The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour. And though he played a family man again in 1991’s The Royal Family — which ended when Foxx actually did, well, suffer a big one — Redd Foxx will forever be best known as the one-of-a-kind Fred G. Sanford.
To celebrate the man who proudly played Lamont’s lovably loutish dad, here are five things you probably didn’t know about Redd Foxx.
Gene Trindl/TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
1He scored an invitation to Elvis’ wedding
Foxx was the only celebrity invited to Elvis’ very private wedding to Priscilla Beaulieu at the Aladdin hotel in Las Vegas. Foxx told People magazine that the invite was “the best thing that ever happened to me.”
2Foxx shared his nickname with a civil rights icon
Gene Trindl/TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
The mixed-heritage John Sanford took his stage name from his childhood nickname “Red,” which stemmed from the reddish tinge of his hair and skin. Before he hit it big, Sanford worked as a dishwasher at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem. Even though he was born in St. Louis, Sanford was called “Chicago Red” there, to distinguish him from another worker known as “Detroit Red.” Chicago Red would go on to become Redd Foxx, and Detroit Red would make history as human rights activist Malcolm X.
As for the surname Foxx, Redd reportedly borrowed that from Chicago Cubs star Jimmie Foxx.
3Foxx was more than 15 years younger than his onscreen counterpart
Gene Trindl/TV Guide/courtesy Everett Collection
Foxx was just 49 when he stepped into the clunky but comfy shoes of 65-year-old Fred Sanford. To make the character believable, Foxx dyed his hair gray, wore makeup to age his face and donned those hefty shoes that gave Fred his distinctively wobbly walk.
4Foxx was famously generous with his costars
Loyal to a fault, Foxx made sure the people he loved knew it, onscreen and off. Beyond naming characters after his favorite folks, Foxx also mentioned costar Whitman Mayo‘s real-life travel agency in an episode of Sanford and Son. And he not only cast his pal and fellow comic Pat Morita in the role of Ah Chew, but also famously gave Morita $3,500 for a down payment on a house.
Per Foxx’s ask, Morita paid it forward, handing a young and then-unknown Robin Williams $3,500 with the same instructions.
5Eddie Murphy paid for Foxx’s funeral
Because of his legendary generosity, Foxx struggled with serious financial woes later in life. When he died of a heart attack in 1992, his widow, Ka Ho Cho, couldn’t afford to give him a funeral. Eddie Murphy — who had cast Foxx in his 1989 film Harlem Nights — stepped in and gave his friend and mentor a star-packed farewell.
