To the world, Fred Sanford was a grumpy junk dealer with a golden heart. But those close to Sanford and Son knew the truth: Redd Foxx didn’t just play Fred—he was Fred.
Before hitting TV fame, Foxx was a notorious “blue comic,” famous in underground Black nightclubs for his raunchy jokes, sharp tongue, and take-no-prisoners attitude. When NBC took a chance on him in 1972, no one expected him to become a mainstream hit. But Redd didn’t clean up for TV—he made TV come to him.
On set, Foxx demanded creative control from the start. He rewrote scripts, walked off set mid-filming, and frequently challenged network executives. One producer recalled, “You didn’t tell Redd what to do—you negotiated with him.”
He also demanded better pay, not just for himself but for co-stars and crew. “He made sure we all ate,” said one camera operator. “He came from nothing, and he never forgot what that felt like.”
Behind the scenes, Foxx’s life was pure chaos—lavish spending, tax battles, and a rotating door of marriages. His dressing room was stocked with vodka, jazz vinyls, and fine suits. And yet, he never missed a cue.
Co-star Demond Wilson once said, “Redd was real. That’s why people loved him. He wasn’t acting. That was him, on and off screen.”
The infamous fake heart attacks—“This is the big one, Elizabeth!”—were improvised. Foxx had seen real family members die of heart conditions and turned that trauma into comedy.
Off camera, he was generous, complex, and unpredictable. He gave money to strangers, paid rent for struggling actors, but also vanished for days without explanation. Foxx once disappeared to Vegas during a filming week—only to return with a brand-new Cadillac and an unlit cigar in his mouth.
When he died in 1991 on the set of The Royal Family, the irony was bitter: he collapsed from a real heart attack, and no one believed it at first. They thought he was doing the bit.
Fred Sanford may be fictional—but Redd Foxx? He was the realest man in television history.
