Isabel Sanford
On this date in 1917 Isabel Sanford was born. She is an African American actress.
From New York City, Sanford’s life story is the type that those in show business enjoy because it gives the struggling artist hope. After education in New York, she joined the Star Players (later the American Negro Theater) in the 1930s. Sanford worked with them until World War II started and the theater temporarily split up. After the war, Sanford had home obligations that put her career on hold. But her husband’s death was inspiration for Sanford’s dream.
With three children to support, she worked as a data processor by day and acted as she could in the evening and developed a life-long frugality about which she joked about. Sanford made it to the Broadway stage in James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, and, in 1967 was given her film debut by producer-director Stanley Kramer in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? In it, Sanford was the ever-loyal housekeeper of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Her role of the maid was in stark contrast to the supposed liberalism of Hepburn and Tracy characters in the film, here Sanford offered a grand performance in what might be the last of the great strong, humorless Black domestics, a practice in American films and TV until the Civil Rights era. Sanford appeared in the feature Pendulum (1969) as well as making appearances on The Carol Burnett Show from 1967-69 as a stock player in some skits.
She also appeared on episodes of Julia as a woman who berated Dihann Carroll to make sure the widowed nurse wasn’t turning her son Corey into an “Oreo.” In 1971 came All in the Family. Sanford’s role was, at first, recurring, but as the producers could use her as a friend to Edith, it increased. The Jeffersons followed, with Sanford winning an Emmy in 1981 for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, the first African-American woman to win in that category in the history of the awards. Sanford made guest appearances on other shows and specials and appeared in the 1979 film Love at First Bite. Other film roles include Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and Original Gangstas (1996).
Isabel Sanford will always be known as Louise Jefferson, yet throughout her career, Sanford said more with her eyes and with her impeccable comic timing than others did with words. Isabelle Sanford died on July 12, 2004.