Redd Foxx
John Elroy Sanford (December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991), better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub act before and during the civil rights movement. Known as the “King of the Party Records”, he performed on more than 50 records in his lifetime. He portrayed Fred G. Sanford on the television show Sanford and Son and starred in The Redd Foxx Show and The Royal Family. His film projects included All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Norman… Is That You? (1976) and Harlem Nights (1989).
In 2004, Foxx ranked 24th in Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. Foxx not only influenced many comedians but was often portrayed in popular culture as well, mainly as a result of his catchphrases, body language and facial expressions exhibited on Sanford and Son. During the show’s six-year run, Foxx won a Golden Globe Award and received an additional three nominations, along with three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Foxx was posthumously given a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1992.
John Elroy Sanford was born on December 9, 1922, in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in Chicago’s South Side. His father, Fred “Freddie” Sanford, was from Hickman, Kentucky and served during World War I in the 823rd company of U.S. Transportation Corps. His father worked as an electrician and auto mechanic but left his family sometime after 1930. He was raised by his half-Seminole mother, Mary Hughes, from Ellisville, Mississippi, his grandmother and his minister. Foxx attended DuSable High School in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood with future Chicago mayor Harold Washington. Foxx had two older brothers, Fred Jr. who provided the name for his character on Sanford and Son and Leonard who died shortly after his birth in 1921. On July 27, 1939, Foxx performed on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio show as part of the Jump Swinging Six.
In the 1940s, he befriended Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X, a fellow dishwasher at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem. Both men had reddish hair, so Sanford was called “Chicago Red” after his hometown and Malcolm was known as “Detroit Red”. In Malcolm’s autobiography, Foxx is referred to as “the funniest dishwasher on this earth”. During World War II, Foxx dodged the draft by eating half a bar of soap before his physical, a trick that resulted in heart palpitations. On September 30, 1946, Foxx recorded five songs for the Savoy label under the direction of Teddy Reig.
Foxx’s raunchy nightclub act proved successful. After performing on the East Coast, his big break came after singer Dinah Washington insisted that he come to Los Angeles, where Dootsie Williams of Dootone records caught his act at the Brass Rail nightclub. Foxx was one of the first black comics to play to white audiences on the Las Vegas Strip. He was signed to a long-term contract and released a series of comedy albums on half a dozen record labels that quickly became cult favorites.
Foxx achieved his most widespread fame starring in the television sitcom Sanford and Son, an adaptation of the BBC series Steptoe and Son. Foxx played the role of Fred G. Sanford (“Fred Sanford” was actually Foxx’s father’s and brother’s name), while co-star Demond Wilson played the role of his son Lamont. In this sitcom, Fred and Lamont were owners of a junk/salvage store in Watts, California, who dealt with many humorous situations. The series was notable for its racial humor and overt prejudices which helped redefine the genre of black situation comedy.
The series premiered on the NBC television network on January 14, 1972, and was broadcast for six seasons. In 1974, Foxx was sued for $10 million ($46.4 million in 2022) by Tandem Productions, producers of the show, for not showing up to start taping the new season. The final episode aired on March 25, 1977.
The show also had several running gags. When angry with Lamont, Fred would often say, “You big dummy!” or would often fake heart attacks by putting his hand on his chest and saying (usually while looking up at the sky), “It’s the big one, I’m coming to join ya honey/Elizabeth” (referring to his late wife). Fred would also complain about having “arthur-itis” to get out of working by showing Lamont his cramped hand. Foxx portrayed a character who was in his 60s, although in real life he was 48 when production began for Season 1.
In 1977, Foxx left Sanford and Son after six seasons to star in a short-lived ABC variety show, resulting in the cancellation of the NBC series. In 1980 he was back playing Fred G. Sanford in a short-lived revival/spin-off, Sanford. In 1986, he returned to television in the ABC series The Redd Foxx Show, which was canceled after 12 episodes due to low ratings. Foxx appeared as an Obi-Wan Kenobi-like character in the Star Wars special of the Donny & Marie show. In an homage to his show, he mentioned the planet Sanford, which has no sun.
In 1989, Foxx was featured in the film Harlem Nights, written, directed, produced and starring Eddie Murphy.
Foxx made a comeback with the short-lived series The Royal Family, in which he co-starred with Della Reese.
At some point in the late 1970s and/or early 1980s, Foxx had a business on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood where car owners could have their vehicles’ roofs “velvetized”—a process that added a fuzzy, velvety texture to the brougham vinyl tops of some cars of that period, especially those that were referred to at the time as “pimpmobiles”. It was called “Redd Foxx’s Car Velvetizing”.
Foxx used his starring role on Sanford and Son to help get jobs for acquaintances such as LaWanda Page, Slappy White, Gregory Sierra, Don Bexley, Beah Richards, Stymie Beard, Leroy Daniels, Ernest Mayhand and Pat Morita.
Wilson was asked whether he kept in touch with everybody from Sanford & Son, especially the series’ star himself, after the series was canceled: “No. I saw Redd Foxx once before he died, circa 1983, and I never saw him again. At the time I was playing tennis at the Malibu Racquet Club, and I was approached by some producers about doing a Redd Foxx 50th Anniversary Special. I hadn’t spoken to him since 1977, and I called the club where (Redd) was playing. And we met at Redd’s office, but he was less than affable. I told those guys it was a bad idea. I never had a cross word with him. People say I’m protective of Redd Foxx in my book (Second Banana, Wilson’s memoir of the “Sanford” years). I had no animosity toward Foxx [for quitting the show in 1977] because I had a million-dollar contract at CBS to do Baby… I’m Back!. My hurt was that he didn’t come to me about throwing the towel in—I found out in the hallway at NBC from a newscaster. I forgave him and I loved Redd, but I never forgot that. The love was there. You can watch any episode and see that.”
According to People magazine, “Foxx reportedly once earned $4 million in a single year, but depleted his fortune with a lavish lifestyle, exacerbated by what he called ‘very bad management.'” Contributing to his problems were his divorces. Foxx spent over $150,000 awaiting his divorce from his second wife Betty Jean which included monthly support payments of $10,000 following their separation in 1974. He also was ordered to pay $2,500 a month while awaiting divorce from third wife Joi after their separation in 1979, and then paid her a $300,000 divorce settlement in 1981.
In 1983, he filed for bankruptcy with proceedings continuing at least through 1989. The IRS filed tax liens against Redd Foxx’s property for income taxes he owed for the years 1983 to 1986 totaling $755,166.21. On November 28, 1989, the IRS seized his home in Las Vegas and seven vehicles (including a 1927 Model T, a 1975 Panther J72, a 1983 Zimmer, and a Vespa motor scooter) to pay the taxes which by then had grown to $996,630 (~$2.06 million in 2022), including penalties and interest. Agents also seized “$12,769 in cash and a dozen guns, including a semiautomatic pistol,” among some 300 items in total, reportedly leaving only Foxx’s bed. Foxx stated that the IRS “took my necklace and the ID bracelet off my wrist and the money out of my pocket … I was treated like I wasn’t human at all.” It has been reported that at the time of his death in 1991 Foxx owed more than $3.6 million in taxes.
Redd Foxx wed four times. His first marriage was to Evelyn Killebrew in 1948 and ended in divorce in 1951.
On July 5, 1956, Foxx married Betty Jean Harris, a showgirl and dancer, who was a colleague of LaWanda Page (later to be Foxx’s TV rival Aunt Esther on Sanford and Son). They met at a nightclub where they were appearing on the same bill. As per their agreement, Harris gave up her career in show business to become a full-time housewife. Foxx adopted Harris’s nine-year-old daughter Debraca, who assumed the surname “Foxx.” Harris handled most of Foxx’s business ventures such as Redd Foxx Enterprises, which included a chain of record stores in Los Angeles. The couple separated in 1974 due to Foxx’s infidelity. After 18 years of marriage, Foxx filed for divorce on the grounds of incompatibility in May 1974. He also obtained a restraining order that prevented Harris from “removing, hiding or secreting property” from their home in Las Vegas, and she had to return $110,000 that was removed from bank accounts. Foxx was absent from Debraca’s wedding in 1975.
Foxx married his third wife Joi Yun Chi Chung at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas on December 31, 1976. Foxx met Joi, who was 20 years his junior, when she was a cocktail waitress at the Las Vegas Hilton, shortly after her arrival from Korea. After Foxx filed for divorce in October 1979, she responded with her own divorce suit charging him with cruelty. During their divorce proceedings, Foxx told Jet magazine: “I’ve been married three times and I’m out.” He added: “I’d rather have kids because when I give up all this money on divorce, it should go to the children and not some guy.” Their divorce was finalized in 1981; Foxx paid a $300,000 divorce settlement.
In July 1991, Foxx wed Kaho Cho from Seoul, South Korea. They met at Bally’s Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Despite denouncing marriage after his third divorce, Foxx told Jet magazine that he married Cho because she stuck by him through his trials and tribulations with the IRS. “She saw me with a nickel. And hopefully, she will see me with a dollar. I’ll give her seventy-five cents of it,” he said. They were married at Little Church of the West in Las Vegas followed by a reception at the Hacienda Hotel.
On October 11, 1991, during a break from rehearsals for The Royal Family, Foxx suffered a heart attack on the set. According to Della Reese, Foxx was chatting with a reporter from Entertainment Tonight. The scene he was supposed to be in was not ready to shoot and Foxx and Reese were practicing. In fact, Foxx had no lines in the scene at all; he was whisked away from the interview by a producer (one whom Reese stated quarreled with Foxx about how he could teach him to be funny) that insisted on him being there.
Foxx did his scripted part of the scene (walking across the back of a chair) while being livid. However, he fell to the floor immediately after doing so. Reese said that nobody initially suspected anything was wrong. Foxx, after all, was famous for having Fred Sanford fake heart attacks on Sanford and Son and was particularly skilled at pratfalls. Reese went to the floor when Foxx did not immediately rise and heard him say “get my wife” twice. Reese called for paramedics. According to Joshua Rich at Entertainment Weekly: “It was an end so ironic that for a brief moment castmates figured Foxx–whose 1970s TV character often faked coronaries–was kidding when he grabbed a chair and fell to the floor.” Eddie Murphy, a producer on the show, credited him with being the most “naturally funny person” he’d known.
Foxx was temporarily resuscitated and taken to Queen of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Four and a half hours after admission, he was pronounced dead. Foxx is buried at Palm Memorial Park (also known as Palm Eastern Cemetery) in Las Vegas. Foxx’s mother Mary Sanford Carson (1903–1993) outlived her son by two years. She had been lingering in and out of a coma for a few years before her death in 1993. She is buried beside him.
Written by Dianne Washington