Isabel Sanford

Isabel Sanford
On The Jeffersons in 1975.
Born	Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford August 29, 1917(1917-08-29) New York City, New York, United States
Died	July 9, 2004(2004-07-09) (aged 86) Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1967—2004
Spouse	William Edward (Sonny) Richmond (?-1960) (his death) 3 children

Isabel Sanford (August 29, 1917 – July 9, 2004) was an American actress best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Jefferson on the CBS television sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1975) and The Jeffersons (1975–1985).

Biography

Career

Sanford was born in New York City, New York, to parents James Edward Sanford and the former Josephine Perry. She was the first African-American actress to win a Lead Actress Emmy Award (for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1981), and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and received an honorary doctorate degree from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts.

During the 1960s, Sanford worked in the theatre industry, and in 1967 she made her film debut in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, playing the critically acclaimed role of the maid Tillie Binks. She caught the attention of major Hollywood players, including Norman Lear, who cast Sanford in the role of Louise Jefferson in All in the Family. She almost turned down the role after receiving a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in her dressing room.[1] Norman Lear assured her that it was a genuine gift, and that he sent everyone a congratulatory bucket of KFC; she eventually agreed to play the part. Sanford and her TV husband, Sherman Hemsley, were so popular that The Jeffersons was spun off into its own series.

After production of The Jeffersons ended in 1985, Sanford realized that she and Hemsley were typecast by their Jeffersons' roles. So Sanford made the most of it, appearing with Hemsley in a series of advertisements for Denny's and Old Navy, and starring with Hemsley in a touring company of "The Real Live Jeffersons" stage show in the mid-1990s. She and Hemsley also made cameo appearances in films such as Sprung and Mafia! Other than those opportunities with Hemsley, Sanford was mostly limited to guest TV appearances and cameo appearances in movies, appearing in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Dream On, Roseanne, Living Single, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, In the House and The Steve Harvey Show, as well as the extremely short-lived 1992 CBS Hearts Are Wild (similar to Love Boat).

She also voiced characters on three other cartoon shows including Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and Pepper Ann. In her final television television appearance, she voiced a character on The Simpsons.

Sanford spent most of her last years divided between her apartment in Los Angeles and her mansion in Atlanta, GA. Her mansion in Atlanta was once featured on Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous. Sanford had the mansion decorated in pink and white, exclaiming that she "only used the elevator to go upstairs and uses the grand staircase to come down to 'make an entrance'." The breakfast area of the kitchen featured the dinette table and chairs that had been used on the set of The Jeffersons. Sanford had added photos of the show's run underneath the table's glass top.

Less than six months before she died, Isabel Sanford received, for her contribution to the television industry, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard.

Death

Sanford died on July 9, 2004, of cardiac arrest and heart disease at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. She was a month and a half away from her 87th birthday and was interred at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1967	Guess Who's Coming to Dinner	Tillie
1968	The Young Runaways	Sarah
1969	Pendulum	Effie
	The Comic	Woman
1970	The Red, White, and Black	Isabel Taylor
1972	The New Centurions	Wilma
	Hickey & Boggs	Nyona's Mother
	Lady Sings the Blues	The Madame
	Up the Sandbox	Maria
1974	The Photographer	Mrs. Slade
1979	Love At First Bite	Judge R. Thomas
1981	Desperate Moves	Dottie Butz
1990	Pucker Up and Bark Like a Dog	Joanna
1992	South Beach	Mama
1996	Original Gangstas	Gracie Bookman
1997	Sprung	Sista #1
1998	Jane Austen's Mafia!	Mrs. Louise Jefferson	Uncredited
2000	Click Three Times	Dorothy
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	Bewitched	Aunt Jenny	1 episode
	The Mod Squad	Lillian	1 episode
1970	Daniel Boone	Maybelle	1 episode
1971	The Bill Cosby Show	Bertha	1 episode
	The Interns	Dr. Hearn	1 episode
1971–1972	Love, American Style		2 episodes
1971–1979	All in the Family	Louise Jefferson	26 episodes
1972	The Mary Tyler Moore Show	Mrs. Wilson	1 episode
1972	Wait Till Your Father Gets Home	Betsy (voice)	1 episode
1973	Temperatures Rising		1 episode
1974	Kojak	Grace	1 episode
1978	Vega$	Mae	1 episode
1975–1985	The Jeffersons	Louise Jefferson	253 episodes
1979	Supertrain	Reba	1 episode
1980–1983	The Love Boat	Tanya, Isaac's Aunt	2 episodes
1986	Crazy Like a Fox		1 episode
	The New Mike Hammer	Mama Vibes	1 episode
1987	Isabel's Honeymoon Hotel	Isabel Scott	Unknown episodes
1988	A Pup Named Scooby-Doo	Additional voices	Episode A Bicycle Built for Boo!
1993	Dream On	Judge Isabel Kohner	1 episode
	Living Single	Eunetta Ryan	1 episode
1994	Hangin' with Mr. Cooper	Judge	1 episode
	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman	Ms. Duffy	1 episode
1995	Roseanne	Louise Jefferson, TV Mom #3	1 episode
	In the House	Nanna	2 episodes
1995–1996	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Louise 'Weezy' Jefferson	2 episodes
1996	The Steve Harvey Show	Mother Hightower	1 episode
1997	Teen Angel	Laurie	1 episode
1998	Pepper Ann	Bernice (voice)	1 episode
2001	The Parkers	Evelyn 'Nana' Smith	1 episode
2002	The Young and the Restless	Sylvia	1 episode
2004	The Simpsons	Herself	1 episode
2004	Candid Camera	Mrs. Jefferson	1 episode

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Result	Category	Film or series
1979	Emmy Award	Nominated	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	The Jeffersons
1980		Nominated	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	The Jeffersons
1981		Won	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	The Jeffersons
1982		Nominated	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	The Jeffersons
1983		Nominated	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	The Jeffersons
1984		Nominated	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	The Jeffersons
1985		Nominated	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series	The Jeffersons
1977	Golden Globe Award	Nominated	Best TV Actress - Musical/Comedy	The Jeffersons
1978		Nominated	Best TV Actress - Musical/Comedy	The Jeffersons
1983		Nominated	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical	The Jeffersons
1984		Nominated	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical	The Jeffersons
1985		Nominated	Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical	The Jeffersons
2004	TV Land Awards	Won	Favorite Cantankerous Couple	The Jeffersons (Shared with Sherman Hemsley)

References

Kathryn Shattuck (13 July 2004). "Isabel Sanford, 86, Actress Who Portrayed Mrs. Jefferson, Dies". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E6D81E3BF930A25754C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=. Retrieved 2008-03-19. 

External links

• Isabel Sanford Official Web site <http://www.IsabelSanford.tv>
• Isabel Sanford at the Internet Movie Database
• Isabel Sanford at Find a Grave