Demond Wilson, who starred alongside Redd Foxx and answered to “Hey, Dummy” for six seasons on the wildly popular 1970s NBC sitcom Sanford and Son, has died. He was 79.
Wilson died Friday of complications from cancer at his home in Palm Springs, his son Demond Wilson Jr. told TMZ.
On the strength of his performance on the 1971 All in the Family episode “Edith Writes a Song” — he and Cleavon Little are burglars from Harlem who hold the Bunkers hostage in their home — Wilson was hired as Lamont Sanford, the son of aging widower Fred G. Sanford, proprietor of Sanford and Son Salvage at 9114 South Central Ave. in Watts.
“After learning about the series format, I was doubtful about my involvement in the project. I thought about it long and hard and decided to take a chance,” Wilson says in the 2011 book Black and Blue: The Redd Foxx Story. “Redd and I thought we could grab some quick cash, plus notoriety, then move on to the next project.”
Developed by All in the Family executive producer Bud Yorkin and based on the British TV comedy Steptoe and Son, the show debuted on Jan. 14, 1972, as a midseason replacement for the Robert Conrad-starring The D.A.
Airing Friday nights at 8 p.m., Sanford and Son was soon clobbering CBS’ The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and ABC’s The Brady Bunch in the ratings. It reached No. 2 in 1972-73 and 1974-75 and was a top-10 hit in each of its last five seasons.
In 1974, Wilson kept the show humming after Foxx walked off in a salary dispute (the writers sent Fred to St. Louis to attend the funeral of his cousin). However, Foxx was gone for good after the 1976-77 season, quitting to host his own (short-lived) ABC variety show.
Wilson turned down an offer to go it alone, then signed what he called a “million-dollar contract” to star in CBS’ Baby … I’m Back. In another midseason replacement, he played a man who abandons his family but returns seven years later when he discovers his wife (Denise Nicholas) is about to remarry (Kim Fields played one of their kids). That sitcom, however, lasted just 13 episodes.
Wilson then starred as Oscar Madison opposite Ron Glass as Felix Unger on The New Odd Couple, but the 1982-83 remake was gone after 18 episodes.
In the ’80s, Wilson beat an admitted cocaine problem, sold his home in Beverly Hills and was ordained as an interdenominational minister. “I love preaching the gospel more than anything I’ve ever done,” he said in 1985. “I’m so happy now. I feel honored to be chosen. Even when you’ve got everything — clothes, jewelry, nice house — you don’t feel happy. I was like Jonah, running from the Lord.”
Grady Demond Wilson was born on Oct. 13, 1946, in Valdosta, Georgia. He grew up in Harlem, appeared on Broadway at age 4 with William Marshall and Ossie Davis in a revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Green Pastures and danced at the Apollo Theater at 12.
He studied acting at the American Community Theater and at Hunter College but was drafted and then wounded in Vietnam while serving in the 4th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. When his 13-month tour ended in 1968, he appeared in several off-Broadway plays.
The year 1971 was a big one for him: In addition to All in the Family, he appeared in the Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs film The Organization and on an episode on Mission: Impossible.
CBS, in business with Yorkin and partner Norman Lear with All in the Family, had first crack at Sanford and Son, but network entertainment president Fred Silverman passed, figuring he already had a show about a bickering father and son.
Incredibly, Silverman said he was never told that Sanford and Son was about a black family. “It was one of the stupidest things I did at CBS,” he said.
With Lamont and Fred now residing in Arizona, or so the story went, NBC tried to keep things going after the end of Sanford and Son with Sanford Arms, featuring supporting players Whitman Mayo, LaWanda Page and others. It was canceled after four episodes.
Foxx was back as Fred in 1981 on a new NBC series titled Sanford, but Wilson and Lamont were missing, and it was done after a season.
Later, Wilson played Kenneth Miles, the father of Persia White’s character, on UPN’s Girlfriends, and wrote a 2009 book, Second Banana: The Bitter Sweet Memories of the Sanford & Son Years.
He married stewardess turned model Cicely Johnston in May 1974, and they had six children.
