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Redd Foxx
Foxx in 1966.
Birth name	John Elroy Sanford[1]
Born	(1922-12-09)December 9, 1922[1] St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Died	October 11, 1991(1991-10-11) (aged 68) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1935–1991
Genres	Word play, observational comedy, black comedy
Subject(s)	African-American culture, human sexuality, race relations, everyday life
Influences	Muddy Waters, Bill Cosby, Milton Berle, Michael Gough, Kirk Douglas
Influenced	Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Andrew Dice Clay, Jamie Foxx, Bernie Mac, Nipsey Russell, Bill Cosby, Michael Douglas, Michael Jackson, Chris Rock
Spouse	Evelyn Killebrew (1948–1951) (divorced) Betty Jean Harris (1956–1975) (divorced) 1 child Yun Chi Chung (1976–1981) (divorced) Ka Ho Cho (1991) (his death)
Notable works and roles	Fred Sanford in Sanford and Son and Sanford
Website	reddfoxx.com
Golden Globe Awards
Best TV Actor – Musical/Comedy 1972 Sanford and Son

John Elroy Sanford^[1] (December 9, 1922 – October 11, 1991), better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American comedian and actor, best known for his starring role on the sitcom Sanford and Son.

Early life[link]

Foxx was born in St. Louis, Missouri and raised there and on Chicago's South Side. His mother was half Seminole.^{[citation needed]} His father, an electrician, left his family when Foxx was four years old. Foxx was raised by his mother, his minister, and his grandmother. He briefly attended DuSable High School with future Chicago mayor Harold Washington.

In the 1940s, he was an associate of Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X. In Malcolm's autobiography, Foxx is referred to as "Chicago Red, the funniest dishwasher on this earth." Foxx earned the nickname due to his reddish hair and complexion. His stage surname was taken from baseball star Jimmie Foxx. 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.^[2]

Career[link]

Nightclub act[link]

Foxx gained notoriety with his nightclub act (considered by the standards of the time to be raunchy). His big break came after singer Dinah Washington insisted that Foxx come to Los Angeles, where Dootsie Williams of Dootone records caught his act at the Brass Rail nightclub. He was signed to a long term contract and released a series of comedy albums that quickly became cult favorites.^[3]

He was also one of the first black comics to play to white audiences on the Las Vegas Strip. Foxx used his starring role on Sanford and Son to help get jobs for his friends such as LaWanda Page, Slappy White, Gregory Sierra, Don Bexley, Leroy Daniels, Ernest Mayhand and Noriyuki "Pat" Morita.

[edit] Sanford and Son

Foxx achieved his most widespread fame starring in the television sitcom comedy Sanford and Son, an adaptation of the BBC series, Steptoe and Son, which premiered on the NBC television network on January 14, 1972, and was broadcast for six seasons, the final episode airing on March 25, 1977. Foxx played the role of Fred G. Sanford ("Fred Sanford" was actually Foxx's brother's name), while Foxx's co-star Demond Wilson played the role of his son Lamont.

[edit] Post-Sanford and Son career

Photo from the premiere of The Redd Foxx Show, 1977.

In 1977, Foxx left Sanford and Son, after six highly successful seasons (and the show was canceled solely due to his departure) to star in a short-lived variety show, but by 1980 he was back playing Fred G. Sanford in a brief revival/spin-off, Sanford. In 1986, he returned to series television in the ABC series The Redd Foxx Show, which was cancelled after 12 episodes due to low ratings.

Foxx appeared to be making a comeback with the 1991 series The Royal Family, in which he co-starred with his long-time friend Della Reese.

Personal life[link]

Marriages[link]

Redd Foxx was married four times. His first marriage was to Evelyn Killebrew in 1948, but was short-lived and ended in divorce in 1951.

His second marriage was to Betty Jean Harris, a showgirl and dancer, who was a colleague of LaWanda Page, who would later be known as Foxx's TV rival Aunt Esther on Sanford & Son. The couple wed on July 22, 1956. Foxx adopted Harris' daughter Debreca, who was about nine years old at the time & then assumed the surname "Foxx". The marriage ended in divorce in 1975.

Foxx then married Korean-American Yun Chi Chung in 1976, but the marriage was again brief, ending in 1981.

At the time of his death in 1991, Foxx was married to Ka Ho Cho, who used the name Ka Ho Foxx.^[4]

Financial and tax problems[link]

According to People Magazine, "Foxx reportedly once earned $4 million in a single year, but depleted his fortune with a lavish life-style, exacerbated by what he called 'very bad management'". Contributing to his problems was a 1981 divorce settlement of $300,000 paid to his third wife. In 1983 he filed bankruptcy, with proceedings continued at least through 1989.^[5]

The IRS filed tax liens against Redd Foxx's property for income taxes he owed for the years 1983 through 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,^[6] a 1983 Zimmer, and a Vespa motor scooter) to pay the taxes which by then had grown to $996,630, 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.^[7][8][9] 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."^[10]

It has been reported that, at the time of his death in 1991, Foxx owed more than $3.6 million in taxes.^[4]

Death[link]

On October 11, 1991, during a break from rehearsals for The Royal Family, he suffered a fatal heart attack on the set. Reportedly, co-star Della Reese and the rest of the cast and crew thought he was doing his classic "I'm coming, Elizabeth!" fake heart attack routine he made famous on Sanford and Son, even going as far as collapsing to the floor, although that was not part of the usual act.^[11] However, this heart attack was real, and Foxx did not regain consciousness.

Foxx was posthumously given a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame on May 17, 1992.^[1]

A few years after Foxx's death, several buyers of his home claimed his property was "haunted" by him.^[12][13] Some people have even gone as far as claiming Foxx faked his death because he still owed the IRS money. Martin Lawrence poked fun at these claims on the pilot of his sitcom Martin. He said, "The man faked it. If you owed 16 billion dollars in taxes, what would you do?"

Foxx is buried in Las Vegas, at Palm Valley View Memorial Park. In 1993, his mother Mary Carson (1903–1993), who outlived Foxx, died nearly 17 months after Foxx's death, and was buried just to the right of her famed son.

Influence[link]

Comedian Chris Rock cites Redd Foxx as an influence. An episode of his show Everybody Hates Chris shows young Chris Rock overhearing his parents' Redd Foxx albums and getting started doing stand-up through retelling the jokes at school.

Actor Jamie Foxx chose the Foxx surname as part of his stage name in tribute to Redd Foxx.

Portrayals of Foxx in popular media[link]

In the first season of In Living Color, in reference to Foxx's financial troubles, Foxx was portrayed by Damon Wayans, who is making a public service announcement to encourage people to pay their taxes.

In the film Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Foxx is portrayed by Aries Spears. He is shown performing a stand-up comedy routine.

In the animated television series Family Guy parody of Star Wars episode "Blue Harvest", Redd Foxx appears very briefly as an X-wing pilot. When his ship is shot down, he cries "I'm coming Elizabeth!" before dying. In addition to this, he has been parodied on Family Guy as his Sanford and Son character, as have other characters of that show, some shown in the form of Peter Griffin.

Foxx was meant to be featured in the MTV show Celebrity Deathmatch, advertised at taking on Jamie Foxx in the episode "When Animals Attack". Instead of Red Foxx though, Jamie Foxx fought Ray Charles.

In the Boondocks episode "Stinkmeaner 3: The Hateocracy" he is portrayed as Lord Rufus Crabmiser, one of Stinkmeaner's old friends coming to kill the Freeman family. Childhood friend and Sanford & Son co-star Lawanda Page is also portrayed in the same episode as Lady Esmeralda Gripenasty.

Redd Foxx appears as a minor character in the 2009 James Ellroy novel Blood's a Rover. He gives a bawdy eulogy at the wake of Scotty Bennett, a murdered rogue LAPD detective including the line "Scotty Bennett was fucking a porcupine. I gots to tell you motherfuckers that it was a female porcupine, so I don't see nothing perverted in it."^[14]

Filmography[link]

• All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960)^[15]
• Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
• Norman... Is That You? (1976)
• Harlem Nights (1989)

TV work[link]

• Sanford and Son (1972–77)
• The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour (1977–78)
• HBO On Location with Redd Foxx (1978)
• Sanford (1980–81)
• Viva Shaf Vegas (1986)
• The Redd Foxx Show (1986)
• Ghost of a Chance (1987)
• The Royal Family (1991)

Discography[link]

Dootone Records discography[link]

• DTL01 – The Best Laff
• DTL214 – Laff Of The Party Vol. 1
• DTL219 – Laff Of The Party Vol. 2
• DTL220 – Laff Of The Party Vol.3
• DTL227 – Laff Of The Party Vol.4
• DTL234 – Best Of Foxx Vol. 1"
• DTL236 – Laff Of The Party Vol.7
• DTL249 – Burlesque Humor
• DTL253 – The Side Splitter Vol.1
• DTL265 – The Laff of the Party Vol. 8
• DTL270 – The Side Splitter Vol. 2
• DTL274 – Best of Fun (Red Foxx and Others)
• DTL275 – Racy Tales
• DTL290 – Redd Foxx Funn
• DTL295 – Sly Sex
• DTL298 – Have One On Me
• DTL385 – The New Soap/Song Plugging
• DTL390 – The Jackasses/The Race Track
• DTL397 – The Honeymooners/The Sneezes
• DTL402 – Beans And Pineapple Sauce/The Army
• DTL408 – The Two Oars/The Preacher's Bicycle
• DTl411 – The Dead Jackass/Women Over Forty
• DTL416 – Real Pretty Baby/It's Fun To Be Living In The Crazy House
• DTL418 – Best Of Redd Foxx Parts 1&2
• DTL421 – The House/Sex And Orange Juice
• DTL426 – Hollywood Playboy/The Dogs Meeting
• DTL436 – South Of The Border/The Plastic Surgeon
• DTL453 – The Dear John Letter/Honesty Is The Best Policy
• DTL455 – The Shoe Shine Boy/The Royal Thighs And Others
• DTL458 – 118 Ways To Make Love/Pregnancy Co-Operation
• DTL460 – No Teeth/With My Teeth/The Best Years/Deep Sea Diver
• DTL464 – Christmas Hard Ties/Jaw Resting
• DTL801 – Laffarama
• DTL804 – Wild Party
• DTL809 – This is Foxx
• DTL815 – He's Funny That Way
• DTL820 – Red Foxx At Jazzville U.S.A.

Atlantic Records discography[link]

• SD 18157 – You Gotta Wash Your Ass

MF Records discography[link]

• RF1 – Laff Your Head off
• RF2 – Laff Your Ass Off
• RF3 – Redd Foxx At Home
• RF4 – A Whole Lot of Soul
• RF5 – At His Best
• RF6 – Doin' His Own Thing
• RF7 – Say It Like It Is
• RF8 – Is Sex Here To Stay
• RF9 – Where It's At
• RF10 – Huffin' And A Puffin'
• RF11 – I Am Curious, Black
• RF12 – Three Or Four Times A Day
• RF13 – Mr. Hot Pants
• RF14 – Hot Flashes
• RF15 – Restricted
• RF16 – Superstar
• RF17 – Spice can Be Nice!
• RF18 – Strictly For Adults

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Redd Foxx

• Official website
• Redd Foxx at the Internet Movie Database
• "I Miss Redd Foxx" by Mark Evanier
• Redd Foxx at Find a Grave