A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning duke, grand duke, or prince. However, in common parlance members of any family which reigns by hereditary right are often referred to as royalty or "royals". It is also customary in some circles to refer to the extended relations of a deposed monarch and his or her descendants as a royal family.

Members of a royal family[link]

A royal family typically includes the spouse of the reigning monarch, surviving spouses of a deceased monarch, the children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, and cousins of the reigning monarch, as well as their spouses. In some cases, royal family membership may extend to great grandchildren and more distant descendants of a monarch. In certain monarchies where voluntary abdication is the norm, such as the Netherlands, a royal family may also include one or more former monarchs. There is often a distinction between persons of the blood royal and those that marry into the royal family. In certain instances, such as in Canada, the royal family is defined by who holds the styles Majesty and Royal Highness.^[1] Under most systems, only persons in the first category are dynasts, that is, potential successors to the throne (unless the member of the latter category is also in line to the throne in their own right, a frequent occurrence in royal families which frequently intermarry). This is not always observed; some monarchies have operated by the principle of jure uxoris.

The Royal Family of France in classical costume during the reign of Louis XIV.

In addition certain relatives of the monarch (by blood or marriage) possess special privileges and are subject to certain statutes, conventions, or special common law. The precise functions of a royal family vary depending on whether the polity in question is an absolute monarchy, a constitutional monarchy, or somewhere in between. In certain monarchies, such as that found in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, or in political systems where the monarch actually exercises executive power, such as in Jordan, it is not uncommon for the members of a royal family to hold important government posts or military commands. In most constitutional monarchies, however, members of a royal family perform certain public, social, or ceremonial functions, but refrain from any involvement in electoral politics or the actual governance of the country.

The specific composition of royal families varies from country to country, as do the titles and royal and noble styles held by members of the family. The composition of the royal family may be regulated by statute enacted by the legislature (e.g. Spain, the Netherlands, and Japan since 1947), the Sovereign's prerogative and common law tradition (e.g. the United Kingdom), or a private house law (e.g., Liechtenstein, the former ruling houses of Bavaria, Prussia, Hanover, etc.). Public statutes, constitutional provisions, or conventions may also regulate the marriages, names, and personal titles of royal family members. The members of a royal family may or may not have a surname or dynastic name (see Royal House).

In a constitutional monarchy, when the monarch dies, there is always a law or tradition of succession to the throne that either specifies a formula for identifying the precise order of succession among family members in line to the throne or specifies a process by which a family member is chosen to inherit the crown. Usually in the former case the exact line of hereditary succession among royal individuals may be identified at any given moment during prior reigns (e.g. United Kingdom, Sark, Nizari Ismailis, Japan, Balobedus, Sweden, Benin Empire) whereas in the latter case the next sovereign may be selected (or changed) only during the reign or shortly after the demise of the immediately preceding monarch (e.g. Cambodia, KwaZulu Natal, Buganda, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, Yorubaland, The Kingitanga). Some monarchies employ a mix of these selection processes (Malaysia, Monaco, Tonga, Jordan, Morocco), providing for both an identifiable line of succession as well as authority for the monarch, dynasty or other institution to alter the line in specific instances without changing the general law of succession.

Some countries have abolished royalty altogether, as in post-revolutionary France and Russia.

Royal houses and dynasties[link]

Current Royal Families[link]

Deposed royal families[link]

Mediatised royal families[link]

• House of Arenberg (Belgium)
• Fürstenberg princely family (Germany)
• House of Ligne (Belgium)
• Princely family of Merode (Belgium)
• Schwarzenberg princely family (Bohemia)

See also[link]

• Abbasid
• Abolished monarchy
• Chief of the Name
• Crown prince
• Family trees of royal families
• Palaces
• Prince
• Prince consort
• Princeps
• Princess
• Princess Royal
• Queen consort
• Regicide
• Royal and noble styles
• Royal descent
• Royal house
• Royal prerogative

References[link]

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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

Della Reese
Reese in July 2009
Background information
Birth name	Delloreese Patricia Early
Born	(1931-07-06) July 6, 1931 (age 80)[1] Black Bottom, Detroit, Michigan, United States
Genres	Gospel, pop, jazz, R&B, traditional pop
Occupations	Singer, actress, minister, game show panelist
Years active	1953–present
Labels	Jubilee Records RCA Records
Associated acts	Mahalia Jackson Erskine Hawkins
Website	www.DellaReese.com

Delloreese Patricia Early, known professionally as Della Reese (born July 6, 1931),^[1] is an American actress, singer, game show panelist of the 1970s, one-time talk-show hostess and ordained minister. She started her career in the 1950s as a gospel, pop and jazz singer, scoring a hit with her 1959 single "Don't You Know?". In the late 1960s, she had hosted her own talk show, Della, which ran for 297 episodes.^[2][3] Through four decades of acting, she is best known for playing Tess, the lead role on the 1994-2003 television show Touched by an Angel. In more recent times, she became an ordained New Thought minister in the Understanding Principles for Better Living Church in Los Angeles, California.

Early years[link]

Reese was born Delloreese Patricia Early in the historic Black Bottom neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan to Nellie Mitchelle, a Native American (Cherokee) cook, and African American steelworker Richard Thaddeus Early^[4][5] Delloreese's mother also had several older children, before her birth, all of whom did not live with her, hence, she lived as an only child.^[6] At six years old, Reese began singing in church. From this experience, she became an avid gospel singer. On weekends in the 1940s, she and her mother would go to the movies independently to watch the likes of Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, and Lena Horne portray glamorous lives on screen. Afterwards, Reese would act out the scenes from the films. In 1944, she began her career directing the young people's choir, after she had nurtured acting plus her obvious musical talent. She was often chosen, on radio, as a regular singer.^[6] At the age of thirteen, she was hired to sing with Mahalia Jackson's gospel group. Delloreese entered Detroit's popular Cass Technical High School (where she attended the same year as Edna Rae Gillooly, later known as Ellen Burstyn). She also continued with her touring with Jackson. With higher grades, she was the first in her family to graduate from high school in 1947, at only 15.^[6]

Afterwards, she formed her own gospel group, the Meditation Singers. However, due in part to the death of her mother, and her father's serious illness, Reese had to interrupt her schooling at Wayne State University to help support her family. Faithful to the memory of her mother, Deloreese also moved out of her father's house when she disapproved of him taking up with a new girlfriend. She then took on odd jobs, such as truck driver, dental receptionist, and even elevator operator, after 1949.^[6]

Performing in clubs, Early soon decided to shorten her name from "Delloreese Early" to "Della Reese", knowing that her birth name was too long for a club marquee.