Actor played lead role in beloved, groundbreaking 70s sitcom…
“Sanford and Son” star Grady Demond Wilson has died at the age of 79.
The actor, best identified for playing Lamont Sanford, the son of Fred Sanford, in the smash-hit Nineteen Seventies sitcom, died at his Palm Springs house on Friday following problems associated to cancer.
Wilson’s son, Demond, confirmed the news to TMZ, saying: “I loved him. He was a great man.”
He is survived by his spouse Cicely Johnson and their six kids.
Demond Wilson attends the 2016 Chiller Theater Expo at Parsippany Hilton on April 22, 2016. WireImage
Demond Wilson, Redd Foxx in “Sanford and Son.” Courtesy Everett Collection
Demond Wilson and Redd Foxx pose for a “Sanford and Son” photograph name. Courtesy Everett Collection
Wilson was the last surviving forged member from “Sanford and Son,” which aired on NBC.
The present, which ran for six seasons from 1972 to 1977, adopted Fred G. Sanford (Redd Foxx), a junk vendor, and his son, Lamont (Wilson), who ran “Sanford and Son Salvage” in Los Angeles.
Foxx died in 1991 at age 68 after struggling a coronary heart assault on the set of his CBS sitcom “The Royal Family.”
“Sanford and Son” also starred Whitman Mayo, who died in 2001 at age 70, Don Bexley, who handed in 1997 at 8, and LaWanda Page, who died in 2002 at 81.
Most just lately, Nathaniel Taylor handed away at age 80 in 2019 and Lynn Hamilton died at age 95 in 2025.
Wilson, who was born in Georgia in 1946, grew up in New York City and studied faucet dancing and ballet. He served in the US Army from 1966 until 1968, and was stationed in Vietnam, the place he was wounded.
He subsequently returned to New York City and appeared in a number of Broadway exhibits before shifting out to Los Angeles.
His star activate “Sanford and Son” started a short while later.
Demond Wilson in “Sanford and Son” in 1974. Courtesy Everett Collection
Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson in a 1972 episode. Courtesy Everett Collection
Following the end of the hit present, Wilson went on to star in the sitcom “The New Odd Couple,” which started airing in 1982. However, it lasted just one season.
He later took a step again from Hollywood and have become an ordained minister.
In 2009, Wilson reminisced on “Sanford and Son,” writing in his memoir “Second Banana,”: “Redd and I were making history back in those days. We were the first Blacks to be on television in that capacity and we opened the door for all those other shows that came after us.”
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