Redd Foxx

John Elroy Sanford was born on December 9, 1922, in St. Louis, Missouri, and raised in Chicago's South Side. His father, Fred Sanford, an electrician and auto mechanic from Hickman, Kentucky, left the family when Foxx was four years old. He was raised by his half-Seminole mother, Mary Hughes, from Ellisville, Mississippi, his grandmother and his minister. Foxx attended DuSable High School in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood with future Chicago mayor Harold Washington. Foxx had an older brother, Fred Jr., who provided the name for his character on Sanford and Son.[8] On July 27, 1939, Foxx performed on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio show as part of the Jump Swinging Six.

In the 1940s, he befriended Malcolm Little, later known as Malcolm X, a fellow dishwasher at Jimmy's Chicken Shack in Harlem. Both men had reddish hair, so Sanford was called "Chicago Red" after his hometown and Malcolm was known as "Detroit Red". In Malcolm's autobiography, Foxx is referred to as "Chicago Red, the funniest dishwasher on this earth." He earned the nickname because of his reddish hair and complexion.[3] 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.[9] On September 30, 1946, Foxx recorded five songs for the Savoy label under the direction of Teddy Reig.

According to People magazine, "Foxx reportedly once earned $4 million in a single year, but depleted his fortune with a lavish lifestyle, exacerbated by what he called 'very bad management.'" Contributing to his problems were his divorces. Foxx spent over $150,000 awaiting his divorce from his second wife Betty Jean which included monthly support payments of $10,000 following their separation in 1974.[15] He also was ordered to pay $2,500 a month while awaiting divorce from third wife Joi after their separation in 1979,[16] and then paid her a $300,000 divorce settlement in 1981.[17]

In 1983, he filed for bankruptcy with proceedings continuing at least through 1989.[18] The IRS filed tax liens against Redd Foxx's property for income taxes he owed for the years 1983 to 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,[19] 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.[20][21][22] 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 at all."[23] It has been reported that at the time of his death in 1991 Foxx owed more than $3.6 million in taxes.[24]

Redd Foxx wed four times. His first marriage was to Evelyn Killebrew in 1948 and ended in divorce in 1951.

On July 5, 1956,[25] Foxx married Betty Jean Harris, a showgirl and dancer, who was a colleague of LaWanda Page (later to be Foxx's TV rival Aunt Esther on Sanford and Son). They met at a nightclub where they were appearing on the same bill.[26] As per their agreement, Harris gave up her career in show business to become a full-time housewife.[26] Foxx adopted Harris's nine-year-old daughter Debraca, who assumed the surname "Foxx." Harris handled most of Foxx's business ventures such as Redd Foxx Enterprises, which included a chain of record stores in Los Angeles.[26] The couple separated in 1974 due to Foxx's infidelity.[11] After 18 years of marriage, Foxx filed for divorce on the grounds of incompatibility in May 1974. He also obtained a restraining order that prevented Harris from "removing, hiding or secreting property" from their home in Las Vegas, and she had to return $110,000 that was removed from bank accounts.[27] Foxx was absent from Debraca's wedding in 1975.[28]

Foxx married his third wife Joi Yun Chi Chung at the Thunderbird Hotel in Las Vegas on December 31, 1976.[25][29] Foxx met Joi, who was 20 years his junior, when she was a cocktail waitress at the Las Vegas Hilton, shortly after her arrival from Korea.[29][30] After Foxx filed for divorce in October 1979,[31][16] she responded with her own divorce suit charging him with cruelty.[17] During their divorce proceedings, Foxx told Jet magazine: "I've been married three times and I'm out." He added: "I'd rather have kids because when I give up all this money on divorce, it should go to the children and not some guy."[32] Their divorce was finalized in 1981; Foxx paid a $300,000 divorce settlement.[17]

In July 1991, Foxx wed Kaho Cho from Seoul, South Korea. They met at Bally's Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.[33] Despite denouncing marriage after his third divorce, Foxx told Jet magazine that he married Cho because she stuck by him through his trials and tribulations with the IRS. "She saw me with a nickel. And hopefully, she will see me with a dollar. I'll give her seventy-five cents of it," he said.[33] They were married at Little Church of the West in Las Vegas followed by a reception at the Hacienda Hotel.[33]

On October 11, 1991, during a break from rehearsals for The Royal Family, Foxx suffered a heart attack on the set.[34][35] According to Della Reese, Foxx was chatting with a reporter from Entertainment Tonight. The scene he was supposed to be in was not ready to shoot and Foxx and Reese were practicing. In fact, Foxx had no lines in the scene at all; as Reese said, all he had to do was "walk behind the back of my chair".

While Foxx was giving the interview, one of the producers entered the stage and asked where he was. Reese told him, and the producer responded by grabbing Foxx and taking him into the set, saying: "If he's supposed to be in the scene he should be here." Reese said that this was another in the long line of disputes Foxx had with the producers, including an instance where one claimed he could "teach [Foxx] to be funny."

Foxx, irate, did his scripted pass. However, he fell to the floor immediately after doing so. Reese said that nobody initially suspected anything was wrong. Foxx, after all, was famous for having Fred Sanford fake heart attacks on Sanford and Son and was particularly skilled at pratfalls. Reese went to the floor when Foxx did not immediately rise[36] and heard him say "get my wife" twice.[37] Reese called for paramedics,[37] who initially pronounced Foxx dead at the scene. According to Joshua Rich at Entertainment Weekly: "It was an end so ironic that for a brief moment castmates figured Foxx–whose 1970s TV character often faked coronaries–was kidding when he grabbed a chair and fell to the floor."[38]

Foxx was temporarily resuscitated and taken to Queen of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center. Four and a half hours after admission, he again was pronounced dead.[37]

Foxx is buried at Palm Memorial Park (also known as Palm Eastern Cemetery) in Las Vegas.[9]

Foxx's mother Mary Sanford Carson (1903–1993) outlived her son by two years. She had been lingering in and out of a coma for a few years before her death in 1993. She is buried beside him.[9]

Comedian and actor Richard Pryor cited Redd Foxx as an influence.[39] "He gave me inspiration and encouragement so I could be more me," Pryor told Ebony magazine in 1990.[40] Comedian Chris Rock also 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 by retelling the jokes at school.[41] Actor and comedian Jamie Foxx has stated that he chose his professional surname as a tribute to Foxx.[42] Pat Morita also named Foxx as his mentor from his early days as a nightclub comedian.[43]

In 1990, in the pilot episode 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.[44]

In the 1992 Seinfeld episode The Opera, Jerry chastises George for swearing during a wedding speech, saying "You were like a Redd Foxx record."[45][46]

In the 1996 music video for "I Ain't Mad At Cha" by 2Pac featuring Danny Boy, look-alikes of many deceased entertainers are revealed to be playing featuring (among others), Redd Foxx, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Billie Holiday, Florence Ballard, Sammy Davis Jr., and Louis Armstrong.

In the film Why Do Fools Fall in Love, Foxx is portrayed by Aries Spears. He is shown performing a stand-up comedy routine.[47]

In 2007, in the animated television series Family Guy episode "Blue Harvest," a parody of the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Redd Foxx appears very briefly as an X-wing pilot. When his ship is shot down he cries, "I'm coming Elizabeth!," before dying.[48] In addition to this, he has been parodied on Family Guy by Francis Griffin acting as Foxx's Sanford and Son character.

Foxx was meant to be featured in the MTV show Celebrity Deathmatch, advertised as taking on Jamie Foxx in the episode "When Animals Attack." Instead of Redd Foxx, however, Jamie Foxx fought Ray Charles. Krusty the Klown reportedly, in an early episode of The Simpsons had a heart attack on the air, in the same vein as Fred Sanford; oddly, the episode predates Foxx's death, which in fact was the result of heart failure.

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 f*****g a porcupine. I gots to tell you motherf*****s that it was a female porcupine, so I don't see nothing perverted in it."[49]

In the 1999 film Foolish starring comedian Eddie Griffin and rapper Master P, the ghost of Redd Foxx gives Griffin's character advice from behind a stall door in a men's restroom at a comedy club before he goes onstage to perform a show.

In 2015, it was said that comedian Tracy Morgan would portray Redd Foxx in a Richard Pryor biopic starring opposite comedian Mike Epps.[50]

• All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) as Redd, Piano Player at Rose's (uncredited)
• Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) as Uncle Budd / Booker Washington Sims
• Norman... Is That You? (1976) as Ben Chambers
• Days of Heaven (1978) as Himself / Special Thanks
• Harlem Nights (1989) as Bennie Wilson
• Surely, You Jest (2019) as Himself (Posthumously - archive footage)
• Dolemite Is My Name (2019) as Performer ("On the Loose") (Posthumously - archive footage)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Redd Foxx.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Redd Foxx.

• Redd Foxx at IMDb
• Redd Foxx at Find a Grave
• Image of Redd Foxx and his wife, 1973. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.