Demond Wilson, ‘Sanford and Son’ actor, lifeless at 79 : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4050x3201+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fda%2F89%2F3dc059e54997becfda85d55ec0ac%2Fgettyimages-1814821.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4050x3201+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fda%2F89%2F3dc059e54997becfda85d55ec0ac%2Fgettyimages-1814821.jpg" class="img" alt="Demond Wilson (right) in a still from a 1974 episode of Sanford and Son. The actor played Lamont Sanford, the disgruntled offspring of Redd Foxx's Fred Sanders (left), in the hit 1970s NBC sitcom." fetchpriority="high"/> Demond Wilson (proper) in a nonetheless from a 1974 episode of Sanford and Son. The actor performed Lamont Sanford, the disgruntled offspring of Redd Foxx's Fred Sanders (left), within the hit Nineteen Seventies NBC sitcom. NBC Tv/Getty Photographs/Hulton Archive disguise caption

toggle caption

NBC Tv/Getty Photographs/Hulton Archive Demond Wilson, the actor finest recognized for enjoying Lamont Sanford, the son within the standard Nineteen Seventies NBC primetime comedy collection Sanford and Son, has died.

The actor died from problems associated to most cancers Friday at his residence within the Palm Springs space of Southern California. He was 79. Wilson's publicist, Mark Goldman, confirmed the dying in an e mail to NPR.

"I had the privilege of working with Demond for 15 years, and his loss is profoundly felt," mentioned Goldman. "He was an unbelievable man, and his influence won't ever be forgotten."

Wilson was in his 20s when he landed the function of Lamont Sanford, the put-upon offspring of the cantankerous Fred Sanford, performed by Redd Foxx. The dad obtained all one of the best traces, however junior held his personal of their frequent disputes. Wilson reminisced about his time on the collection in his 2009 memoir Second Banana: The Bitter Candy Memoirs of the Sanford and Son Years.

Producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin based mostly Sanford and Son on the well-known Sixties-early 70s British TV comedy collection a couple of blue collar father-son relationship, Steptoe and Son. Sanford and Son was groundbreaking in providing a glimpse into Black household life hardly ever seen on community tv on the time. "The character between the son and the daddy was very attention-grabbing to me and to Norman within the sense that, even if they lived collectively and complained and so forth, they could not dwell with out one another," mentioned Yorkin in a 2008 interview with NPR.

Wilson went on to star as a struggling gambler within the sitcom Child…I am Again! within the late Nineteen Seventies, and because the extra laid-back of the divorcees in The New Odd Couple, a TV present based mostly on Neil Simon's hit play The Odd Couple. His movie credit embody Cotton Involves Harlem (1970), The Group (1971), Full Moon Excessive (1981) and Hammerlock (2000).

Wilson was born in Valdosta, Ga., in 1946 to a working class Catholic household and grew up in New York Metropolis's Harlem neighborhood. He studied dance as a toddler and carried out on Broadway. He went on to serve within the U.S. Military in Vietnam. Upon his return, he appeared in numerous reveals on- and off-Broadway, and finally moved to Los Angeles. In 1971, Lear solid him in an episode of the favored sitcom All within the Household. The next yr, Sanford and Son set him on a path to stardom.

Wilson carried a robust Christian religion since childhood. After struggling a life-threatening rupture to his appendix at age 12, he sought to discover a approach to dedicate his life to God. Within the Nineteen Eighties, he was ordained as a Pentecostal minister, and went on to guide parallel careers in appearing and preaching. His 1998 e-book, The New Age Millennium: An Expose of Symbols, Slogans and Hidden Agenda, is a critique from a Christian perspective of the New Age motion and Freemasonry, amongst different quasi-spiritual approaches.

He is survived by his spouse, Cicely Johnston, their six kids and two grandchildren.

In a press release emailed to NPR, his son Demond Wilson Jr., mentioned the senior Wilson was "a loyal father, actor, creator, and minister."

"Demond lived a life rooted in religion, service, and compassion," the assertion learn. "Via his work on display, his writing, and his ministry, he sought to uplift others and go away a significant influence on the communities he served."