Demond Wilson, who was finest recognized for taking part in Lamont Sanford, the son of Redd Foxx’s character on the Nineteen Seventies TV present “Sanford and Son,” died in his sleep at his dwelling within the Coachella Valley on Jan. 30. He was 79.
Wilson’s publicist, Mark Goldman, confirmed that he died from issues associated to most cancers.
“Demond was surrounded by love throughout his final days,” Goldman mentioned in a press release. “A devoted father, actor, author, and minister, Demond lived a life rooted in faith, service, and compassion. Through his work on screen, his writing, and his ministry, he sought to uplift others and leave a meaningful impact on the communities he served.”
Demond Wilson attends the 2016 Chiller Theater Expo on the Parsippany Hilton in New Jersey on April 22, 2016.
(Bobby Financial institution / WireImage)
Grady Demond Wilson was born in Valdosta, Ga., on Oct. 13, 1946, and grew up in New York Metropolis. His mom, Laura, was a dietitian, and his father, Grady Wilson, was a tailor. Wilson realized faucet dance and ballet and appeared on Broadway at simply 4 years previous. After serving within the Military from 1966-68 in Vietnam, the place he was wounded, he made his TV debut in 1971, enjoying a burglar alongside Cleavon Little in Norman Lear’s sitcom “All in the Family.” That function led to his casting in “Sanford and Son” in 1972, which was notable on the time for having a virtually all-Black forged.
Redd Foxx, left, broods subsequent to Demond Wilson about one of many 3,000 items used on the “pleasantly junky” set of “Sanford and Son.”
(NBC)
Though “Sanford and Son” was his most well-known function, Wilson additionally appeared in “Baby, I’m Back,” “The New Odd Couple” and “Girlfriends.” His final TV look was in “Eleanor’s Bench” in 2023.
Regardless of his success, Wilson left appearing, offered his Bel-Air mansion and Rolls-Royce and have become an interdenominational preacher in 1983.
The change was not shocking given his background. “I was raised a Catholic, was an altar boy, and at 14 I seriously considered becoming a priest,” Wilson instructed The Instances in 1986. When he was 12, his appendix ruptured and he practically died, main him to vow to serve God as an grownup. “I was always aware that God was the guiding force in my life,” he mentioned.
Disillusioned with Hollywood, Wilson moved his spouse and youngsters to what he jokingly referred to as a “respectable, Republican, upper-middle-class” neighborhood in Mission Viejo. He wished his 5 kids on the time to have “normal childhoods.” “We’ve left the rat race and false people behind,” he mentioned.
Wilson was additionally an creator. He printed “The New Age Millennium: An Exposé of Symbols, Slogans and Hidden Agendas” in 1998, and his autobiography, “Second Banana: The Bittersweet Memoirs of the Sanford & Son Years,” in 2009. He additionally wrote 11 kids’s books.
Wilson is survived by his spouse, Cicely; his six kids, Nicole, Melissa, Christopher, Demond Jr., Tabitha and Sarah; and his two grandchildren, Madison and Isabella.
