Foxx, Redd

December 9, 1922
October 11, 1991

Comedian Redd Foxx was born John Elroy Sanford in St. Louis, Missouri, the second son of Fred Sanford, an electrician, and Mary Alma Hughes Sanford, a minister. Foxx's father deserted the family when Foxx was four, and Foxx was raised first by his grandmother, and then in Chicago by his mother, who at that time was employed as a domestic.

Foxx quit high school after one year to play in a wash-tub band with two friends, Lamont Ousley and Steve Trimel. In 1939 they ran away to New York City, called themselves the Bon-Bons, and earned money performing on street corners and in subways. World War II broke up the band, and Foxx, rejected by the military, began to play in a tramp band act at the Apollo Theater with Jimmie Lunceford.

About this time, Foxx adopted his professional name. Called "Red" because of his red hair and light complexion, he added an extra d to "Red" and took the name "Foxx" with the term "foxy" (and the baseball player Jimmy Foxx) in mind. He began landing nightclub jobs, where he developed his stand-up routine. After four years of teaming with comedian Slappy White (1947–1951), Foxx worked on the West Coast. In 1956 he recorded the first of what would become more than fifty "party records"—comedy albums specializing in raunchy humor.

Although Foxx had never done any straight acting, he accepted the small role of Uncle Bud in the 1969 film Cotton Comes to Harlem. Executives at NBC developed the character into the situation comedy Sanford and Son and cast Foxx in the title role of a cantankerous junk dealer who spent more time malingering and badgering his son than working. The program, which premiered in 1972 and ran through 1977, brought Foxx considerable acclaim and popularity. He attempted to recreate his role as Fred Sanford in a series that ran in 1980, but was unable to revive the original program's appeal.

While Sanford and Son made Foxx wealthy, in 1983 he filed for bankruptcy protection, citing mounting debts. In 1985 the Internal Revenue Service claimed Foxx owed almost $3 million in taxes, interest, and penalties, and seized many of his possessions, including his home in Las Vegas.

Foxx was working on the set of a new NBC series, The Royal Family, when he suffered a heart attack and died in 1991.

See also Apollo Theater; Comedians; Television

Bibliography

Bogle, Donald. Blacks in American Films and Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988.

Mapp, Edward. Directory of Blacks in the Performing Arts. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1990.

Travis, Dempsey J. The Life and Times of Redd Foxx. Chicago: Urban Research Press, 1999.

susan mcintosh (1996)

michael paller (1996)
Updated bibliography