In 1973, All in the
Family patriarch Archie Bunker met his match in George Jefferson, who was every bit
his equal when it came to being bigoted, rude and utterly entertaining.
That was thanks to the deft comic touch of
Broadway and TV veteran Sherman
Hemsley, who died Tuesday at age 74 at his home in El Paso,
his agent, Todd Frank, said the El Paso Sheriff's Department confirmed .
Born in 1938, the South
Philadelphia native served in the Air Force and paid his way
through drama school by working at the post office. He kept that day job even
after moving to New York to
pursue acting roles.
Hemsley was starring in the early '70s
musical Purliewhen All in the Family producer Norman
Learhandpicked him to play the Bunkers' next-door neighbor in
working-class Queens, N.Y. You could say George Jefferson's reputation preceded
him — he was mentioned as early as 1971 but Family fans never
saw him, the explanation being that he wouldn't even step foot in his racist
neighbor's house until Hemsley finished his theatrical run and formally joined
the cast in 1973.
After much bickering and name-calling —
George loved to call Archie a "honky" — the two men began to change
each other's attitudes about race, and viewers got to see life from the point
of view of George, an entrepreneur with his own dry-cleaning shops, and his
wife, "Weezy" (Isabel Sanford). In 1975, they "moved on up to
the East Side" in their spinoff, The Jeffersons.
In addition to seeing an affluent black
couple with their own maid (Marla Gibbs), Jeffersons fans were
introduced to another TV first: a mixed-race couple in Tom and Helen Willis
(Franklin Cover and Roxie Roker).
The Jeffersons ran
for 11 seasons and garnered Hemsley an Emmy nomination for lead actor in a
comedy in 1984. He returned to sitcom life two years later with NBC's Amen,
in which he led an African-American cast as scheming Philly preacher Deacon
Ernest Frye.
When Amen wrapped in
1991, Hemsley lent his voice to the animated series Dinosaurs. His
last gig as a series regular was on UPN's Goode Behavior, which was
canceled after one season in 1996.
Most of his later TV work consisted of
guest-starring roles, including two (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Tyler Perry's
House of Payne) in which he reprised the character of George Jefferson.
In a 1977 Jeffersons episode
titled "George's Legacy," the character decided to immortalize
himself by hiring a sculptor to create his bust. "A man's got to leave his
mark," George tells the bust. "Something to prove that he's been
here. Otherwise, there ain't no sense in showing up at all."
Source : USA Today | Life