On this day in comedy on August 29, 1917 Comedic Actress, Isabel Sanford (born Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford) was born in Harlem, New York.
Best known as Louise Jefferson from the hit CBS sitcom, The Jeffersons, we’re lucky to have ever seen Sanford in anything. She was the last out of seven children, none who survived past infancy. This apparently caused her mother to be overly protective, keeping young Isabel in church most of the time and there was an aversion to the dream she had of going into show business. Regardless, the aspiring performer was hard headed and cut her teeth in night clubs, winding up on amateur night at the Apollo. She became a member of Harlem’s American Negro Theater as well as the Star Players and worked the off-Broadway circuit starting in 1946.
Sanford’s personal life was fraught with drama. She worked as a key punch operator for IBM and was married to a house painter that she’d constantly battle. That relationship produced three children, but ended in 1960 when Sanford separated and took the off-spring to California. Her husband died soon after their departure due to a fight.
In the golden state Sanford was approached by famed actress, Tallulah Bankhead to join the production, Here Today. That led to other prominent roles and her Broadway debut in James Baldwin’s, The Amen Corner. Films soon followed and Sanford was cast in the Sidney Poitier starring vehicle, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in 1967. That role as a maid was seen by producer, Norman Lear. He offered her the part of Louise Jefferson on his ground-breaking sitcom, All in the Family. That led to the spin-off The Jeffersons, which at the offset Sanford was reluctant to accept based on the uncertainty of job security on television.
Isabel Sanford’s fears were immediately put to rest when The Jeffersons became an overnight success. The show rans for 11 seasons and 253 episodes. For her efforts as the wife of an upwardly mobile bigoted dry cleaning mogul, Sanford earned multiple Golden Globe and Emmy nominations and was the first (and so far, the only) African-American female to win the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (1981). Once it ended its run in 1985, she had her own five-day-a-week syndicated sitcom, Isabel’s Honeymoon Hotel, in 1987, but due to low ratings it was soon cancelled. Sanford spent the remainder of her career guest-starred in other sitcoms (Living Single, Dream On, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, The Steve Harvey Show), doing a film here and there (Original Gangstas, Sprung, Mafia!) and occasionally revising her signature character along with co-star, Sherman Hemsley in a touring show, The Real Live Jeffersons and on television (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Simpsons) and on a series of Old Navy and Denny’s commercials.
Isabel Sanford passed away on July 9, 2004 following surgery on her carotid artery and a lengthy stay in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
By Darryl “D’Militant” Littleton
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