TLDR: Redd Foxx spent six seasons clutching his chest and pretending to die on cue as Fred Sanford. In 1991, the joke stopped being a joke, and the people standing closest to him didn’t realize it fast enough to matter.
John Elroy Sanford was born December 9, 1922, in St. Louis, one-quarter Seminole through his mother, and ran away from home at 13 to join a street-corner band called the Jump Swinging Six.
He relocated to Harlem as a young man, supporting himself as a dishwasher, where he befriended a fellow dishwasher named Malcolm Little.
Little, who’d go by “Detroit Red” and later become known to the world as Malcolm X, nicknamed Sanford “Chicago Red” for his own reddish hair and light skin.
When Sanford started working Baltimore’s nightclub circuit as an emcee in 1945, he built his stage name from that same nickname, adding an extra “d” and taking “Foxx” from baseball great Jimmie Foxx.
He Built a Following Before Television Ever Wanted Him
Foxx spent years working the “Chitlin’ Circuit” as half of a duo called Foxx and White alongside fellow comedian Slappy White, building a reputation on material considered far too raunchy for network television. He recorded more than 50 comedy albums over his career, earning the nickname “King of the Party Records.”
That risque reputation kept him off screens for years, aside from scattered guest spots on shows like The Lucy Show, Green Acres, and Mister Ed.
His real breakthrough came in the 1970 film Cotton Comes to Harlem, playing a junkyard owner sharp enough to catch Norman Lear’s attention for an American remake of Steptoe and Son.
His Character’s Name Wasn’t Invented at All
Foxx named his new character Fred G. Sanford, using his own real last name and his own father’s real first name, a detail most fans never realize. He gave the son character the name Lamont, after his old bandmate Lamont Ousley from his days with the Four Bon Bons.
Sanford and Son premiered on NBC in January 1972, and Foxx played a character written as 65 years old despite being only 48 himself at the time.
The show became a top-ten hit almost immediately, built partly on Fred’s running gag of faking a heart attack whenever he wanted sympathy, always closing with “Elizabeth, I’m coming to join you.”
He Left the Show Over a Dressing Room, or So the Story Goes
Foxx departed Sanford and Son in 1977, reportedly after NBC refused to give him a dressing room with a window. The more likely explanation was a generous rival offer from ABC, which was actively trying to poach him to weaken NBC’s dominant Friday lineup.
It worked. Foxx launched The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour on ABC that same year under the richest television contract of its time, though the show lasted only a single season before cancellation.
Hard Living Caught Up With Him Financially
Foxx moved to Las Vegas and lived an extravagant lifestyle for years afterward, attempting a revival of his most famous character with a 1980 series simply titled Sanford, then a short-lived 1986 vehicle called The Redd Foxx Show.
Neither recaptured the original show’s success, and by 1983 the IRS was pursuing him hard enough that he filed for bankruptcy.
The situation reached a genuinely humiliating low point on November 28, 1989, when IRS agents raided his Las Vegas home. According to a wire report at the time, agents seized seven vehicles, more than $12,000 in cash, an armory of firearms, and jewelry Foxx was wearing at the moment they arrived, leaving him with only his bed.
Desperate for work, he landed a role in Eddie Murphy’s 1989 film Harlem Nights alongside Richard Pryor and Della Reese. That connection led directly to his final project, a new CBS sitcom called The Royal Family, produced by Murphy.
His Own Cast Thought He Was Joking
On October 11, 1991, Foxx collapsed during a rehearsal for The Royal Family at Paramount Studios. According to a contemporary wire report, the cast and crew around him initially laughed, assuming he was performing one of his famous fake Sanford heart attacks.
By the time anyone realized it wasn’t a bit, Foxx had already suffered a massive, real heart attack. He was rushed to Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and pronounced dead at 7:45 p.m. that evening, at age 68, reportedly still owing close to $4 million to the IRS.
Foxx had been married four times and had no biological children, though he adopted his stepdaughter Debraca during his marriage to Betty Jean Harris, and she later helped manage his estate.
At his funeral, family and friends read aloud an unfinished poem he’d once written for one of his wives, a small, unexpectedly tender detail from a man best known for the raunchiest material of his era.
You can read more about the rest of the Sanford and Son cast in our full guide to the show.
Redd Foxx, Frequently Asked Questions
How did Redd Foxx die?
He suffered a heart attack while rehearsing for his new CBS series The Royal Family on October 11, 1991, at Paramount Studios. He was pronounced dead later that evening at a Los Angeles hospital, at age 68.
Why did the cast think Redd Foxx was joking when he collapsed?
His character Fred Sanford was famous for faking heart attacks as a running joke on Sanford and Son, so his real-life cast and crew initially assumed his collapse was another performance of the same bit.
Did Redd Foxx have financial problems?
Yes, the IRS raided his Las Vegas home in November 1989 and seized nearly everything he owned over unpaid back taxes, and he still owed close to $4 million at the time of his death.
Why did Redd Foxx leave Sanford and Son?
He officially cited a dressing room dispute with NBC, though the more likely reason was a lucrative rival offer from ABC to star in his own variety show.
How did Redd Foxx get his stage name?
He took the nickname “Chicago Red,” given to him by his friend Malcolm Little (later Malcolm X), added an extra “d,” and took the surname Foxx from baseball player Jimmie Foxx.
