There are few phrases in the world of television history that can evoke an image as clearly as ”Ya hear that, Elizabeth? I’m comin’ to join ya honey!” You can hear Redd Foxx’s gravelly voice bellow out these words as his iconic character “Fred Sanford” clutches his chest and staggers around the room. 

Sanford and Son was a groundbreaking show that launched the careers of many talented actors and comedians, but at the heart of it all was the impeccable comic timing and instincts of Redd Foxx. 

Born Jon Elroy Sanford in St. Louis, Missouri in 1922, Redd Foxx grew up on the South Side of Chicago. There, he and some friends started a “washtub band” called the Four Bon Bons, performing song and dance numbers on street corners for spare change. In 1939, Jon and some of his bandmates hopped a train to New York, where they were certain they’d become famous musicians. 

Here are a few things you might not know about Redd Foxx’s life and death.

He ate a bar of soap to avoid the draft

In 1941, 18-year-old Jon Sanford was living in Harlem and performing with his band, now called Jump Swinging Six. Sanford was smitten with Harlem’s nightlife and music scene, later recalling, “I would hustle all day long, so I could get to the Savoy, meet some chicks and hear all the best bands.” His success with the ladies and dapper fashion sense earned him the nickname “Foxy.”

When the United States entered World War II after Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, the Jump Swinging Six broke up. One of its members enlisted in the service – something Sanford was not about to do. As Michael Seth Starr commented in his biography Black and Blue: The Redd Foxx Story, Sanford “wasn’t going to let a little thing like a World War cramp his style.” 

Like many young men facing the draft, Sanford went to extreme lengths to avoid being sent overseas. When his number was selected in the draft lottery and he had to report to the local enlistment center, he came up with a unique way to ensure he’d be found unfit for service: he swallowed a bar of soap. 

“I went to a draft board in Harlem. The doctor decided I had a heart condition, so I was rejected,” he revealed in a 1971 interview. The condition wasn’t natural, though. “I had eaten half a bar of Octagon soap, which causes heart palpitations,” Sanford confessed.

He was only 49 when Sanford and Son debuted

Jon Sanford eventually became a successful stand-up comic, adopting the stage name “Redd Foxx” because of his red hair and x-rated material. After years of doing time on the grueling comedy circuit and recording a number of successful party records, Foxx was cast as the star of a television series. The first episode of Sanford and Son (a remake of a successful British show called Steptoe and Son) aired on January 14, 1972. During its first season, viewers were introduced to the show’s primary characters: Lamont Sanford and his dad, Fred G. Sanford. Fred Sanford was an “aging black Los Angeles junk dealer” and widower who celebrated his 65th birthday in the second episode.

According to biographer Michael Seth Starr, Redd Foxx performed so convincingly as a grouchy old man — down to the signature bow-legged walk — that many viewers assumed he was the same age as Fred Sanford. Foxx was actually only 49 years old when the series premiered. To make himself look older, the actor grew an unkempt beard that was dyed gray along with his naturally red-toned hair.

Fred Sanford’s raspy voice also helped to “age [Foxx] at least ten years,” said Starr. Years of smoking cigarettes and marijuana had damaged Foxx’s throat and lent him “that sandpaper-on-sandpaper croak” the junkman was known for.

Makeup completed the transformation, along with the “big heavy shoes” Foxx wore to fully step into the role of Fred Sanford. “I can put the rest of my outfit on, but if I don’t have those shoes on, I don’t walk like him, and I don’t think like him,” Foxx recalled in the New York Times. The character blamed his unique bow-legged limp on “arthur-itis.”

‘The Big One’ finally came for Redd Foxx

On Sanford and Son, one of Fred’s most memorable traits was faking heart attacks to distract from overwhelming situations (that he most likely caused). He’d dramatically call out to his deceased wife, “It’s the big one! I’m coming for you Elizabeth!” while stumbling and grabbing his chest. 

Redd Foxx once told his friend Sammy Davis Jr. that he based the character and his heart attack ruse on his own mother, who he said faked medical conditions to get attention. “My mother would do the same thing as Fred Sanford,” he said. “My mother would have a heart attack when I was a kid, I remember. If she wanted something done she could hardly breathe. She had emphysema, she had cancer, she had lumbago, she had whooping cough.”

Sadly, Red Foxx suffered a real heart attack on October 11, 1991. It happened during rehearsals for a new TV series he was filming with co-star Della Reese. The Eddie Murphy-written show, The Royal Family, was originally called Chest Pains.

Familiar with his chest-clutching performances, Foxx’s colleagues initially assumed he was joking around. As Reese later recalled, he “reached for the chair and did what we thought was a pratfall, ‘cause he did that all the time,” she said. “And we all stood there laughing while he was laying on the floor. He’d had a heart attack.” Once the gravity of the situation became clear Foxx was rushed to the hospital, but doctors were unable to revive him.

Redd Foxx may have died at 68, but his legacy continues in the generations of comedians he inspired.

Redd Foxx was a mentor to Pat Morita

Although Foxx dealt with plenty of financial hardships throughout his life, he was charitable with money when it came to his friends. Actor Pat Morita, fondly remembered by many as Mr. Miyagi in the Karate Kid franchise, was one beneficiary of Foxx’s generous nature. 

Noriyuki “Pat” Morita got his start in show business doing stand-up comedy in San Francisco, where he first met Redd Foxx. Foxx saw promise in the aspiring comedian and became a mentor to Morita, later creating a character for him on Sanford and Son. 

Foxx’s behind-the-scenes kindness during those early days was life-changing for Morita, who called Foxx a “godfather.” Morita discussed their relationship in a 2000 interview with The Television Academy Foundation and shared a touching example of Foxx’s generosity. 

In the early ‘70s, Morita and his wife suddenly and unexpectedly had to locate a new place to live while she was pregnant with their second child. They found the perfect house but were short on the down payment by $3,500 despite having sold many of their belongings. Desperate to secure funding by their closing date, they visited Foxx. 

He quickly wrote out a check, but the money came with a condition. Morita recounted that Foxx told him, “‘Now, look here. I don’t want to hear about no papers, no payback, no interest, no IOU, no nothing. You want to pay me back? I know you’re going to make it one day, son. You do this for somebody.’”  

“I never forgot it,” Morita said. ”I’ve done it.” He confirmed that he paid that act of generosity forward to “a few people” after he’d become successful. Although Morita didn’t name names, Robin Williams was allegedly one of those recipients of that altruism, according to This Date in History with Nick Ragone. 

Here’s a link to the video of Morita’s interview. It’s worth a watch to hear his hilarious impression of Redd Foxx. 

Foxx’s Las Vegas house is said to be haunted

Redd Foxx faced legal and financial troubles for most of his life, and he wasn’t a big fan of paying taxes, according to his attorney Paul Whitford. In Black and Blue, Whitford said that Foxx “had a sort of resentfulness of authority. He never paid anything.” 

When the comedian filed for bankruptcy in 1983, he owed millions to the Internal Revenue Service and other creditors. The IRS filed a lien against Foxx’s beloved Las Vegas home, which he’d purchased at the height of his fame.

The bankruptcy proceedings went on for years. In 1989, the IRS claimed Foxx still owed them back taxes and conducted a raid on the Vegas property while he and a female visitor slept in one of the bedrooms. The agents seized everything of value as Foxx watched in astonishment, becoming more angry with each prized possession the feds hauled off. 

They took his cars, artwork, guns, jewelry, a grand piano, and even “his plants.” One agent snatched a diamond watch that had been a gift from Elvis Presley right off Foxx’s wrist. Although some of the seized items were later returned and a deal was worked out so Foxx could keep the house, his animosity toward the IRS never abated.

The agency sold Foxx’s home after his death in 1991, although some think he never left the property at 5460 S. Eastern Ave. Before she moved out, Foxx’s girlfriend at the time of his death told his manager that the comedian had visited her in a dream. “He’s not gone, he’s in the house,” she insisted. 

Future residents also reported eerie events in the house. An Elvis impersonator named Jesse Garron purchased the home from the IRS. He didn’t live in the house very long after experiencing unexplained noises, lights turning themselves off and on, and doors opening untouched. In 2009, the popular television newsmagazine A Current Affair ran a segment on Garron and his experiences in the home.

Later occupants told similar stories, with the next owner claiming that “blinds would move [as if] someone brushed past them and a door that was part of Foxx’s bedroom opened on its own.” Employees at a real estate office that later occupied the property also reported hearing the sound of footsteps running through the house.

Today, the house is a featured stop on the Haunted Vegas Tour & Ghost Hunt. Visitors might hope to catch a glimpse of Redd Foxx’s spirit roaming the property, presumably protecting it from ham-handed IRS agents.

Book cited

Starr, M.S. (2011). Black and Blue: The Redd Foxx Story. Applause Theatre & Cinema.