Redd Foxx, born John Elroy Sanford, was an early American comic star as well as an actor.

As a television actor, he was the star of the hit television series Sanford and Son, which ran on NBC from 1972 to 1977.

In New York City, Foxx performed comedy on the “chitlin circuit” of African-American nightclubs during the 1940s and ’50s.

Joking about everything from sex to color barriers, Foxx, in 1970, gave a memorable comic performance in the hit film Cotton Comes to Harlem, and was soon approached by television producer Norman Lear leading to him becoming a star on Sanford and Son.

However, The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour (1977–78) and The Redd Foxx Show (1986) were short-lived.