Redd Foxx, the celebrated television actor and comedian known for his running gag of faking heart attacks on his hit show Sanford and Son, died aged 68 after suffering a genuine heart attack on the set of his new CBS programme, The Royal Family.
John Elroy Sanford, widely recognised by his stage name Redd Foxx, collapsed during rehearsals at 4.10pm on October 11, 1991. His castmates initially believed he was playing around, much as he frequently did on Sanford and Son.
Cast thought he was joking
His trademark comedic routine on the show involved feigning a heart attack and crying out, "I'm coming Elizabeth!" to his late on-screen wife, as his character Fred G Sanford threw himself into outrageous antics.
So when the actor suffered a genuine heart attack during a rehearsal for The Royal Family, the cast and crew were initially convinced he was performing his well-known routine, reports Daily Star. He reportedly pleaded with co-star Della Reese to contact his real-life wife, Ka Ha Cho, on two occasions, clutching his chest in agony and saying: "Go call my wife. Go get my wife!".
Rachel McCallister, spokesperson for The Royal Family, told the Los Angeles Times: "They were rehearsing on the set and clowning around, and Redd was sort of breaking people up when he collapsed. They all thought he was joking around at first, and then they called the paramedics."
Rushed to hospital
No live audience was in attendance at the time, and the rehearsal was instantly stopped as Foxx was briefly resuscitated before being rushed to the Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, USA. Almost four hours after collapsing on a studio soundstage at Paramount Studios, Foxx passed away at the hospital.
McCallister revealed that Foxx's wife, Ka Ha Cho, whom he had wed just three months earlier in July 1991, was present when he died. She also said that practically the entire cast and crew of The Royal Family had travelled to the hospital where Foxx had been taken.
Joshua Rich at Entertainment Weekly said: "It was an end so ironic that for a brief moment castmates figured Foxx – whose 1970s TV character often faked coronaries – was kidding when he grabbed a chair and fell to the floor."
From rags to riches
Foxx's life was a turbulent one marked by tremendous highs and devastating lows. He was born in Missouri's St Louis and raised in Chicago within a poverty-stricken family. By age four, Foxx's father had departed and abandoned their family penniless, and by the tender age of 13, he had already fled home.
A washtub band performing on New York City street corners, one busboy position with Malcolm X, and appearances at East Coast nightclubs later, Foxx arrived in Hollywood during the 1950s and began recording his X-rated club routines. The New York Times reported Foxx was regarded as the dean of X-rated comedians at one stage.
Yet his defining moment arrived in 1972. Foxx shot to prominence through his portrayal of Fred G Sanford - named in honour of his late elder brother Fred Jr - and audiences worldwide came to recognise him as the bow-legged, raspy-voiced leading man of Sanford and Son. Sanford and Son aired from 1972 to 1977, transforming Foxx into a household name.
Bankruptcy and failed marriages
Life continued to be a rollercoaster for Foxx, who sought bankruptcy protection in 1983 and found himself entangled in legal battles with the Internal Revenue Service until at least 1989. In November 1989, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Foxx's home and seven of his vehicles had been seized by the IRS for 'alleged failure to pay income taxes from 1983 to 1986'.
According to the LA Times, the IRS had placed liens on Foxx's assets totalling $755,166.21. The authorities maintained that the actor-comedian owed a substantially greater sum owing to penalties and mounting interest on four years' worth of unpaid taxes.
Foxx's extravagant lifestyle and numerous divorces were reportedly the primary culprits, further compounded by what he himself described as 'very bad management'. A considerable portion of his wealth was swallowed up by divorce settlements and the ensuing alimony payments.
After the IRS confiscated his possessions and left him with merely a bed at his residence, Foxx said he would've reached out to his celebrated showbiz companions for assistance had he realised matters would escalate to that point. The Los Angeles Times reported Foxx as saying: "I could have gotten in touch with Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor or Frank Sinatra or somebody who knows that, you know, I have been helpful to a lot of people."
The New York Times reported him as saying: "I've been cheated more than most people because I'm gullible and I'm a target. My heart is open, and I listen to people and I believe their sob stories."
Foxx was finally staging his return as a prime-time star with The Royal Family, when disaster struck him and his life was tragically cut short in a devastatingly ironic manner.
