Redd Foxx, the comedian famed for faking heart attacks on his hit 1970s show Sanford and Son, died at age 68 after suffering a real heart attack on the set of his new CBS series The Royal Family.
John Elroy Sanford, known by his stage name Redd Foxx, collapsed at 4.10pm on October 11, 1991 during a rehearsal. Cast and crew initially thought he was performing his signature comedy bit, in which his character Fred G Sanford would fake a heart attack and shout “I'm coming Elizabeth!” to his late on-screen wife.
Cast thought he was joking
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.”
Foxx reportedly asked co-star Della Reese twice to call his real wife, Ka Ha Cho, as he grabbed his chest and said: “Go call my wife. Go get my wife!” No live audience was present, and the rehearsal was halted as Foxx was resuscitated and rushed to Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles.
He died at the hospital nearly four hours after collapsing on the Paramount Studios soundstage. McCallister said Foxx’s wife, whom he had married three months earlier in July 1991, was by his side. Virtually the whole cast and crew of The Royal Family went to the hospital.
From rags to riches
Foxx was born in St Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Chicago in a poor family. His father left when he was four, and he ran away from home at 13. After performing with a washtub band on New York City street corners, working as a busboy with Malcolm X, and playing East Coast nightclubs, he moved to Hollywood in the 1950s and recorded X-rated club routines. The New York Times reported he was known as the dean of X-rated comedians.
He became famous in 1972 as Fred G Sanford, named after his late older brother Fred Jr, on Sanford and Son, which ran from 1972 to 1977 and made him a household name.
Bankruptcy and failed marriages
Foxx filed for bankruptcy protection in 1983 and faced legal proceedings with the Internal Revenue Service until at least 1989. In November 1989, the Los Angeles Times reported that his home and seven vehicles had been seized for alleged failure to pay income taxes from 1983 to 1986. IRS liens on his property totalled $755,166.21.
His lavish lifestyle and multiple divorces were reportedly to blame, worsened by what he called 'very bad management'. After the IRS seized his assets, Foxx said he would have asked famous showbiz friends for help had he known it would come to that. The Los Angeles Times reported him 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 making a comeback with The Royal Family when tragedy struck.
