Isabel Sanford

• Birth name:

  Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford

• Date of Birth:

  9 July 1917 New York City, New York, USA

• Height:

  5' 3" (1.60 m)

Isabel Sanford was born in the Harlem section of New York, the youngest of seven children and sadly, the only one to survive infancy. Young Isabel always wanted to act. Her mother was against the idea, so she sneaked out of the house to perform in nightclubs. Despite winning third place in an amateur contest at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem, she gave up her extracurricular activities and became a cleaning woman.Sanford then married William "Sonny" Richmond, had three children and worke... more

Isabel Sanford was born in the Harlem section of New York, the youngest of seven children and sadly, the only one to survive infancy. Young Isabel always wanted to act. Her mother was against the idea, so she sneaked out of the house to perform in nightclubs. Despite winning third place in an amateur contest at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem, she gave up her extracurricular activities and became a cleaning woman.Sanford then married William "Sonny" Richmond, had three children and worked as a keypunch operator in the New York City welfare department. She was in her late 20s when her desire to act finally became a reality. Sanford joined the American Negro Theater, and in 1946, made her stage debut in the play "On Strivers Row."Sanford moved to Los Angeles in 1960 to pursue a TV and film career. She landed bit parts on TV shows such as "Bewitched" (1964) and "The Mod Squad" (1968) and had a semi-regular spot on "The Carol Burnett Show" (1967). Her performance in the 1965 Broadway production of "Amen Corner" caught the eye of director Stanley Kramer. He cast her in the then-daring Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) as a sharp-tongued maid who has words with Sidney Poitier's character about marrying a white woman.Three years later, TV producer Norman Lear cast Sanford in the recurring role of Louise "Weezy" Jefferson, Archie Bunker's next door neighbor on the landmark TV comedy series "All in the Family" (1971). In 1975, the characters of Louise and husband George Jefferson ('Sherman Hemsley') were given their own spin-off TV show, "The Jeffersons" (1975). The series, about an African American couple who move from the working class Queens district of New York to Manhattan's affluent Upper East Side, was a hit that ran for 11 seasons. In 1981, Sanford made history as the first African American woman to win an Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series.When the show was canceled in 1985, Sanford and Hemsley continued to appear together in TV commercials for Old Navy stores, Denny's restaurants and Nick at Nite, the cable TV network then airing reruns of "The Jeffersons" (1975). In later years, she also made cameos on shows such as the TV comedy series "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (1990) and the daytime soap opera "The Young and the Restless" (1973). In addition to her many Emmy nominations and one win, Sanford was honored with five Golden Globe nominations and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.