Sherman Hemsley Dead

[Pepper]

Sherman Hemsley, the actor who made the character George Jefferson famous in "The Jeffersons," has died, El Paso cops tell TMZ.

Hemsley died at his home in El Paso, Texas.

Sources tell us ... it appears Hemsley died from natural causes.

TMZ

RIP George Jefferson

[kia027]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

Moved on up to a deluxe apt in the sky. Rip sherman Helmsley

[Nunya]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

Ok, I thought he was long dead...

[Gen]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

oh my. still love the jeffersons

slyvia of the famous soul food place up in harlem died over the weekend as well.

[ILP]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

Sad news indeed.
People round here acting like is head of state dead or something.

[Pepper]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: HIELPEE</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
People round here acting like is head of state dead or something.

</div></div>

Den yuh nevah see him and him boasty walk? Him a top shottah Don.

[Blackstar*]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Pepper</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: HIELPEE</div><div class="ubbcode-body">People round here acting like is head of state dead or something. </div></div>
Den yuh nevah see him and him boasty walk? Him a top shottah Don. </div></div>
Yes, he was. I used to love watching him and Archie Bunker argue on <span style="font-style: italic">All in the Family</span>.

[Blackstar*]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

AP did a nice piece on Mr. Hemsley.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'"><span style="font-size: 11pt">'The Jeffersons' star Sherman Hemsley dies at 74
</span>
</span>EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Sherman Hemsley, the actor who made the irascible, bigoted George Jefferson of &quot;The Jeffersons&quot; one of television's most memorable characters and a symbol for urban upward mobility, has died. He was 74.

Police in El Paso, Texas, said late Tuesday that Hemsley was found dead at a local home where neighbors said he'd lived for years. A statement from police said no foul play is suspected and that the exact cause of death is pending.

<span style="font-weight: bold">The Philadelphia-born Hemsley first played the blustering black Harlem businessman on CBS's &quot;All in the Family&quot; before he was spun off onto &quot;The Jeffersons,&quot; which in 11 seasons from 1975 to 1985 became one of TV's most successful sitcoms — particularly noteworthy with its mostly black cast.</span>

With the gospel-style theme song of &quot;Movin' On Up,&quot; the hit show depicted the wealthy former neighbors of Archie and Edith Bunker in Queens as they made their way on New York's Upper East Side. Hemsley and the Jeffersons (Isabel Sanford played his wife) often dealt with contemporary issues of racism, but more frequently reveled in the sitcom archetype of a short-tempered, opinionated patriarch trying, often unsuccessfully to control his family.

Hemsley's feisty, diminutive father with an exaggerated strut was a kind of black corollary to Archie Bunker — a stubborn, high-strung man who had a deep dislike for whites (his favorite word for them was honkies). Yet unlike the blue-collar Bunker, played by Carroll O'Connor, he was a successful businessman whose was as rich as he was crass. His wife, Weezie, was often his foil — yet provided plenty of zingers as well.

Despite the character's many faults — money-driven, prejudiced, temperamental, a boor — Hemsley managed to make the character endearing, part of the reason it stayed on the air for so long. Much like O'Connor's portrayal of Archie Bunker, deep down, Hemsley's Jefferson loved his family, his friends (even the ones he relentlessly teased) and had a good heart. His performance was Emmy and Golden Globe nominated.

&quot;He was a love of a guy&quot; and &quot;immensely talented,&quot; Norman Lear, producer of &quot;The Jeffersons&quot; and &quot;All in the Family,&quot; said after learning of his death.

&quot;When the Jeffersons moved in next door to the Bunkers, I wanted to deliver the George Jefferson who could stand up to Archie Bunker,&quot; Lear recalled Tuesday. &quot;It took some weeks before I remembered having seen Sherman in 'Purlie' on Broadway.&quot;

Sherman Alexander Hemsley, though, was far less feisty. The son of a printing press-working father and a factory-working mother, Hemsley served in the Air Force and worked for eight years as a clerk for the Postal Service.

Having studied acting as an adolescent at the Philadelphia Academy of Dramatic Arts, he began acting in New York workshops and theater companies, including the Negro Ensemble Company. For years, he kept his job at the post office while acting at night, before transitioning to acting full-time.

He made his Broadway debut in 1970's &quot;Purlie,&quot; a musical adaptation of Ossie Davis' Jim Crow-era play &quot;Purlie Victorious.&quot; (Hemsley would later star in a 1981 made-for-TV version of &quot;Purlie,&quot; as well.) It was while touring the show that Hemsley was approached by Lear about playing a character on the sitcom that would become &quot;All in the Family.&quot;

Hemsley joined the show in 1973, immediately catapulting himself from an obscure theater actor to a hit character on the enormously popular show. Two years later, &quot;The Jeffersons&quot; was spun off. Among the numerous &quot;All in the Family&quot; spin-offs (&quot;Maude,&quot; ''Archie Bunker's Place, &quot;704 Hauser&quot, &quot;The Jeffersons&quot; was the longest-running.

The character, the owner of a chain of dry-cleaning stores, was devised, Hemsley said, as &quot;pompous and feisty.&quot;

&quot;All of it was really hard ... because — rude, I don't like to be that way,&quot; Hemsley said in a 2003 interview for the Archive of American Television. &quot;But it was the character, I had to do it. I had to be true to the character. If I was to pull back something, then it just wouldn't work.&quot;

And he brought some of his hometown with him. <span style="font-weight: bold">&quot;That dance I do (as George Jefferson), it's the Philly Slop,&quot; he told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1996.</span>

After &quot;The Jeffersons&quot; was abruptly cancelled, Hemsley starred in the sitcom &quot;Amen&quot; as a fiery Philadelphia church deacon, Ernest Frye. The show latest five years, running 1986 to 1991.

Jackee Harry, a longtime friend who made appearances on the show, said she and Hemsley had planned to tour in the musical &quot;Ain't Misbehavin'''. She said they had discussed it recently and that he seemed in good health and in good spirits.

&quot;It's a sad, sad, sad day,&quot; she said from her home in Beverly Hills, Calif.

She recalled when the two of them were on a Manhattan sidewalk during the era of &quot;The Jeffersons,&quot; and passers-by went wild.

&quot;He got mauled and mugged,&quot; she laughed. &quot;He said, 'What's all the screaming about?' He was so popular and he didn't even know it.&quot;

She described him as &quot;a very private person unlike George Jefferson. But he was very kind and very sweet, and generous to a fault.&quot;

Hemsley frequently turned up as a guest on sitcoms like &quot;Family Matters,&quot; ''The Hughleys&quot; and even, in a voice role, &quot;Family Guy.&quot; He twice reprised George Jefferson, appearing as his famous character on &quot;The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air&quot; and, in 2011, on &quot;House of Payne.&quot;

Hemsley, whose films include 1979's &quot;Love at First Bite,&quot; 1987's &quot;Stewardess School&quot; and 1987's &quot;Ghost Fever,&quot; released an album, &quot;Ain't That a Kick in the Head,&quot; in 1989.

In an interview with the Gloucester County Times in 2011, Hemsley said his show business career actually began in childhood.

&quot;Making people laugh was automatic,&quot; he said. &quot;I was in a play in elementary school and had to jump up and run away. I was nervous and tripped and fell down and everyone laughed. Their laughter made me relax, so I pretended it was part of the show.&quot;

&quot;I always told my mother I wanted a job where I could have a lot of fun and have a lot of time off,&quot; Hemsley added. &quot;She asked me where I was going to find that, and I said, 'I don't know, but it's out there.'&quot;

___

Coyle reported from New York City. AP Television Writers Lynn Elber and Frazier Moore in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Associated Press writer Terry Wallace in Dallas contributed to this report.

[Wahalla]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

never saw the Jeffersons or all in the familiy....so he looks vaugely familiar though...

[Diplomat]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

Simply one of the best. RIP, &quot;George.&quot;

[Blackstar*]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jjhzhK2zryg"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jjhzhK2zryg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object>

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

This was a top class guy who never forgot his Philly Strut!

[j-kid]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

<span style="font-size: 20pt">Classic George!</span>

[WitchyOoman]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: BlackStar</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Pepper</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: HIELPEE</div><div class="ubbcode-body">People round here acting like is head of state dead or something. </div></div>
Den yuh nevah see him and him boasty walk? Him a top shottah Don. </div></div>
Yes, he was. I used to love watching him and Archie Bunker argue on <span style="font-style: italic">All in the Family</span>. </div></div>


So did I, Blackstar... so did I.

I'm so sorry to hear of his passing. And so sad that he apparently died all alone - not surrounded by any family or friends.

<span style="font-weight: bold">That little dance he used to do on &quot;The Jeffersons&quot;... remember it? It's a variation of the &quot;Philadelphia Mummer's Strut&quot;</span>... a street version of &quot;the Strut&quot;, not the official parade version. All South Philly weddings - indeed <span style="font-weight: bold">just about all Philly weddings</span> - aren't complete without everyone getting up and dancing &quot;the Strut&quot; to the Philadelphia Mummers Official song, &quot;Oh, Dem Golden Slippers&quot;... even today. (especially Italian-American weddings, but it spills over across all ethnic and racial and socio-economic divides)

Philly has lost yet another son, and mourns her loss.




(<span style="font-style: italic">whispering urgent prayers into God's ear:</span> Mindful that it seems as if all celebrity deaths do appear to come in threes... Please, God, Please, Heavenly Father, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, DO NOT take yet another dearly loved son from Philly this time... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE... Please, Father, leave Bill alone, let him stay with us here on earth a while longer, oh, PLEASE let Bill stay here with us!! Dear Father, I know I join a whole lot of Philadelphians in this prayer. PLEASE hear our prayers!
I am bold to pray in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.+ )

[WitchyOoman]

Re: Sherman Hemsley Dead

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: BlackStar</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jjhzhK2zryg"></param> <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jjhzhK2zryg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"> </embed></object> </div></div>
Oh, Mother of God!! waaaiiiiiii

I haven't seen that in decades!


George Jefferson (to Archie Bunker): &quot;If you got enough <span style="font-style: italic">green</span> in you're pocket, his favorite color becomes <span style="font-style: italic">black</span>!&quot;


George Jefferson (to Archie Bunker): &quot;This is my mother.&quot;
Archie Bunker (to Mother Jefferson): &quot;Ohhh, well, hello, there, Mammy Jefferson!&quot;
Mother Jefferson (to Archie Bunker): &quot;Mammy! Don't you call me 'Mammy'! You call me 'Mrs Jefferson' when you talk to me!&quot;
Archie Bunker: &quot;I'm sorry, Mrs Jefferson, I thought all black people called their mother 'mammy'.&quot;
Mother Jefferson: &quot;Don't talk to me!&quot;


George Jefferson: &quot;He's gonna call her a n***** in another minute!&quot;
Archie Bunker: &quot;Geeze! And I aint used <span style="font-style: italic">that</span> word in <span style="font-style: italic">three years</span>!&quot;


<span style="font-style: italic">ALL</span> classic comedic lines!


Once again, Sherman Hemsley... fellow Philadelphian... thank you sooo much for a lifetime of joy and laughter! May light perpetual shine upon your soul.