{"id":2260453,"date":"2026-02-01T00:53:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T00:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2260453"},"modified":"2026-02-01T00:53:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T00:53:44","slug":"actor-demond-wilson-of-sanford-and-son-fame-dies-at-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/actor-demond-wilson-of-sanford-and-son-fame-dies-at-79\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor Demond Wilson of ‘Sanford and Son’ fame dies at 79"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Demond Wilson, who was best known for playing Lamont Sanford, the son of Redd Foxx\u2019s character on the 1970s TV show \u201cSanford and Son,\u201d died in his sleep at his home in the Coachella Valley on Jan. 30. He was 79.<\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s publicist, Mark Goldman, confirmed that he died from complications related to cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemond was surrounded by love throughout his final days,\u201d Goldman said in a statement. \u201cA devoted father, actor, author, and minister, Demond lived a life rooted in faith, service, and compassion. Through his work on screen, his writing, and his ministry, he sought to uplift others and leave a meaningful impact on the communities he served.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Demond Wilson attends the 2016 Chiller Theater Expo at the Parsippany Hilton in New Jersey on April 22, 2016.<\/p>\n

(Bobby Bank \/ WireImage)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Grady Demond Wilson was born in Valdosta, Ga., on Oct. 13, 1946, and grew up in New York City. His mother, Laura, was a dietitian, and his father, Grady Wilson, was a tailor. Wilson learned tap dance and ballet and appeared on Broadway at just 4 years old. After serving in the Army from 1966 to 1968 in Vietnam, where he was wounded, he made his TV debut in 1971, playing a burglar alongside Cleavon Little in Norman Lear\u2019s sitcom \u201cAll in the Family.\u201d That role led to his casting in \u201cSanford and Son\u201d in 1972, which was notable at the time for having a nearly all-Black cast.<\/p>\n

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Redd Foxx, left, broods next to Demond Wilson about one of the 3,000 pieces used on the \u201cpleasantly junky\u201d set of \u201cSanford and Son.\u201d<\/p>\n

(NBC)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Although \u201cSanford and Son\u201d was his most famous role, Wilson also appeared in \u201cBaby, I\u2019m Back,\u201d \u201cThe New Odd Couple\u201d and \u201cGirlfriends.\u201d His last TV appearance was in \u201cEleanor\u2019s Bench\u201d in 2023.<\/p>\n

Despite his success, Wilson left acting, sold his Bel-Air mansion and Rolls-Royce and became an interdenominational preacher in 1983.<\/p>\n

The change was not surprising given his background. \u201cI was raised a Catholic, was an altar boy, and at 14 I seriously considered becoming a priest,\u201d Wilson told The Times in 1986. When he was 12, his appendix ruptured and he nearly died, leading him to promise to serve God as an adult. \u201cI was always aware that God was the guiding force in my life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Disillusioned with Hollywood, Wilson moved his wife and children to what he jokingly called a \u201crespectable, Republican, upper-middle-class\u201d neighborhood in Mission Viejo. He wanted his five children at the time to have \u201cnormal childhoods.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve left the rat race and false people behind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Wilson was also an author. He published \u201cThe New Age Millennium: An Expos\u00e9 of Symbols, Slogans and Hidden Agendas\u201d in 1998, and his autobiography, \u201cSecond Banana: The Bittersweet Memoirs of the Sanford & Son Years,\u201d in 2009. He also wrote 11 children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

Wilson is survived by his wife, Cicely; his six children, Nicole, Melissa, Christopher, Demond Jr., Tabitha and Sarah; and his two grandchildren, Madison and Isabella.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Demond Wilson, who was best known for playing Lamont Sanford, the son of Redd Foxx\u2019s character on the 1970s TV show \u201cSanford and Son,\u201d died in his sleep at his home in the Coachella Valley on Jan. 30. He was 79. Wilson\u2019s publicist, Mark Goldman, confirmed that he died from complications related to cancer. \u201cDemond […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2260454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2260453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Actor-Demond-Wilson-of-Sanford-and-Son-fame-dies-at.com2F7f2Fab2F89d694d94f03824fb0c760f0.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2260453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2260455,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260453\/revisions\/2260455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2260454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2260453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2260453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2260453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}