<\/p>\n
\n Demond Wilson, who found fame in the 1970s playing Lamont on \u201cSanford and Son\u201d and went on to become a minister, has died. He was 79.\n <\/p>\n
\n Mark Goldman, a publicist for Wilson, confirmed to The Associated Press that he died following complications from cancer on Friday.\n <\/p>\n
\n \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 Goldman said in an emailed statement.\n <\/p>\n
\n Wilson was best known as the son of Redd Foxx\u2019s comically cantankerous Fred Sanford character in a sitcom that was among the first to feature a mostly Black cast when it began airing in 1972.\n <\/p>\n
\n The thoughtful Lamont had to put up with his junkyard owner father\u2019s schemes, bigotry and insults \u2014 most famously, and repeatedly, \u201cYou big dummy!\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n The show was a hit for its six seasons on NBC but ended when ABC offered Foxx a variety show.\n <\/p>\n
\n Wilson was born in Valdosta, Georgia, and grew up in the Harlem section of Manhattan, according to the biography on his website.\n <\/p>\n
\n He served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and was wounded there, and he returned to New York and acted on stage before heading to Hollywood.\n <\/p>\n
\n A guest appearance on \u201cAll in the Family\u201d in 1971 led to his best-known role. Norman Lear produced both shows.\n <\/p>\n
\n Wilson told AP in 2022 that he got the role over comedian Richard Pryor.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI said, \u2018C\u2019mon, you can\u2019t put a comedian with a comedian. You\u2019ve got to have a straight man,\u2019\u201d he said he told the producers.\n <\/p>\n
\n After \u201cSanford and Son\u201d ended, Wilson starred in the shorter-lived comedies \u201cBaby I\u2019m Back\u201d and \u201cThe New Odd Couple.\u201d He later appeared in four episodes of the show \u201cGirlfriends\u201d in the 2000s, along with a handful of movie roles.\n <\/p>\n
\n Though he returned to the screen at times, he told the Los Angeles Times in 1986 that the acting life was not for him: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t challenging. And it was emotionally exhausting because I had to make it appear that I was excited about what I was doing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Wilson became a minister in the 1980s.\n <\/p>\n
\n He is survived by his wife, Cicely Wilson, and their six children.\n <\/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.celebrity.land.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Demond Wilson, who found fame in the 1970s playing Lamont on \u201cSanford and Son\u201d and went on to become a minister, has died. He was 79. Mark Goldman, a publicist for Wilson, confirmed to The Associated Press that he died following complications from cancer on Friday. \u201cA devoted father, actor, author, and minister, Demond lived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2261167,"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-2261166","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\/Demond-Wilson-who-played-Lamont-on-\u2018Sanford-and-Son-dies.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261166","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=2261166"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2261168,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2261166\/revisions\/2261168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2261167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2261166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2261166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2261166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}