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Sherman Hemsley |
CHICAGO (AFP) ― Actor Sherman Hemsley, who rose to fame in the 1970s as the wise-cracking father in the hit sitcom “The Jeffersons,” has died at the age of 74, U.S. media reported Tuesday.
Hemsley was found dead in his El Paso, Texas home, People Magazine and celebrity website TMZ reported, citing local police who did not immediately return requests for confirmation.
“The Jeffersons” was one of the longest-running U.S. television shows with a predominantly black cast. It focused on how the family adjusted to its newfound affluence after the success of a dry cleaning business.
The show explored serious themes such as race and class ― and Hemsley’s character George Jefferson was a notable bigot who did not like the interracial marriage of his neighbors in the upscale Manhattan apartment.
However, it was not as overtly political as “All in the Family,” in which the Jeffersons were first introduced as neighbors to an even more notable bigot, Archie Bunker.
“It was groundbreaking,” Hemsley said in a 2003 interview with the Archive of American Television.
