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.<\/p>\n
Mark Goldman, a publicist for Wilson, confirmed to The Associated Press that he died following complications from cancer on Friday.<\/p>\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.<\/p>\n
Wilson was best known as the son of Redd Foxx’s 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. <\/p>\n
The thoughtful Lamont had to put up with his junkyard owner father’s schemes, bigotry and insults \u2014 most famously, and repeatedly, \u201cYou big dummy!\u201d<\/p>\n
The show was a hit for its six seasons on NBC but ended when ABC offered Foxx a variety show.<\/p>\n
Wilson was born in Valdosta, Georgia, and grew up in the Harlem section of Manhattan, according to the biography on his website. <\/p>\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.<\/p>\n
A guest appearance on \u201cAll in the Family\u201d in 1971 led to his best-known role. Norman Lear produced both shows.<\/p>\n
Wilson told AP in 2022 that he got the role over comedian Richard Pryor.<\/p>\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.<\/p>\n
After \u201cSanford and Son\u201d ended, Wilson starred in the shorter-lived comedies \u201cBaby I’m 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.<\/p>\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<\/p>\n
Wilson became a minister in the 1980s. <\/p>\n
He is survived by his wife, Cicely Wilson, and their six children.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/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…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443003,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,88,208537,451,208536,3,55942,208535,152389,452,453,795],"class_list":["post-443002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-entertainment","tag-fred-sanford","tag-headlines","tag-mark-goldman","tag-news","tag-norman-lear","tag-obit-demond-cicely-wilson","tag-richard-pryor","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}