Vale: Sherman Hemsley

Sherman Hemsley, best known as George Jefferson in the US sitcom The Jeffersons, died this week, aged 74.

Hemsley appeared as George Jefferson, neighbour to Archie and Edith Bunker in All in the Family, before The Jeffersons won its own spin-off.

The series with an African American family “movin’ on up to the East Side” of Manhattan was the first to feature an upscale African American couple in prime time. It was also the first to cast an interracial couple. The spinoff ran on CBS from 1975 to 1985 and when it was cancelled it was the longest-running prime-time series on the air.

Hemsley later starred as Deacon Ernest Frye on Amen, which aired from 1986 to 1991, and made other TV appearances.

Source: LA Times