Unlikely Inspiration & Timely Luck that Made Greats

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1970s American Sitcom Sandford & Son was a fav of mines.
It wasn't until the passing of my favorite character Rollo that I learned of how he got the part and why he was rarely seen afterward. I thought it was because he was typecast, Truth was the guy didnt want to be an actor.

Rollo was the best friend of Lamonte Sanford aka dummy!, son of Fred Sanford, Mr. Redd Foxx.

Dig this!
Nathaniel Taylor built stages, set lights for actors! Vantile Whitfield who ran the theatre he worked at saw something in him and told Nathaniel there was an influx of parts for blacks on television and he knew of a casting coming up for comedian Red Foxx. After work he went to audition, but when he got there, they saw he had a utility belt on and said, finally the phone repair man is here!

because he knew how to do it, he did, which got him past all the people waiting for audition. before he walked out & saw the man running things he called him by name excuse me Mr. Aaron Ruben?
How U know my name?!
With his raspy ghetto voice & sly humor he said well 1st of all it says it on your desk! 2nd, I'd like to audition for Rolo, Rollo, whoever it is. So the producer said since he fixed the phone I'll do this for you. I will tell you where Redd is at right now, go and introduce yourself. See what he thinks of you.

When he got there Redd Fox was talking to legend Jerry Lewis. & before he got to their table Redd Fox blurted out; “What you looking for, sucker?”
Ghetto reflex made him respond, "What did you say?"

They had chemistry and the rest was history.



And here is the wildest part. When asked if he liked working on Sanford & Son he said it was the best. Always a great time...when Red Fox was there. Not the other guy.

yeah, Lamonte best friend Rollo were NOT cool at all with each other. But Fred G Sanford who always went off on Rollo- were actually great friends in life, go figure.

Most in America assumed at the time the show was the brainchild of famous Norman lear who had a flair for making shows about narrowminded men from Archie Bunker (All in the Family) to George Jefferson (The Jeffersons) so it was a moot question as to how Sanford & Son came to be.
Wrong!
Again I learned that it wasn't an original show. Rather it was a remake of some British Show in the 1960s called Steptoe & Son!
In fact they ripped the show off totally, Steptoe a broke old dude trying to get by.
Fred Sanford same.
Steptoe didnt want his son to leave. Same with Fred, only from what I read, steptoe & son had more dramatic episodes, while Sanford & son was solely about laughs.


Now I don't know if Steptoe & Son had a counterpart for Rollo, but if not, hope some may enjoy the best of Rollo above.
What blacks liked about Rollo was his raspy voice, cool ass demeanor. Wore the best clothes (of that era) LOL! He was authentic, nothing phony about him. In fact, because he never played parts before, he was just being himself.

When Foxx left, he didnt enjoy working with his onscreen friend Lamonte (Demon Wilson) but he did take his money to open a school for inner city youth interested in arts.
When he past at the age of 80, he was given a send off from Hollywood to the Hood!
We loved us some Rollo!!!