Esther Anderson

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Esther Winfield Anderson (born Esther Winfield), also known as "Aunt Esther", is a fictional character in the television series, Sanford and Son.

She was played by the late actress LaWanda Page, a long-time friend of Redd Foxx; she was Foxx's first and only choice to play Aunt Esther.

[edit] Fred's true nemesis

Esther, married to a massively inebriated and henpecked man named Woodrow Anderson, is the arch-nemesis of junkyard owner, Fred Sanford. Esther's younger sister, Elizabeth, was married to Fred, and she and the rest of her family were against the marriage from the very outset. However, if anything good came out of their marriage, it was her nephew, Lamont.

Esther was a devout churchgoer, always armed with the Bible, and whenever she went to do battle with Fred, which was often, she was aided by women from her church. (Her "church lady" image lay in direct contrast to the "blue" material of Page's stand-up act and record albums.) Usually, at any unexpected moment, Esther would throw her hands up and exclaim, "Oh, Glory!" (as H'Oh Glory), even when she was in an argument with Fred. Her upright image was deflated when it was revealed that in her youth, a man called "Big Money Grip" had sneaked into her bedroom and had sex with her – Grip had mistaken the ugly Esther for the beautiful Elizabeth in the dark, which led Grip to claim he was Lamont's real father.

Fred and Esther often clashed over anything and everything. He despised her and the feeling was clearly mutual. She often came over to his house, (often against Fred's wishes) and tried to get him to change his life. Her words always fell on deaf ears. In fact, Fred would always make sure he knew where she should be "back to your cave, bat!" Esther often called Fred a "fish-eyed fool" and a "heathen", and when he upset her, she would tell him to "Watch it, sucka!"

Unlike her adversarial relationship with Fred, she had a loving relationship with Lamont, who loved her too. In fact, Esther had always been his favorite aunt. Lamont's other favorite relative is his Aunt Ethel, (played by Beah Richards) She thought the world of him, and wished with all her heart that she could help get him out of the miserable existence his father had made. Her reason was that she felt his late mother wouldn't want him living in a junk shop. Esther thought Lamont was suited for bigger and better things, and would often be in his corner in helping him try to get out from under Fred's thumb.

Fred often teased her about her looks, once telling her, "I could stick your face in some dough and make some gorilla cookies!" She would usually respond with comments about his conniving and sometimes downright devious ways.

Despite their constant arguments, some episodes reveal that Esther and Fred actually cared about each other, such as when Fred helped her adopt a child or when Esther became upset when she thought she had hit Fred too hard with her gold-rimmed Bible. In one episode, Fred also gave Esther $100 he won gambling (leaving himself with $.35) to help her church.

She later lived next door to him at the Sanford Arms, the boarding house that was on the same land as his junkyard.