Sherman Hemsley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sherman Hemsley

Born	February 1, 1938 (age 69) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Notable roles	- George Jefferson in All in the Family and The Jeffersons - Ernest Frye in Amen

Sherman Hemsley (February 1, 1938, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an African American character actor most famous for his roles as George Jefferson on the television shows All in the Family and The Jeffersons and as Deacon Ernest Frye on Amen. He also played Earl Sinclair's horrifying boss, a Triceratops named B.P. Richfield on the Jim Henson sitcom, Dinosaurs.

Hemsley and his TV wife, Isabel Sanford, were very popular as the Jeffersons, but were typecast by the roles and were mostly limited to guest TV appearances and cameo appearances in movies, appearing in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Designing Women, In Living Color, Family Matters, The Wayans Bros., Sister, Sister, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and The Hughleys.

Hemsley, with Isabel Sanford, on The Jeffersons.

In 1984, Hemsley and Sanford had a special guest appearance on the Italian TV show Grand Hotel (playing their Jeffersons role); they were also invited to the Gran Premio Internazionale della TV, an Italian TV award show (similar to Emmy Awards) promoted by TV Sorrisi e Canzoni magazine, where they got the 'Telegatto' award for the best sitcom aired on Italian TVs.

Hemsley also appeared with Isabel Sanford in a series of advertisements for Denny's and Old Navy.

In 2004, "Sherman Hemsley" was referred to as a slang term for PCP by Wayne Brady in a Chappelle's Show sketch during a scene parallel to one from the movie Training Day, also involving PCP usage. The term is actually old street slang for the drug, and is often abbreviated to simply "sherm".

In 2006, Hemsley appeared on the sixth season of VH1's The Surreal Life. He also made a cameo appearance in Family Guy as himself making a George Jefferson religion.