Trivia: Born John Sanford, this scratchy-voiced, bulldog-faced black comedian and actor entered show business while still in his teens; over several decades, he worked as a "blue humor" comic in nightclubs and theaters around the country. From 1951-55 he teamed with comic Slappy White. He made 54 "party records" (comedy records with plenty of four-letter words and blue humor, popular mostly in the black community) and established himself as the dean of blue comedy. In the '60s his audience expanded, and he got guest shots on a number of TV shows. After debuting onscreen in Ossie Davis's unexpectedly successful film Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) Foxx was signed to star in the TV series Sanford and Son the show was a hit and lasted from 1972-77, making him a household name. He went on to appear in the sitcoms Sanford, The Redd Foxx Show and in the variety show The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour and continued appearing regularly as a stand-up comic in Las Vegas.

Trivia: Began his acting career at the age of 4 with an appearance in the Broadway play Green Pastures. Was drafted by the Army and served a tour of duty in Vietnam. Guest-starred on an Emmy-winning episode of All in the Family, which helped him earn a lead role on the popular sitcom Sanford and Son. Scaled back his acting work after experiencing a spiritual awakening and becoming a minister in 1983. Is also a writer whose works include several children's books and the memoir Second Banana: The Bitter Sweet Memoirs of the Sanford & Son Years.

Trivia: Much-loved funnyman Slappy White spent the bulk of his long career performing in nightclubs, particularly those catering to black audiences in Atlantic City, NJ and Las Vegas. He only occasionally appeared in feature films. Born Melvin White in Baltimore, Maryland, he was raised in poverty and started out dancing on the streets for small change. At one time, he partnered with Redd Foxx. Many years later, after both had become famous comics, they would sometimes perform together. White often drew upon the hardships of his early life to create his comedy. The wearing of a white and a black glove on either hand to symbolize the need for racial harmony was one of White's special trademarks. In 1969, White teamed with Steve Ross and they became one of the first successful racially mixed comedy acts. White made his feature-film debut with Ross in the silly sexploitation film The Man from O.R.G.Y. (1970). White sometimes appeared on television. In 1972, White played "Melvin" on Red Foxx's sitcom Sanford and Son. He also had a regular role on the 1995 children's series Fudge. He made his last film appearance in the Billy Crystal vehicle Mr. Saturday Night (1991). White was an honor board member and inductee in the National Comedy Hall of Fame.

Trivia: Against some very long odds -- including being blacklisted -- Charles S. Dubin enjoyed a long and honored career as a director, primarily on television. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1919, Dubin was attracted to the arts while attending Samuel J. Tilden High School, and set the goal for himself of being an opera singer -- indeed, he wanted to be the next Feodor Chaliapin. He attended Brooklyn College, studying drama with Joe Davidson, the father of director Gordon Davidson, and graduated in 1941. He later trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Manhattan under Sanford Meisner and also subsequently studied directing with Lee Strasberg. Dubin began performing in the Catskills, doing comedy, drama, and music, and was asked back as a director the following year. Thus began his directorial career, although standing six feet tall and extremely handsome, and possessed of a powerful voice, he couldn't avoid the inevitable offers of acting and singing work. After the Neighborhood Playhouse, Dubin moved on to the Papermill Playhouse and performed later professionally in Something for the Boys, understudying Allen Jenkins in the lead and in other productions, making his Broadway debut in early 1945; he also understudied William Gaxton and Victor Moore in Hollywood Pinafore, and performed with the Philadelphia Opera Company. Dubin was able to make the jump to the small screen when television became a commercially viable medium. In 1950, he was hired by ABC as an associate director and moved up to the director's chair a few months later; his first programs were Tales of Tomorrow, a science fiction anthology series, and a comedy series starring Peggy Ann Garner entitled Two Girls Named Smith. TV was all live in those days and Dubin became an expert at juggling actors, cameras, and microphones coherently and even artistically, on shows such as Motorola Playhouse, Pulitzer Prize Playhouse, and Philco Playhouse. On Omnibus, his productions included Advice to Bathers with Esther Williams, William Saroyan's My Heart's in the Highlands, the opera The Ballad of Baby Doe, and a brace of programs featuring Leonard Bernstein (including Young People's Concerts: What Does Music Mean?) and Agnes de Mille, dealing with music and dance, respectively. His reputation for being able to deliver quality quickly also got Dubin his first theatrical film credit, for the Alan Freed jukebox movie Mr. Rock and Roll (1957), featuring Clyde McPhatter, Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, and an enviable array of other early rock & roll and R&B stars. By the mid-'50s he was working as the director of one of the medium's top-rated quiz shows, Twenty-One. In the spring of 1958, Dubin was called to testify by the House Un-American Activities Committee, in its investigation of alleged Communist infiltration in the television and theater industries. Dubin refused to testify, asserting his right to silence under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, invoking the right 22 times. He later explained that he was not, at that time, a Communist Party member and had never known of any activity contrary to the interests of the United States, but also believed in his right not to testify. He was never cited for contempt, but NBC and the producers of Twenty-One dismissed the married father of two the next day. He didn't work in television for the next three years, until the makers of the series The Defenders hired him as a director -- he followed that with an episode of The Virginian, and then The Nurses, and suddenly he was back. After directing the 1964 television production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical Cinderella, Dubin became one of the busiest directors in television over the next 25 years, on series such as Ironside, Bracken's World, Room 222, Judd for the Defense, Cannon, Hawaii Five-O, Kung Fu, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Lou Grant, Sledge Hammer, and Matlock, though he probably made his greatest impact on the series M*A*S*H, for which he directed more than 50 episodes. In the mid-'70s, he also moved into miniseries and made-for-television features, among them episode two of Roots: The Next Generations and the 1979 remake of Topper with Kate Jackson and Andrew Stevens. He also directed his second feature film, Moving Violation (1976), a chase-thriller similar in plot to Richard Compton's Macon County Line (1974). Most of his work was confined to television, however, and beyond his activities for the commercial networks, Dubin also did top-notch work for PBS, including a special devoted to Agnes de Mille, and acclaimed dramas including The Belle of Amherst, starring Julie Harris. By the mid-'80s he had ten Emmy nominations to his credit, and was equally at home doing serious, high-brow subjects or light comedies. Dubin retired after 1989 at the age of 70, after 39 years in television and 48 years in entertainment. He died in 2011 at the age of 92.

Trivia: Marlene Clark, a black supporting actress and occasional lead, appeared on screen beginning in the '70s.