# RIP Sherman Hemsley **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2012, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281 "2012-07-24T20:46:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281/21 "2012-07-25T03:28:56Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Linky no worky. Hmm. Here it is [on another site](http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/03/05/george-jefferson-worlds-biggest-gong-fan/). ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281/22 "2012-07-25T04:09:41Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I heard Marla Gibbs give a speech a few years ago in Georgia and she told the story of that show. In real life, Gibbs married in her mid-teens, was a divorced mother of three kids by her late 20s, and pretty much dead broke for most of her 30s while she tried to break into acting. A famous and true story about her is that she was working as a ticket reservationist for an airline when she was first appeared on _The Jeffersons_, and when she was moved up to a series regular she kept the airline job… for an entire season! She was, understandably, terrified of being left broke and unemployed if the series got cancelled. That’s a great story - thanks. I always like Marla Gibbs. _Jefferson_ reruns and _227_ were staples of my childhood… > [@Sampiro](#): > > _Amen_ was actually an underrated show, IMHO. It had some really memorable episodes and good supporting characters. …as was _Amen_. That show had a great opening sequence. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281/23 "2012-07-31T03:39:56Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Hmm. Here it is [on another site](http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2009/03/05/george-jefferson-worlds-biggest-gong-fan/). Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281/24 "2012-07-31T03:44:52Z")
RIP, Sherm. ( Man, all the giants are going. Haven’t seen if there’s a thread, but I just learned Chad Everett of _Medical Center_ died recently too. EDIT: Found the [Everett thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=659750&highlight=chad). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281/25 "2012-07-31T20:10:18Z")
Norman Lear first saw Hemsley when he was performing in Purlie on Broadway, and knew he had found his George Jefferson. Lear was so insistant on Hemsley’s playing the role that he waited two years for Hemsley to finish the show’s run before introducing the character. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281/26 "2012-07-31T20:40:50Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Norman Lear first saw Hemsley when he was performing in Purlie on Broadway, and knew he had found his George Jefferson. Lear was so insistant on Hemsley’s playing the role that he waited two years for Hemsley to finish the show’s run before introducing the character. A performance of\* Purlie \*with Hemsley as Gitlow and Robert Guillaume as the title character was released onto VHS and it was excellent. Bits of it are on YouTube last I checked but it’s never been released on DVD. For those who’ve never seen the musical or the original, it’s a dark comedy based on a story/play/movie by Ossie Davis. It’s set in the late Jim Crow/just before the dawn of Civil Rights era; a self-educated reformer black preacher, Purlie Victorious Judson (Davis in the non-musical, Robert Guillaume in the taped musical [Cleavon Little in the original Broadway musical]) returns home to Mississippi to con back an inheritance stolen from his family by Ol’ Cap’n, the plantation owner whose land Purlie’s family sharecrops. (Ol’ Cap’n was played by Sorrell “Boss Hogg” Booke in the non-musical version in a performance very like Boss; his kindhearted but stupid son was played by Alan Alda in a performance that sounded a lot like Forrest Gump.) Hemsley played Gitlow, Purlie’s older brother, an Uncle Tom (in the stereotypical sense- “Yas, Cap’n, yo’ sho iz good t’us, Cap’n”) who, having risen higher than the other sharecroppers under Ol’ Cap’n, isn’t eager for the change Purlie wants to bring. The performance has a lot of George Jefferson in it- or vice versa: cocky, two-faced at times, selfish, but meaner and darker than George. He was great in it. Anyway, it’s vintage Hemsley: ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281/27 "2012-07-31T21:49:44Z")
After his death, Gibbs said that he’d always stayed in touch with her and helped her keep finding work (and vice versa). She said they had recently been talking about trying to get some new project going, and unfortunately it was not to be. ETA: I also have a vague memory of Howard Cosell insulting Hemsley’s bicycling skills once on _Battle of the Network Stars_. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281/28 "2012-08-30T18:16:48Z")
[Sherm’s not in the ground yet.](http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/30/showbiz/sherman-hemsley-dispute/index.html?hpt=hp_bn9)Some guy claiming to be his brother wants the body. Even assuming he is really Hemsley’s brother, which I doubt, he picked a jerkwad time to come forward. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-sherman-hemsley/629281.md?page=1)