'Sanford and Son' star Nathaniel Taylor dead at 80

FoxNews.com ^ | Mar 3, 2019 | AP, via FoxNews.com

[equaviator]

Wasn’t he also the bass player in the Band of Gypsies with Hendrix? Pic at top looks like ‘69-’70-ish.

[the OlLine Rebel]

There were lots of great black shows, never mind music.

Can black guys even sing any more? The girls do, but the boys just seem to monotone yap.

Back then they were making us like them. Now it’s basically the opposite.

[Captain Peter Blood]

I think your right. The Blacks had a distinctive culture and you had the Black Films that were made then. So of them like “Shaft” were pretty good and had crossover appeal. I still like to watch some them from time to time, the women, the hair, the talk was so unreal and funny. Watch “Cotton Comes to Harlem”, now that is a funny movie and Judy Pace was without a doubt one of the most gorgeous women on film.

[Dawgreg]

Rollo was my favorite character........RIP......

[ETL]

Wasn’t he also the bass player in the Band of Gypsies with Hendrix? Pic at top looks like ‘69-’70-ish.

I don't think so. But see if you can find something on that.

[alexander_busek]

I don't have to check to see, either. My favorite line from that episode:

Lamont: I'm a Black man, right?

Fred: Yeah...

Lamont: Then I should have a name [he means an African name] so that people know I'm a Black man!

Fred: Son, you could be named Spiro T. Agnew, people would still know that you's a Black man a half a mile away!

Regards,

[ETL]

[Dr. Sivana]

I happened to love Good Times and will forever admire Esther Rolle for standing up to Norman Lear when he tried to force the storyline on her about James leaving the family to cover the contract issue John Amos had with Lear.

I hadn't known that. Good for her. John Amos' character would not have left that family. Besides, TV sitcoms already had a long history of untimely deaths causing the situation. Good thing Lear didn't try to pull a new "mom and dad" like he did when he gave All in the Family a "new" Lionel.

[4yearlurker]

Band of Gypsies was Billy Cox on bass and Buddy Miles on Drums.

[equaviator]

Oh yeah! Jimi’s old Army buddy.

[Dr. Sivana]

So of them like “Shaft” were pretty good and had crossover appeal.

The one I liked was "Let's Do It Again", which was a typical comic farce with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin had it been white, but the blackness of it, with black people having fun with their own stereotypes on their terms (outside of some VERY creepy talk by Cosby in the opening scene that is not pertinent to the plot) made it a fun and well done movie. (Jimmie Walker, Sidney Poitier, John Amos) It is not exactly "The Sting", but when you start with the idea of Jimmie Walker playing a boxing contender, it can get very silly very fast.

Runner up was "They Call Me Bruce", a black Kung Fu movie with a character named Bruce Leroy.

[OKSooner]

Blast from the past... LOL... :)

[Bell Bouy II]

Love the past, that was genuinely funny

[Leep]

Not to mention they could play instruments.
Not just guitars and drums but horns.

[fieldmarshaldj]

You look at “Good Times” now and it looks like a ‘Conservative’ show with the (sad) rarity of a two-parent household, at least until John Amos left (he was tired of the shift to Jimmie Walker’s ‘clowning’).

Black male singers today ? I don’t know. Only one that comes to mind of the past 20 years is Seal, and he’s English.

[Old Yeller]

If he’s 80, then how old is Grady?

[Leep]

Andc pianos ..and xylophones.. and harmony....

[Carriage Hill]

Even with the pics, I don’t remember him.
RIP, anyway.

[jjotto]

Grady (Whitman Mayo) was only eight years older than Taylor.

[Vigilanteman]

Sanford and Son........too racist to make today

He insulted every group, including fellow blacks.
He was a UNITER; he made us ALL laugh.