Isabel Sanford was a Broadway actress for over thirty years before moving to Hollywood. She made numerous guest appearances in various to include recurring member on "The Carol Burnett Show." Isabel continues to act frequently, most recently in a series of commercials for Old Navy stores with "Jeffersons" co-star, Sherman Hemsley. She made several commercials for Nick-at-Nite as well when the cable channel premiered The Jeffersons.



Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967): $600/week

Her son Sanford K. Sanford and daughter Pamela Ruff appeared in her profile episode of TV's "Intimate Portrait" (1993) on the Lifetime cable TV network. Has another son named William Eric. Played the same character, Louise 'Weezy' Mills Jefferson, on four different TV series and one film: Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998), "The Jeffersons" (1975), "All in the Family" (1971), "Roseanne" (1988), and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" (1990). Cast in the recurring role of Louise Jefferson on "All in the Family" (1971) by series creator Norman Lear who remembered her from a stage production of "The Amen Corner.". Had a daughter and two sons by her marriage to William "Sonny" Richmond, a housepainter. She gave up her career to raise her family but moved to Los Angeles with her children after her estranged husband drowned in 1960. The youngest of seven children and the only one to survive infancy. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 490-492. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages . Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.