Isabel Sanford

 Isabel Sanford, born Eloise Gwendolyn Sanford (August 29, 1917 – July 9, 2004)

She was best known for her role as Louise "Weezy" Mills-Jefferson on the CBS sitcoms All in the Family (1971–1975) and The Jeffersons (1975–1985). In 1981, she became the second black American actress to win a Primetime Emmy Award, and the first to win for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. In 1965, she made her Broadway debut in James Baldwin's The Amen Corner. The role led to her being cast in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. In the film, she was credited as Isabell Sanford and portrayed the role of the maid Tillie Binks which earned her good reviews. She caught the attention of major Hollywood players, including Norman Lear, who cast Sanford in the role of Louise Jefferson in All in the Family. Sanford and her TV husband, Sherman Hemsley, were so popular that Norman Lear decided to spin the characters off into their own weekly series, The Jeffersons. After The Jeffersons was canceled in 1985, Sanford continued her career with guest starring roles in television and film. In January 1987, she starred in her own sitcom Isabel's Honeymoon Hotel, which aired five days a week in syndication. Sanford later reprised her role as Louise Jefferson in a touring company of The Real Live Jeffersons stage show in the mid-1990s alongside Sherman Hemsley. She was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on July 4, 2004 where she died a month before her 87th birthday five days later. She is interred at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills.