Isabel Sanford, the deep-throated, African-American actress best known for her role as Louise "Weezie" Jefferson on the sitcom The Jeffersons (1975-85), died of natural causes on July 9 in Los Angeles. She was 86.

She was born in New York City on August 29, 1917, and caught the acting bug early when she participated in campus plays throughout her school years. After she graduated high school in 1935, Sanford joined the acclaimed American Negro Theater in Harlem, and later, another noted Black repertoire, the Star Players. For the next 25 years, Sanford would notch several off-Broadway and Broadway productions to her credit, when she made the decision to relocate with her three children to Hollywood to break into movie industry.

It took a few years, but Sanford earned the role that would move her into the big time, that of Tillie, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy's housekeeper in Stanley Kramer's pioneering drama of miscegenation, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). In one great scene, Sanford confronts Sidney Poitier, who played the successful doctor that is about to marry Hepburn and Tracy's young daughter and overwhelms him with righteous fervor and declares, "If you do anything to hurt that child, I'll show you what black power really means!" It was the breakthrough part she was hoping for; after that, Sanford found a string of television guest spots in the late `60s: Bewitched, The Mod Squad, Love, American Style and many others.

Within a few years, Sanford would land her signature role of Louise "Weezie" Jefferson, Archie and Edith Bunker's neighbor on All in The Family (1971-75); it proved such a hit that producer Norman Lear created a spinoff, The Jefferson (1975-85) that co-starred Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson. Through her run as Weezie, Sanford still worked in films: most memorably as the madame of a Harlem bordello in Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and a volatile judge in Love at First Bite (1979); guest appearances on other hit television programs: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Vega$, The Love Boat; and made history as the first African-American performer to win the Emmy award for Best Lead Actress in a comedy series for The Jeffersons in 1981.

After the Jeffersons finished its run in the mid-'80s, Sanford kept a relatively low profile, but here career was revived in the mid `90s when she was asked to appear in hip comedy shows like Roseanne, The Ben Stiller Show, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She was even asked to revive her Weezie character alongside Hemsley in the film Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998); and some commercials for Old Navy and Denny's restaurants.

Despite mounting medical problems, which included an operation of a neck artery 10 months ago, Sanford was busy almost until the end. In, 2004, she lent her voice to The Simpsons, and made a personal appearance in January when she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Sanford is survived by three children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole