Redd Foxx on The Merv Griffin Show (1966)

Redd Foxx (December 9, 1922 - 1991) was so much more than the character that he made famous on Sanford & Son , as witnessed by the dozens of stand-up albums he released during his life--many of them as insightful as they were raunchy. Before the world would get to know "Fred Sanford," he was being name-dropped by Detroit Red as Chicago Red in The Autobiography of Malcolm X. In this clip from 1966, Merv Griffin prefaces his introduction of Foxx with "he's kind of a stranger to television"; six years later he would be the star of one of television's most popular sitcoms.