Whitman Mayo, Grady On `Sanford And Son,' Dies At 70

Jet, June 11, 2001

Whitman Mayo, who portrayed junk dealer Fred G. Sanford's close friend Grady Wilson on the 1970s TV series "Sanford and Son," recently died at the Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta. He was 70.

Mayo won fame for his role as the easygoing Grady. He portrayed the character from 1973-1977. Though Mayo was only in his 40s, he breathed life into the 60ish Grady by patterning him after his grandfather. The character was so well received that in 1975 Mayo was given his own show, a spinoff called "Grady." In 1977 he reprised the role for the "Sanford and Son" spinoff "Sanford Arms."

He also appeared on the TV shows "Diff'rent Strokes," "In the Heat of the Night" and "ER." Movie credits for Mayo include Of Mice and Men, The Main Event and Boyz N the Hood.

Mayo attended Los Angeles City College and the University of California at Los Angeles. After college he became a counselor in an institution for delinquent boys, but after seven years in that position, he left to pursue his first love-acting.

A native of New York City, Mayo lived in Fayetteville, GA, for the last seven years. He taught drama classes, since 1996, that focused on scene study and the business of show business at Clark Atlanta University. He also coached students on graduate school auditions.

His most recent work included an appearance in the HBO movie Boycott. He portrayed the Rev. Banyon, a composite of several ministers who worked with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Montgomery bus boycott.

Mayo also worked as the host of Turner South's original weekly series "Liars & Legends."

Survivors include his wife, Gail Reid Mayo; two sons, Gerard Gibbons and Rahn Mayo; a daughter, Tonya Mayo, and his mother, Mary Mayo.

Died:

Loften Mitchell, 82, prominent author, teacher and an early leader of the Black theater movement who was nominated for a Tony Award in 1976 for his book for the musical Bubbling Brown Sugar, in New York.