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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? |
'Sanford and Son' star now a minister, writer
Preacher man
Serena Kappes
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(PEOPLE) -- Demond Wilson, known to most people as Redd Foxx's long-suffering son on the hit 1970s sitcom "Sanford and Son," was 12 years old when a burst appendix almost ended his life. "I was literally dying ... I felt my body separated from my spirit," he recalls. He recovered, and Wilson soon had an epiphany: "That's when (God) called me out," he says. "I went home and told my mom and dad that I was gonna be a priest."
Though it took Wilson, now 56, nearly 20 years to fully realize his religious calling -- he became a minister in 1983 -- he never doubted that he would do so. "God is a very persuasive creator," he says. "If God is the catalyst, there's nothing you can do about it." After starring on "Sanford and Son" for six seasons (1972-78), followed by two short-lived sitcoms -- 1978's "Baby, I'm Back" and 1982's "The New Odd Couple" -- he felt burnt out.
At the time, he was also using cocaine. "I didn't want to see anybody, didn't want to talk to anybody," he recalls. Then, he found strength in his faith -- so much so that he changed the course of his life. "I went from sinner to saved by grace," he says.
In 1994, after preaching all over the world for more than a decade, Wilson founded the Restoration House of America, a nonprofit organization devoted to rehabilitating former prison inmates. The first Restoration House, in which 150 men live for a year's stint, is near Lynchburg, Virginia, and sits on 500 acres. Plans are in the works for a second facility to be built in Valdosta, Georgia, Wilson's birthplace.
But Wilson, who is father to six children (ranging in age from 13 to 29) and has been married to wife Cicely for nearly 30 years, hasn't left show business behind completely. In 1999, he began writing a screenplay, "The Legend of Ned Turner," which takes place in 1845 and "chronicles the life of an ex-slave who put his life on the line for others." He is currently executive-producing the movie, which is scheduled to begin filming in the spring.
But acting itself doesn't hold the same charge it once did for him. He is proud of his work on the groundbreaking "Sanford and Son" -- "Redd and I were the catalysts, we opened the door" for modern African-American sitcoms that followed, such as "Good Times" and "The Jeffersons," he says. "They don't give us that credit, but we opened that door, kicked it right in" -- but he no longer feels the pull to act on a regular basis. (He did appear as a prisoner in the 2000 comedy "Hammerlock.") "I don't go on auditions," he explains.
Now, he says, nothing compares to the feeling he gets when he's preaching: "When I stand up and minister, I can minister until I turn into a puddle of perspiration and the spirit of God will just renew me."
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