The Little Wellness Arts Center Remembers SHERMAN HEMSLEY

Remembering Sherman Hemsley Words By Raymond Tyler

TV Legend Sherman Hemsley passed away today at age 74.

The Philly native was well known for embodying several iconic TV characters .

As George Jefferson Hemsley represented the men who beat the odds in working their family out of poverty through business.

Years later the role of Deacon Frye on Amen took Hemsley back to Philly (at least as a character.)

Then years later Hemsley played the boss of WE SAY SO on Dinosaurs. Though not as well known as his George Jefferson role, no one could mistake Hemlsey's voice. The show Dinosaurs was much deeper than the way it was marketed. The show Dinosaurs was full of metaphors about how the same things that are killing to earth today such as greed, may have also lead to the fall of civilizations before ours.

Here in this clip from my favorite episode of The Jeffersons , George returns to the apartment he grew up in and accidentally meets the family that lives there today.

In many ways Hemsley's George Jefferson set the table for Bill Cosby's Cliff Huxtable (The Cosby Show) and James Avery's Phillip Banks (Fresh Prince of Bel Air.) I was so proud when Hemsley actually appeared on his friend Avery's show The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air as George Jefferson.

Every time I discuss important images of Black Men on TV, I will speak with pride of Mr. Sherman Hemsely.

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