NEWS - RIP Sherman Hemsley, video-tributo

NEWS - Sherman Hemsley, il ricordo del critico tv Ken Tucker
Sherman Hemsley, the man who brought George Jefferson to vivid life, has died at age 74. The accomplished stage actor achieved his widest fame in a role he raised to comic greatness: George Jefferson, the egotistical, strutting centerpiece of The Jeffersons. Hemsley took a part that could have been clownish and exaggerated — George Jefferson, the braying entrepeneur striving to, as the show’s theme song said, “move on up”  — and made George a vital, three-dimensional character, and an important advance in the depiction of black characters in sitcoms. George’s ego and selfishness were often brought into line by his wife, Isabel Sanford’s Louise Jefferson (George’s beloved “Weezy”), but the force of the character derived from the tremendous ambition, frustration, and anger George felt toward the world. You can credit producer Norman Lear for helping to conceive the character, first in All in the Family and then as a spin-off in The Jeffersons, but it was clearly Hemsley’s performance that fueled its power. Hemsley had come up through the theater, in straight dramas as well as musicals (he came to George Jefferson initially fresh from a run in the raucous, Ossie Davis-derived Broadway musical Purlie), and Jefferson brought a rhythmic musicality in the way George moved onscreen. His erect posture conveyed George’s pride, his perpetually affronted expression was a mask against the injustices, correctly perceived or imagined, by George; his harsh voice was the sound of a man who would not be denied his place in the world. Watching George Jefferson was to witness a man comfortable in his own skin — and that that skin was black was significant. From Hemsley’s performance, you could build an entire philosophy of the man he played. As a black man of his generation, George was as likely to have taken his civil rights cues from Malcolm X as from Martin Luther King, Jr. And while his business acumen placed him squarely in the capitalist tradition, George was a Black Panther-inspired figure of action, emboldened to make his opinions heard, his actions felt in the world around him.
The Jeffersons aired for a decade, 1975-85, and Hemsley’s performance embodied George’s move from the working-class to the middle-class as the owner of a chain of dry-cleaning businesses. George’s pride, his radar for any trace of racial exploitation, his ease at dismissing someone who’d offended or condescended to him as “honky” — these were all elements that could easily have put off mass America. Instead, because of Hemsley’s skill, charm, and energy, they became the elements that endeared the character to the country.
Hemsley went on to other roles. He was a rascal church deacon in the sitcom Amen; he provided the voice for an imperious character in the puppet sitcom Dinosaurs. These were, in a sense, variations on George Jefferson, who will live and rant and remain lovable and admirable forever.
Twitter: @kentucker

NEWS - Addio Hemsley, addio George
(AGI) - New York, 25 lug. - E' morto in Texas all'eta' di 74 anni l'attore americano Sherman Hemsley, noto soprattutto come il capofamiglia burbero della serie tv "I Jefferson", divertente sit-com sulla scalata sociale di una famiglia afroamericana. Hemsley, originario di Philadelphia, si e' spento per cause naturali nella sua abitazione di El Paso. Dopo il successo nei panni di George Jefferson con "All in the Family", una serie degli anni '70 andata in onda anche su Canale 5 con il titolo di "Arcibaldo", Hemsley affianco' Isabel Sanford nello spin-off "I Jefferson". La sit-com sulla famiglia dell'acido uomo d'affari afroamericano arricchitosi con le lavanderie e approdato alla "upper" Manhattan e' andata in onda dal 1975 al 1985 e ha continuato a essere replicata dalle tv di tutto il mondo. Al punto che per il suo ruolo di George (doppiato in Italia da Enzo Garinei) Hemsley ottenne nel 1984 una nomination agli Emmy, gli Oscar della tv, come attore
protagonista. In seguito l'attore era apparso in qualche film ("L'aereo piu' pazzo del mondo 3") ma non si era mai liberato del suo personaggio nei Jefferson che era tornato a interpretare con qualche cameo nell'episodio pilota della serie tv "P/S - Pronto soccorso", in due puntate di "Willy, il principe di Bel Air", nel film "Mafia!" del 1998 e nel 2011 in un episodio del telefilm "House of Payne". George Jefferson, un bigotto contrario ai matrimoni misti in voga tra i suoi vicini a Manhattan, e' un nuovo ricco che ignora sistematicamente il "politically correct" per far pesare il suo status ai meno abbienti, di qualunque colore abbiano la pelle. In casa trova pero' una nemesi nella donna di servizio Florence (Marla Gibbs) che risponde con sarcasmo e indifferenza al suo dispotismo.

NEWS - Remembering Sherman Hemsley on Radio Capital
http://www.capital.it/capital/radio/programmi/Ladies--Capital/3713660/3730324

NEWS - Addio a Sherman Hemsley, il mitico George de "I Jefferson". E' uno di quegli addii come se ti scomparisse un caro amico...
Sherman Hemsley, best known for playing the vocal patriarch George Jefferson on The Jeffersons, died Tuesday, TMZ reports. He was 74. He died at his El Paso, Texas, home, of natural causes, police told TMZ. A theater actor in his early years, Hemsley originated the role of George Jefferson on All in the Family in 1973. Less than two years later, George and Louise Jefferson (Isabel Sanford) moved on up with their own spin-off The Jeffersons, which followed the family's exploits in running a dry-cleaning business. The Jeffersons were one of the first affluent African-American families depicted on television. After the show's cancellation in 1985, Hemsley reunited with the original Jeffersons cast members for a brief Broadway adaptation of the show. Hemsley's other credits include NBC's Amen, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Dinosaurs. His most recent work was a guest spot on a 2011 episode Tyler Perry's House of Payne, on which he reprised his role as George Jefferson.