- Sherman Hemsley, The Jeffersons, TV,1975-1985. The New Yorker was racist Archie Bunker’s black pal, Lionel Jefferson, in the first two ABC pilots for what became All In The Family on CBS – Justice For All, 1968, and Those Were The Days, 1969. When The Jeffersons was the most successful of producer Norman Lear’s six Family spin-offs (Maude, Good Times, Archie Bunker’s Place, Checking In, Gloria) Lionel became George (played by Hemsely) and Lionel was his son’s name. During the show’s run, Martin was an essential ingredient of blaxploitation movies like Black Caesar, Boss Nigger, The Get Man, Hammer,Hell Up In Harlem, Pam Grier’s TV pilot, Sheba Baby, and Fred Williamson’s two Nigger Charley Westerns.
Birth year: 1939Death year: 1984Other name: Casting Calls: 1