Source: Entertainment Weekly

Lynn Hamilton, a renowned actress who starred on the beloved television drama The Waltons and the influential sitcom Sanford and Son, has died. She was 95.

Hamilton died peacefully of natural causes in her Chicago home on June 19 surrounded by her grandchildren, her former manager and publicist, Rev. Calvin Carson, confirmed to Entertainment Weekly on Saturday.

“Her illustrious career, spanning over five decades, has left an indelible mark on the world of entertainment, [with her] motivating audiences across the globe through her work as a model [and] stage, film, and television actress,” Carson wrote in a statement shared on Instagram.

Born Alzenia ‘Lynn’ Hamilton in Yazoo City, Miss., on April 25, 1930, Hamilton began her career in Chicago’s community theater scene. At 29, she made her Broadway debut in 1959’s Only in America. She went on to appear in numerous Broadway and Off Broadway productions, while also taking her talents to the small screen with roles on the television series Gunsmoke and Room 222.

Her film debut also came in 1959, in the John Cassavetes film Shadows. Her later credits included Brother John, Buck and the Preacher, and Lady Sings the Blues, which told the story of jazz legend Billie Holiday.

Hamilton joined NBC’s Sanford and Son in February 1972 in what was intended to be a one-off appearance. In the episode she played a landlady who gives Demond Wilson’s Lamont Sanford a hard time when he attempts to escape his father (Redd Foxx) and get his own bachelor pad.

“I didn’t even have a name — I was just ‘the landlady,'” Hamilton recalled in a 2009 interview. “I had one scene, and I think I had to put him out or something. And I came in and I absolutely gave it to him. They said, ‘You can be as big as you want to be,’ and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I can use my stage stuff.'”

Hamilton said producers were so thrilled with her performance that she was called in to play Sanford’s girlfriend, Donna Harris, who became a recurring character. She noted that Foxx was especially excited to have her in the role. “He was impressed with my experience,” she said. “He always said, ‘You’re so dignified, and I need somebody dignified opposite me.’ He was aware of his earthliness, shall we say.”

Sanford and Son, credited with ushering in a Golden Age of Black family sitcoms, ultimately ran six seasons and often landed in the Nielsen top 5 with its ratings. Around the same time, Hamilton began starring on The Waltons as Miss Verdie, a neighbor of the titular family, who eventually marries Harley Foster, played by Hal Williams, who also starred on Sanford and Son. Her first episode on the show, “The Scholar,” won a screenwriting Emmy for John McGreevey.

Hamilton also starred as matriarch Vivian Potter on the 1989 daytime drama Generations, ex-con Cissie Johnson on the 1991 nighttime soap Dangerous Women, and Georgia Anderson in Roots: The Next Generation. Her other TV credits included recurring roles on the NBC sitcom 227 and ABC’s The Practice, and parts on The Golden Girls, NYPD Blue, Cold Case, and Judging Amy.

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