Whitman Mayo(1930-2001)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Noted for portraying characters older than his actual age, Whitman Mayo
was in his early 40s in the early 1970s when he first played the
sexagenarian "Grady" on "Sandford & Son" -- a role that popularized the
expression "Good Goobily Goop!" Nearly thirty years later his "Grady"
role had just about caught up with him in terms of age and, in terms of
Americana, had assumed something of a cult status. In 1996, "Late Night
with Conan O'Brien" hosted a tongue-in-cheek "Where's Grady" search for
the actor who so well played the part. Though this single role tended
to typecast his acting and contributions to the profession, Whitman
Mayo did not let it define him. In fact, his professional growth took
him some distance from the Watts junkyard of the ABC sitcom. He rounded
out his career teaching drama at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta,
Georgia. He was born and grew up in Harlem and Queens, N.Y., moving at
17 to Southern California with his family. He served in the army from
1951-53, then did tours of study at Chaffey College, Los Angeles City
College, and UCLA. He began doing a little acting at this time, but
nothing stuck. He drifted and liked to boast that he played serious
volleyball in Mexico for a year. During these times in his life of not
being fixed in a career, he also worked as a probation officer
counseling young people, picked grapes, waited tables, and other things
for the railroad and a dairy, and not necessarily in that order. In the
late 1960s, he joined the New Lafayette Theater repertory company in
New York City and began settling down in an acting career. His call to
"Sanford & Son" came shortly thereafter when a friend from the New
Lafayette group who was by that time writing for Norman Lear
recommended Mayo for a part in a single episode. His portrayal caught
on and he lasted through the entire duration of the show, even filling
in for Redd Foxx when Foxx took a leave. Having a plethora of
experience with the tentative in his life, Mayo viewed his continuing
success on the series as fleeting and ventured into other trades to
assure financial stability; in 1975, for instance, he opened a travel
agency in Inglewood, California. In 1994, "burned out," as he said, on
Los Angeles, he continued to ply his trade in acting, but moved to
Fayetteville, Georgia.
