Whitman Mayo

Whitman Blount Mayo Jr. (November 15, 1930 – May 22, 2001) was an American actor whose career spanned Broadway, television, and film. Born in New York City, he grew up in Harlem and later Queens before relocating with his family to Southern California at age seventeen. He completed his secondary education at Fontana High School and subsequently served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953 during the Korean War. Following his discharge, Mayo pursued higher education at Chaffey College, Los Angeles City College, and UCLA, where he began taking on small acting roles while supporting himself and his family through work as a waiter, vineyard laborer, and probation officer. He also devoted seven years to counseling delinquent boys.

Mayo made his Broadway debut in 1965, appearing in The Amen Corner. His stage work continued through his association with the New Lafayette Theatre in the early 1970s, where he was working when producer Norman Lear offered him the recurring role of Grady Wilson on the NBC sitcom Sanford and Son. The character's name was drawn from Demond Wilson, the actor who played Lamont Sanford and whose given first name is Grady. When Redd Foxx left the series during a contract dispute, Mayo's character moved into the Sanford household and carried the show for six episodes. He subsequently starred in the spin-off series Grady, in which his character relocated to Beverly Hills to live with his daughter and son-in-law; the series was cancelled in 1976. Mayo reprised the role in the 1977 NBC spin-off Sanford Arms alongside actor Theodore Wilson, and again appeared as Grady in two episodes of Sanford in 1981, a further spin-off that reunited him with Redd Foxx and actor Dennis Burkley.

Beyond his work on the Sanford franchise, Mayo accumulated a range of television and film credits. In the late 1970s he appeared on the Los Angeles children's program That's Cat. His film appearances included The Main Event with Barbra Streisand, D.C. Cab, Boyz n the Hood, and Waterproof with Burt Reynolds. He played Sweets, the owner of Moonshot Bar and Grill, in The Cape, and appeared as Reverend Banyon in the 2001 BET television film Boycott. Additional television credits included episodes of In the Heat of the Night in 1990, Full House in 1991, Martin, and a 1997 guest appearance on the Nickelodeon sitcom Kenan and Kel as Uncle Raymond. He also made appearances on Sesame Street and hosted Liars and Legends on Turner South. In February 1996, following a widely publicized search that included a dedicated viewer hotline and a mock segment styled after Unsolved Mysteries, Mayo appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Outside of performing, Mayo taught drama at Clark Atlanta University and operated a travel agency in Inglewood, California. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Mayo married Melva Washington in Los Angeles in 1956. From 1994 he lived in Atlanta's Collier Heights community with his third wife, Gail Mayo. He died of a heart attack on May 22, 2001, at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital. His son Rahn Mayo was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2009.