As a teenager, Sanford aspired to be an actress, but her mother discouraged her dream, as she felt that show business was "the road to degradation."

[2] After graduating high school, Sanford joined Harlem's American Negro Theater and The Star Players.

She made her professional stage debut in 1946 in On Strivers Row, and appeared in several off-Broadway productions while also working as a keypunch operator at IBM.

[2][5] In 1960, Sanford withdrew money from her retirement fund, boarded a bus with her three children, left her husband in New York, and moved to Los Angeles.

[6] She caught the attention of major Hollywood players, including Norman Lear, who cast Sanford in the role of Louise Jefferson in All in the Family.

Sanford and her TV husband Sherman Hemsley were so popular that Norman Lear decided to spin off the characters into their own weekly series The Jeffersons.

She appeared on Dream On, Living Single, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, In the House, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, The Steve Harvey Show, and Hearts Are Wild.

She and Hemsley also made a cameo appearance in the film Sprung, and guest-starred in The Parkers, Mafia!, and two episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

[3] She made her final television appearance the following month as an animated version of herself in The Simpsons episode "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore.