Chest Pains

That was the original title of the last television show Redd Foxx starred in. It made it to the airways on September 18, 1991, only under the title The Royal Family. The show starred Redd's good friend Della Reese.

And it was on the set of that show, during rehearsals, when Foxx had the "chest pains" that would end in his death. In fact, because that was his shtick of his best known role - Fred G. Sanford on the popular Sanford and Son sitcom, where he would frequently clutch his chest and claim to be having "the big one" - no one took him seriously at first when he grabbed his chest and collapsed onto the floor.

Well, I remember reading about that in the papers and thinking, "wow, what a coincidence."

I've always found coincidences fascinating. If someone had written a story or screenplay about a character such as Redd Foxx and ended it way it really ended, everyone would think "nah, no way."

So there it is. You either find these coincidences interesting or not. (Some folk lack a sense of the uncanny, I suppose).

A fun note to add is that the aforementioned Della Reese had a "death curse" surrounding her, as detailed in this funny article from the always interesting, if usually gruesome, Find A Death website.

One more coincidence worth mentioning. Whitman Mayo played a character on the prior Foxx vehicle, Sanford and Son. He played Fred's friend Grady. Now would you believe it if I told you that Mayo also died from a heart attack in, of a all places, Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital? I'm serious.

Strange, strange, strange.