Donald T. Bexley; Actor on ‘Sanford and Son’

Donald T. Bexley, 87, one of Fred Sanford’s good friends on the television comedy series “Sanford and Son.” Bexley portrayed Bubba Hoover to Redd Foxx’s Sanford. The series, based on a British show “Steptoe and Son,” was an instant hit and remained in the country’s top 10 programs for its entire run from 1972 to 1977. Bexley reprised Bubba in the short-lived sequel, “The Sanford Arms,” which had many of the same characters but not “Sanford’s” two stars, Foxx and Demond Wilson. Bexley maintained a close friendship with Foxx and was an honorary pallbearer at Foxx’s funeral in 1991. Other programs in which Bexley guest-starred were “Hunter” and “Laverne and Shirley.” On Tuesday in Hampton, Va., of heart and kidney failure.