Franklin Cover passes

[Pointyhead]

Franklin Cover, who became a familiar face as George and Louise Jefferson’s white neighbor in the long-running TV sitcom “The Jeffersons,� has died, his publicist said Thursday. He was 77.

 

Cover died of pneumonia Sunday at the Lillian Booth Actor’s Fund of America home in Englewood, N.J., said publicist Dale Olson. He had been living at the home since December 2005 while recuperating from a heart condition.

 

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Cover was best known for his role as Tom Willis, who was in an interracial marriage with a black woman, in “The Jeffersons.�

 

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He is survived by his widow, Mary, a son and a daughter.