<Tr> <Th> Spouse (s) </Th> <Td> Louise Jefferson (1952) (wife) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Children </Th> <Td> Lionel Jefferson (son) </Td> </Tr> <P> George Jefferson is a fictional character played by Sherman Hemsley on the American television sitcoms All in the Family (from 1973 until 1975) and its spin - off The Jeffersons (1975--1985), in which he serves as the program's protagonist . He is the only character to appear in all 253 episodes of The Jeffersons . </P> <P> George Jefferson was born in Harlem in 1929, an ambitious African - American entrepreneur who started and managed a successful chain of seven dry cleaning stores in New York City . The only background on the Jefferson family is that they were Alabama sharecroppers . In a very early episode, George's wife Louise makes mention of a conversation she had with George's father after she and George were married about the Jeffersons family roots . However, the show's writers later applied a retroactive change in the continuity of George's father, such that he had died when George was 10 years old . This left George to take care of his mother; therefore, George was unable to complete high school . He was a cook in the US Navy during the Korean War . He began dating Louise when they were teenagers and married her upon his discharge from the navy . </P>

Who played george jefferson on all in the family