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| Tom Willis Franklin Cover and wife Helen Roxie Roker broke ground as of TV's first interracial couples. | ||||
| Personal Information | ||||
| Gender: | Male | |||
| Ethnicity | Caucasian | |||
| Born: | July 4, 1928 (age 93) | |||
| Occupation/ Career: |
Publishing executive | |||
| Spouse(s): | Helen Willis, (m. 1953) | |||
| Related to: | Allan Willis (son) Jenny Willis-Jefferson (daughter) Jessica Jefferson (granddaughter) | |||
| Character information | ||||
| Appeared on: | The Jeffersons | |||
| Character played by: | Franklin Cover | |||
Thomas Tom Willis portrayed by Franklin Cover, except for his first appearance in All in the Family, when he was portrayed by Charles Aidman as Louis Willis is an author and president of his publishing company, Pelham Publishers. He lives a content life with his wife Helen played by Roxie Roker. Initially serving as a nemesis to George Jefferson early on in The Jeffersons series, they later developed a close friendship as the series wore on.
About Tom and Helen Willis[]
Tom is white, and Helen is black because of this racial mixing, they are often the butt of George's insults and jokes. Tom and Helen, however, both learned to ignore the bigotry of their neighbor. In their initial appearance on the parent show Tom states that they had met his kind black and white and they always handled it. His daughter, Jenny Willis who is the one most resembling her mother in skin color cases, marries' George's son, Lionel in 1976. He develops a strong relationship with Jenny, but was never close to his white son, Allan Willis (Jay Hammer) because he never finished school and left New York City and stayed in Paris for two years. They were never close with each other for the reason they have their own differences. While Allan chooses to be care-free, Tom thinks he should settle down and find a job to ensure a profitable future.
As the series went on particularly after Lionel and Jenny married, George and Tom eventually became good friends though George still continued to make jokes about Tom's weight. However George no longer joked about his being white as Sherman Hemsley thought it would be inappropriate for George to do so once they had become friends.
Additionally, Tom is a caring person, but often dominated by his wife. He also is ridiculed occasionally due to his weight. He is known to be a horrible dancer, as indicated in a few episodes. He also occasionally reluctantly goes along with George's constant schemes but for the most part prefers to be left out of them. One running gag is that Tom is overindulgent with alcohol whenever he goes over a two drink limit this results in an argument with his wife Helen Jenny Discovery George usually gives Tom Wills 6 week old cheap scotch-the only exception is 12 year old scotch A Case of Black and White.