Hazel Medina

Hazel Medina (born October 8, 1937 in Colon, Panama-died February 14, 2012) was a veteran actress who appeared as Crazy Alice, a date of Fred's in the Sanford and Son episode titled "Chinese Torture (The Defiant One)" in Season 6 (Episode #15). Medina was born in Colon, Panama. Her parents divorced shortly after her birth, and she arrived in U.S. in 1946 with her mother and stepfather, with the family settling in Los Angeles, when she was only eight years old.

Career
Hazel, who enjoyed extensive work in guest roles in film and on television series, made her first appearance in the CBS-TV crime/drama series I Spy which co-starred Bill Cosby and Robert Kulp. She went on to make guest appearances in numerous TV shows such CBS series as Gunsmoke (1969), Medical Center (1970), The Bill Cosby Show (1971), Baretta (1975), Lou Grant (1978), The White Shadow (1980), NBC's The Cosby Show, and CBS's Third Watch in 2000. In film, Hazel made appearances in Watermelon Man (1970), Women In Chains (1972), Malcolm X, and also as Pam in the Chris Rock film I Think I Love My Wife(2007). Although later in her career she continued to find steady work, Hazel began to grow increasingly frustrated by the lack of variety in roles for mature women of color, and she completed a B.A. in social work at Fordham University, the College at Lincoln Center, and subsequently a masters in social work from NYU. Medina retired as a caseworker in 2007.

Family life and death
In 1981, Hazel wed fellow actor Jerry Matz. Hazel died in February 2012 in New York City, where she had lived for years, having suffered in recent years from myeloma.