The part of Reverend Tompkins is played by multi-award-winning Scatman Crothers. A triple threat (singer, dancer, and actor) throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Crothers racked up concert stage, screen, and television appearances throughout his decades in show business, culminating in a Saturn Award, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and an NAACP Image Award. For a time, he was a regular on Redd Fox's 1970s cutting edge sitcom hit, Sanford and Son.