Andy has gone to that big fishing hole in the sky! RIP Andy (1926-2012)!

:rip:

R.I.P.

:rip:

His contribution to TV is immeasurable. What a talented guy who will be missed. RIP Andy.

Sad day for all TAGS fans. Rest in peace Andy, you will be missed.

:rip:

So sad

Beloved actor Andy Griffith died this morning.

Former UNC President Bill Friday says The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock actor died at his home in Dare County, North Carolina around 7 a.m.

Friday, who is a close friend of the actor, confirmed the news to WITN News.

Emergency medical crews responded to Griffith's home this morning, Dare County Sheriff J.D. Doughtie told WAVY.com.

Griffith, who was born in Mt. Airy, N.C., was launched to fame as Sheriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show for the CBS from 1960-1968. On the show, Ron Howard played his son, Opie. He starred on other shows and in films, but found his greatest success again with legal drama Matlock, from 1986 to 1995. He played the title character, Ben Matlock.

In 2000, Griffith underwent quadruple heart-bypass surgery and in 2007 had hip surgery after a fall.

Griffith and his first wife, Barbara Bray Edwards, married in 1949. They were divorced in 1972 and she got custody of their daughter Dixie and he got custody of son Sam, who died in 1996 after years of alcoholism. His second marriage, to Greek actress Solica Cassuto, lasted eight years, from 1973 to 1981.

He and Cindi Knight were married on April 12, 1983, when she was 27 and he was 56. A private man, he told the Virginian-Pilot in 2008 in a lengthy profile by Mal Vincent that he's friendly and outgoing to a point, but has been known to turn down requests for autographs.

"When my wife, Cindi, and I go somewhere and we don't want to be recognized. She says, 'Don't talk.' "

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2012/07/andy-griffith-dies-at-age-86/1#.T_MJWJErrwk

Dammit :(

:rip: Andy

A true legend. R.I.P. Andy and thanks for all the wonderful memories. :(

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/03/3688509/andy-griffith-he-was-just-our.html

Andy Griffith: 'He was just our friend and neighbor'
By DENNIS ROGERS
Raleigh News & Observer correspondent

Andy Griffith’s broad shoulders carried a heavy load for almost 50 years. In 1960, he created an iconic fictional character so noble that today, church groups still seek moral guidance in Sheriff Andy Taylor’s every televised word, deed and gesture.

And over the years, when Griffith insisted that Mayberry, the perfect little town he invented, was absolutely not based on his hometown of Mount Airy, N.C., fans nodded, winked, said “Sure, Andy, whatever you say,” and went right on believing what they wanted to believe.

What they wanted to believe was that around the next bend or over the next hill was a place like Mayberry and a man as fair, wise and decent as Sheriff Andy.

Griffith died Tuesday at 86.

There is no tougher role in show business than living up to the persona you created. Those who live in the public’s adoring and unrelenting gaze quickly learn they are expected to always be the character the public loves. Woe unto the one who deviates from that script. Andy Griffith found that lovable Andy Taylor was a tough act to follow.

Andrew (or Andy, as some of the reference sources insist) Samuel Griffith was born the son of a furniture factory worker, Carl Lee Griffith, and his wife, Geneva Nann Nunn Griffith, on June 1, 1926, the same day as Marilyn Monroe. He grew up with other hardscrabble mill kids on the wrong side of the tracks at 711 Haymore St. in Mount Airy.

While he enjoyed the usual small-town summer delights of rock-kicking, cloud-counting and such, there were enough hard times and spirit-crushing prejudice in that blue-collar Surry County town that once he left, his return visits were few.

He once told show-business biographer Lee Pfeiffer, author of “The Official Andy Griffith Show Scrapbook, “I cannot deny that the person I am was born and raised in Mount Airy, and I was influenced in many ways by that town. I will tell you that it was not all positive. I was actually called ‘white trash’ at one point. That was said by a young girl I was stuck on and she probably wasn’t thinking. And we did come from the wrong side of the tracks. But when she said ‘Get away from me, white trash,’ I did.

“I was only in the fourth grade, and that remark has stuck with me my entire life.”

Not all of his Mount Airy memories were that painful. The Rev. Ed Mickey was pastor of the local Moravian church. One day the gawky kid with the heart-melting grin showed up wanting to learn to play a trombone he’d bought with six dollars he had earned from a part-time job with the Depression-era National Youth Administration. Moravians were known for their brass bands. In two months, the youngster was good enough to play “Moonlight Sonata” in church.

Then Mickey, recognizing he had a talent on his hands, taught the boy to sing. Soon he was singing all over town, sometimes picking up five dollars a show. Mickey went on to recommend him for a scholarship to UNC-Chapel Hill.

No one, at least to his face, would call Andy Griffith “white trash” again.

Griffith, like Thomas Wolfe and legions of other talented small-town kids from this state, invented himself at Carolina. He put aside intentions to become a Moravian minister like his mentor and changed his major to music. He was elected president of his fraternity and met Barbara Bray Edwards, from Troy.

They graduated and were married in 1949 and settled down as teachers in Goldsboro. The couple spent summers performing in “The Lost Colony” outdoor drama on Roanoke Island, in which Griffith was a popular Sir Walter Raleigh. He loved the island so much he bought land and would later built a 63-acre estate there.

Whether they needed the money or just needed to perform, the Griffiths created a musical act and traveled the area, playing any small-town civic club that would spring for dinner and a few bucks for gas money. As Andy later told the story, one night Barbara booked them to play a civic club where they had already performed. Problem was, they only had one routine.

“On the way over to the job, I made up a monologue about a country fellow’s first experience seeing a football game and not knowing what was going on,” Griffith said. “And it scored — heavy. So I kept doing it.”

Did he ever. What it was was “What It Was Was Football,” a now-classic comedy monologue that ranks with the nonsense of the Marx Brothers and the witty wordplay of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First.” Orville Campbell, publisher of The Chapel Hill Weekly, heard Griffith do his hilarious cornpone routine and offered to have it recorded.

It was the break Griffith needed. He was ready to shake the sandy loam of Eastern North Carolina off his country brogans and head for the bright lights of New York City. Capitol Records bought out his contract with Campbell, and he and Barbara worked up new material for the nightclub circuit, including his follow-up record, a hillbilly retelling of “Romeo and Juliet.”

A taste of early Andy: “If you’ve got a boy that courts a gal you don’t like or the other way around and if you don’t want the expense of a funeral on you, the best thing to do is let ’em have a cheap wedding.”

Then came the chance a new comic in town could only dream about, an offer to appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” For those born since the invention of Velcro, imagine the clout of Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman all rolled into one. The Sullivan show was that important in its day. There was a lot riding on the country boy’s first shot on national television.

“It was the first TV job I ever had,” Griffith later told Pfeiffer. “When Ed Sullivan first heard of my record he wanted to tie me up for 18 guest shots. William Morris (his agent) would only give him four. After my first appearance, he called and wanted out of the next three.

“I never got a single laugh. I just died that night. I absolutely died. I can still go in that theater now and get an upset stomach.”

The Sullivan show was not Griffith’s only disappointment. The hayseed act that wowed ’em back at the Rotary Clubs didn’t exactly catch fire in the nightclubs of New York, New Jersey and Long Island. The couple headed back home to regroup. That’s when Griffith saw a notice that “No Time for Sergeants,” a popular book by author Mac Hyman, was being turned into a television show for the United States Steel Hour. He just knew he was right for the part and headed back to Manhattan to try out.

“No Time for Sergeants,” starring Andy Griffith as the innocently goofy Will Stockdale, aired in March 1955. It was on Broadway by October of that year. It featured an unknown actor named Don Knotts as a character named Manual Dexterity.

The show ran on Broadway for 796 performances and earned Griffith a Tony nomination as Best Featured Actor. Most of the Broadway cast followed the show to Hollywood, where it was reborn as a movie in 1958.

It was not Griffith’s first movie role, however. In 1957, director Elia Kazan had tapped the unknown and unpolished Griffith to play a country singer and egomaniacal psychopath named Lonesome Rhodes in the gut-wrenching drama, “A Face in the Crowd.” It is the story of a wildly popular entertainer who becomes too big too fast and is corrupted beyond salvation. His fall from grace is even faster than his sudden rise from anonymity.

Griffith nailed it. He was dead-on brilliant. His demonic anger and barely controlled energy were difficult to watch, however, and the public stayed away in droves. Today, film buffs consider it a classic. But when it was released, only critics seemed to approve.

Nightclub comedian Danny Thomas had a popular television sitcom in the late 1950s. In 1959, he hit on an idea for an episode that seemed amusing: The fast-talking and often abrasive New York comic he portrayed would be driving his family through the rural South. They’d get pulled over in some hick town by a redneck cop. Hilarity, and a healthy dose of offensive regional stereotyping, would ensue.

“Name ain’t Clem. It’s Andy, Andy Taylor” were the first words spoken by the character who was on the verge of an eight-year reign in television’s Top Ten.

Griffith may have perfected the bumpkin bit, but when it came time to negotiate a contract for a spinoff series based on the country lawman he’d created, he and agent Richard O. Linke played big-city tough. They held out for a deal that gave a rookie series actor 50 percent of what became “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Through 249 episodes, from the Oct. 3, 1960, black-and-white debut, when Aunt Bee replaced Rose as the family’s new housekeeper, to the color finale on Sept. 22, 1968, when an Italian family moved to Mayberry to help Mayor Sam Jones work his farm, “The Andy Griffith Show” was as about as good, popular and wholesome as television ever got.

The show ripened smoothly from its early days, when the ah-shucks, hee-haw Griffith tried too hard to be funny with his over-the-top Southern shtick. It was in the second year when he became the straight man and turned the day-to-day comedy labors over to his band of merry madcaps like rock-chunkin’ Ernest T. Bass, town drunk Otis Campbell, the weirdly Zen-like barber Floyd Lawson and sweet Aunt Bee.

Griffith was a stickler for authenticity. The North Carolina he created on the show would be the North Carolina he knew and the one he wanted the world to see. A typical Griffith decision: the occasional state highway patrolman who stopped by the Mayberry jail wore authentic North Carolina Highway Patrol insignia.

Oh, and there was a deputy named Barney. Don Knotts won the Emmy award as best supporting actor for five straight years for his hijinks. No one ever did that before.

But you already know all there is to know about North Carolina’s all-time most favorite show, don’t you? And if you don’t, it’s still on television every day, 52 years after its debut.

“The Andy Griffith Show” set a standard for excellence that would prove difficult for Griffith to equal. It was so popular — it was No. 1 the day it left the air — that anything that came after it had to be a disappointment. And so it was with Griffith’s career. It would be charitable to say the ’70s were not his favorite decade.

He tried with three series in the 1970s: “The Headmaster,” “The New Andy Griffith Show” and “Salvage One.” Each had their moments but no audience.

And then there were the awful made-for television movies with titles like “Winter Kill,” “Street Killing,” “Deadly Game” and the one that was so bad it is almost funny, “Pray for the Wildcats.” The former sheriff of Mayberry was now a motorcycle-riding psychopath in Baja California.

In 1972, Andy Griffith and Barbara Edwards were divorced. He married Solica Cassuto in 1973 and divorced her 1981. In 1983, with his career going nowhere and his personal life in shambles, Griffith was stricken with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder.

The disease paralyzed him, and for a time it seemed he would never walk again. But the bad career choices, the failed marriages, the illness and even the drug-related death of his son Sam at age 36 would soon be put behind him.

In 1983 he married Cindi Knight. In 1984, he was cast in the role that was to be his redemption.

Griffith was cast as federal prosecutor Victor Worheide in the made-for-television blockbuster, “Fatal Vision.” It was the story of the famous Jeffrey MacDonald/Green Beret murders at Fort Bragg, and those who knew the real-life principals knew how on-target Griffith’s meaty portrayal of Worheide was. It was the best straight acting he’d done since Lonesome Rhodes almost 30 years earlier.

That role led to his rebirth as a television icon, this time as a Southern lawyer in a rumpled seersucker suit named Ben Matlock. Off and on from 1986 to 1995, Griffith’s Matlock was wise, cranky, stubborn, funny and 100 percent Andy. Those who knew the actor said he was much closer to Matlock’s persona than he ever was to TV’s beloved sheriff.

It was also a favorite of fans of the old show who tuned in to catch the sly Mayberry-related asides Griffith would slip into the dialogue. Don Knotts was also a frequent guest, playing Matlock’s neighbor.

Griffith came home to North Carolina in the 1980s, at peace with his life and career. He moved “Matlock” to Wilmington and still took a few outside acting jobs when they suited him.

He also became heavily involved in recording gospel music. He won a Grammy Award in 1997 for “I Love to Tell the Story: 25 Timeless Hymns.” Political observers even give him a share of the credit for the 2000 election of former Attorney General Mike Easley as governor. They say the commercials Griffith made for the low-profile Easley gave him the credibility needed to win. If Andy was for him, the thinking went, that was good enough for the rest of us.

Griffith mellowed in his later years. His reputation for a hot temper faded with his youth. He quietly and without fanfare seemed to forgive Mount Airy for its slights by showing up for the dedication of U.S. 52 as the Andy Griffith Parkway in 2002. It was the first time he had returned to his hometown in 45 years. He and Cindi even spent the night in his boyhood home.

During the dedication ceremony, Griffith, then 76, said, “I’m proud to be from the great state of North Carolina. I’m proud to be from Mount Airy. I think of you often, and I won’t be such a stranger from here on out.”

Then he said what the home folks had wanted to hear for a long time. “People started saying that Mayberry was based on Mount Airy,” he said with a smile. “It sure sounds like it, doesn’t it?"

Also in 2002, a statue of Sheriff Andy Taylor and son Opie was erected in Raleigh’s Pullen Park. The inscription is the perfect summation of the show they made famous and, in many ways, the role the public demanded Andy Griffith play for the rest of his life: “The Andy Griffith Show — A simpler time, a sweeter place, a lesson, a laugh, a father and a son.”

In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Andy Griffith the Presidential Medal of Freedom for, well, just being Andy.

That same year, Griffith was interviewed by Beverly Keel for the online magazine American Profile. In the interview, he talked about the difficulty of life in the shadow of Sheriff Andy Taylor:

“Don’t pay any attention to that, that is a persona,” he said. “I am not any favorite dad; I am not any kind of all-American person. I am just a 79-year-old person. I worship and I am kind of private.

“I have many failings. My son died of an overdose when he was 36. I was not a good father to him. So I have failed in many ways. I am a man, like any other man.”

Andy Griffith never won an Oscar, an Emmy or a Tony for his acting. But then, around here we never thought of him as an actor. He was just our friend and neighbor and we were so proud of him we couldn’t hardly stand it.

And if the rest of the world happened to tune in to his popular shows and just happened to assume folks in North Carolina were anywhere near as good-hearted as Andy Taylor, Ben Matlock or the good people of Mayberry, well, that was OK with us, too.

"The Andy Griffith Show" was one of the greatest sitcoms in the history of television led by one of the nicest men in show business who was smart enough to invent one of its most beloved characters. At first, Andy Taylor was simply an extension of the goofy hick stereotype that Andy Griffith had gained fame with earlier in his career on movies, TV, and stand-up, in particular with his routine "What It Was, Was Football" which made him a star, and his roles in the movies "A Face In The Crowd" and "No Time For Sergeants" which showed his impressive acting skills. After Season 1, Andy wisely decided to let Don Knotts handle the comedy routines and he turned Sheriff Taylor into a more serious, firm but fair, gentle and respected individual. He was even considered infallible, so much so that Griffith once had to tell his writers, "Could you make Andy be wrong once in a while?" Even when he was wrong, we still loved him because he cared about the people around him in Mayberry, and, in real life, he cared about the show's fans and didn't want to let them down by giving them an inferior product, and he never did.

RIP Andy Griffith with love from one of your fans in Canada where "The Andy Griffith Show" is always a welcome sight.

Man, he died on my birthday...:( RIP Andy. Hope you and Barney and Aunt Bee and Floyd are having a nice reunion in Heaven.

"The Andy Griffith Show" was one of the greatest sitcoms in the history of television led by one of the nicest men in show business who was smart enough to invent one of its most beloved characters. At first, Andy Taylor was simply an extension of the goofy hick stereotype that Andy Griffith had gained fame with earlier in his career on movies, TV, and stand-up, in particular with his routine "What It Was, Was Football" which made him a star, and his roles in the movies "A Face In The Crowd" and "No Time For Sergeants" which showed his impressive acting skills. After Season 1, Andy wisely decided to let Don Knotts handle the comedy routines and he turned Sheriff Taylor into a more serious, firm but fair, gentle and respected individual. He was even considered infallible, so much so that Griffith once had to tell his writers, "Could you make Andy be wrong once in a while?" Even when he was wrong, we still loved him because he cared about the people around him in Mayberry, and, in real life, he cared about the show's fans and didn't want to let them down by giving them an inferior product, and he never did.

RIP Andy Griffith with love from one of your fans in Canada where "The Andy Griffith Show" is always a welcome sight.

Very well put.

from TVLAND facebook page they will do Andy Griffith Marathon from 8am-1pm Eastern Time.https://www.facebook.com/tvlandhttps://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/521981_10151259605084899_1019605752_n.jpg

and TCM will show some of Andy Movies on July 18

8 p.m. – A Face in the Crowd (1957) – with Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau and Lee Remick. Directed by Elia Kazan.

10:15 p.m. – No Time for Sergeants (1958) – with Myron McCormick, Nick Adams, Murray Hamilton and Don Knotts. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

12:30 a.m. – Hearts of the West (1975) – with Jeff Bridges, Donald Pleasance, Blythe Danner, Alan Arkin, Richard B. Shull, Herb Edelman, Alex Rocco and Marie Windsor. Directed by Howard Zieff.

2:15 a.m. – Onionhead (1958) – with Felicia Farr, Walter Matthau, Erin O'Brien, Joe Mantell, Ray Danton, James Gregory and Joey Bishop. Directed by Norman Taurog.

Me-TV will air a special tribute to the late Andy Griffith tomorrow, Wednesday, July 4th, beginning at 12 PM/11 C with select episodes of Hawaii Five-O, The Mod Squad, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and Make Room For Daddy, all of which Andy Griffith guest starred in.

R.I.P Andy. You were a great talent.

:rip: Andy Griffith :(

Wow! He was one of the few real television legends we had left. R.I.P. Andy. :(

Feels like the end of something sweet and natural and good...not just Mr. Griffith's life, but also what his show represented. Oh, the memories will always be there, as will be the reruns and DVDs, etc...but I fear that we're losing sight of what it was that made that show so darned special.

:rip: Andy Griffith. You were one of the good guys.

Love The Andy Griffith Show. Andy, hopefully the pickles are sweeter in heaven. A true tv legend. RIP.

i know. it was on wjrt ch.12 news at noon. he was 86. he was also on matlock.

Andy Griffith Tributes:


WGN America - Matlock
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 9am-5pm ET:
9am-10am/ET Matlock “The Picture” (part 1)
10am-11am/ET Matlock “The Picture” (part 2)
11am-12pm/ET Matlock “The Lemon”
12-1pm/ET Matlock “The DJ”
2-3pm/ET Matlock “Cookie Monster”
3-4pm/ET Matlock “The Brothers”
4-5pm/ET Matlock “The Fighter”

MeTV Network - A Tribute To Andy Griffith
Wednesday, July 4, 2012, 12pm-3pm ET
Me-TV will air a special tribute to the late Andy Griffith on Wednesday, July 4, from 12 noon-3pm EST with select episodes of Hawaii Five-O, The Mod Squad, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and Make Room For Daddy, all of which Andy Griffith guest starred in.

12p - Hawaii Five-O “I’m A Family Crook-Don’t Shoot”
1pm - Mod Squad “Big George”
2pm - Gomer Pyle “Opie Joins The Marines”
2:30pm - Make Room For Daddy “Danny Meets Andy Griffith”


TV Land - Andy Griffith Show Marathon
TV Land will honor the life and work of beloved actor Andy Griffith, who passed away at the age of 86, with blocks of programming highlighting his most treasured work, “The Andy Griffith Show.” On Wednesday, July 4 from 8am-1pm ET/PT and Saturday and Sunday, July 7 and 8 from 11am to 8pm ET/PT, TV Land will air some of the most memorable episodes in marathons of “The Andy Griffith Show.” The TV Land Facebook page (www.facebook.com/tvland) will also pay tribute to Andy, celebrating some of his best TV moments.


Me-Too Chicago Andy Griffith Show Marathon (WMEU in Chicago)
Wednesday, July 4 2012 12pm-11pm CT; Thursday, July 5, 2012 7pm-10pm CT and Friday, July 6, 2012 7pm-10pm CT
The Andy Griffith Show airs regularly on Me-Too in Chicago weekdays at 12 noon and 12:30pm CT.


TCM - Andy Griffith Movies
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
8 p.m. – A Face in the Crowd (1957) – with Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau and Lee Remick. Directed by Elia Kazan.
10:15 p.m. – No Time for Sergeants (1958) – with Myron McCormick, Nick Adams, Murray Hamilton and Don Knotts. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy.
12:30 a.m. – Hearts of the West (1975) – with Jeff Bridges, Donald Pleasance, Blythe Danner, Alan Arkin, Richard B. Shull, Herb Edelman, Alex Rocco and Marie Windsor. Directed by Howard Zieff.
2:15 a.m. – Onionhead (1958) – with Felicia Farr, Walter Matthau, Erin O'Brien, Joe Mantell, Ray Danton, James Gregory and Joey Bishop. Directed by Norman Taurog.


MORE INFO TO COME TOMORROW ON THE NEWS BLOG.

R.I.P Andy Griffith one of the greatest actors in the history of time.His contributions to the enertainment bussiness are endless.You will be missed.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-07-03/andy-griffith-appreciation/56000442/1?csp=34news

Andy Griffith made viewers of all ages smile
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

He was the country boy a country came to love.


For eight years, from the relative calm of the early '60s through the decade's turbulent later years, Andy Griffith— who died today at 86 — sat at or near the top of the ratings with The Andy Griffith Show. One of the rare shows to actually end its run at No. 1, Andy and its star were a calming, home-spun refuge from the social and political struggles raging outside the fictional world of Mayberry.

Vietnam, the sexual revolution and the fight for civil rights would eventually invade TV in the form of All in the Family. But Mayberry was a place apart — a bucolic paradise where elderly aunts dispensed comfort and homemade jam; drunks let themselves in and out of the county jail; and a warm, loving father opened each half-hour by taking his son fishing.


Indeed, odds are for many of you, the very name "Andy Griffith" calls to mind that image of Andy and Opie (a young Ron Howard, one of the most adorable children ever to amble across a TV screen) with fishing poles over their shoulders. And not just the image; surely you're also humming that theme song?

As Sheriff Andy Taylor, Griffith perfectly embodied one of America's favorite archetypes: the seeming country bumpkin who's actually smarter than anyone around. The difference with Sheriff Taylor was that there was really nothing bumpkinish about him. What marked him as stupid, to those visiting Mayberry from the outside, wasn't the way he behaved or thought, but the way he spoke, that slow, soft drawl peppered with country aphorisms.

The writers often played up that contrast between Andy's soft speech and sharp mind, but never in a mean way — "mean" was not a part of the show's vocabulary. And neither were politics. At a time when the urban North and the rural South often seemed to be two separate but equally angry countries, The Andy Griffith Show was neutral ground, a place were we could all indulge in a little nostalgia for a more leisurely paced life.



For that, you can thank Griffith, who set the show's gentle, understanding tone. Even his by-the-books, exposed-raw-nerve of a deputy Barney Fife— so brilliantly played by the inimitable Don Knotts— couldn't rile him, and Barney could have riled a saint.

For Griffith, TheAndy Griffith Show capped a sudden rise to stardom. A little-known actor and comedian, he got his big break in 1955 in No Time for Sergeants, a TV play that became a Broadway hit, a movie and eventually a short-lived TV series (without Griffith). It also inspired a long-running TV series: The Andy Griffith spinoff Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., which reshaped Griffith's original Sergeants role as the sweet, naïve, inept private to fit Jim Nabors.

Griffith put a nastier twist on his rustic act for a well-received turn in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd, his big-screen debut in 1957. And after another stint on Broadway in the 1959 musical Destry Rides Again— a job that proved he could be as pleasant a presence as a singer as an actor — Griffith moved to Mayberry, where he stayed until he, not the network, decided it was time for him to go. He did CBS one last favor, launching the follow-up hit Mayberry R.F.D., and then moved on.

In 2005, President George W. Bush presented Andy Griffith with America's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

A succession of TV movies, and even a few TV series followed. But no matter what role he played, in the public's mind, it seemed, Griffith was fated always to be that openly good-hearted, deceptively smart Southerner he played so well in The Andy Griffith Show. Bowing to the obvious, he went back to type for his second big hit, the murder mystery Matlock— which had a healthy run on NBC before concluding on ABC.

Unlike Andy, Ben Matlock lived in a big city, Atlanta, and only dealt with high-profile murder cases. And unlike Andy Griffith, whose appeal crossed the generations, Matlock's virtues were mostly appreciated by older viewers. But it's only advertisers who think older viewers are somehow less valuable than younger ones; the rest of us are presumably wise enough to know better.

Matlock ended in 1995, and Griffith's appearances became sporadic — in new shows, though not in repeats. But no matter. On many a TV set, and in many a mind's eye, he's still walking to that fishing hole, his beloved son at his side, as that catchy theme whistles in the background. It's an image designed to make even the most cynical among us smile.

And that's a legacy of which any actor can be proud.

Rest in peace, you will be sadly missed.

He will be missed on many levels. A fine actor and a fine man.

:rip:

:rip: I just got online and there was the news...kind of a shocker. And I'm surprised no one mentioned this, but we lost Andy and George Lindsay (Goober) within just 2 months of each other! George passed away May 6th. :(

:rip:

just to commemorate of sad and tragic death today i uploaded full episodes and segments from What's My Line? and I've Got A Secret

for which you can find here under the title In rememeberance of Andy Griffith:appreances on What's My Line? & I've Got A Secret

just "click" on this link:http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?p=4697536#post4697536

Enjoy folks!

"Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Andy Griffith this morning A performer of extraordinary talent, Andy was beloved by generations of fans and revered by entertainers who followed in his footsteps.

He brought us characters from Sheriff Andy Taylor to Ben Matlock, and in the process, warmed the hearts of Americans everywhere. Our thoughts and prayers are with Andy's family."



Andy Griffith was an active Democrat who helped President Obama on multiple occasions. He recorded a new take on his famed "Andy Griffith Show" in 2008 in support of Obama's quest for the presidency, and in 2010, recorded a spot in support of the president's health care reform act.

He also publicly backed former North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, as well as current Governor Bev Purdue.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/andy-griffith-death-president-obama-tribute-344649

Andy Griffith Buried Less Than 5 Hours After He Died (Report)
7/3/2012
by Kimberly Nordyke


Andy Griffith was buried Tuesday, less than five hours after the actor died, CNN reported.

Griffith, who was 86, died at about 7 a.m. Tuesday at his home in Dare County, N.C., according to North Carolina’s WITN-TV. Emergency medical crews had responded to a call for help, but no cause of death was given.





In a statement Tuesday, his family said he "has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island."

His family requested that his body be lowered into a grave on Roanoke Island around 11:30 a.m. ET, according to a funeral spokesperson who talked to CNN upon the condition of anonymity.

"It had been planned for some time," said the spokesperson, who declined to reveal where on the island he was buried. "This was the wish of his family."





It's unusual for a person to be buried so soon after his or her death, Larry F. Stegall, executive director of the state's Funeral Directors Association, told CNN.

"It's not very common," he said. "I don't recall having heard of it, and I've been here 32 years."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/andy-griffith-death-funeral-mayberry-matlock-344795

Andy Griffith Tributes:


WGN America - Matlock
Wednesday, July 4, 2012 9am-5pm ET:
9am-10am/ET Matlock “The Picture” (part 1)
10am-11am/ET Matlock “The Picture” (part 2)
11am-12pm/ET Matlock “The Lemon”
12-1pm/ET Matlock “The DJ”
2-3pm/ET Matlock “Cookie Monster”
3-4pm/ET Matlock “The Brothers”
4-5pm/ET Matlock “The Fighter” Hallmark Movie Channel is also airing a 26 hour Matlock marathon starting at 6AM on July 4. I think this was already planned before Andy Griffith's death.

Hallmark Movie Channel is also airing a 26 hour Matlock marathon starting at 6AM on July 4. I think this was already planned before Andy Griffith's death.

And TVLand is doing an AGS marathon.

Andy Griffith Buried Less Than 5 Hours After He Died (Report)
7/3/2012
by Kimberly Nordyke


Andy Griffith was buried Tuesday, less than five hours after the actor died, CNN reported.

Griffith, who was 86, died at about 7 a.m. Tuesday at his home in Dare County, N.C., according to North Carolina’s WITN-TV. Emergency medical crews had responded to a call for help, but no cause of death was given.





In a statement Tuesday, his family said he "has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island."

His family requested that his body be lowered into a grave on Roanoke Island around 11:30 a.m. ET, according to a funeral spokesperson who talked to CNN upon the condition of anonymity.

"It had been planned for some time," said the spokesperson, who declined to reveal where on the island he was buried. "This was the wish of his family."





It's unusual for a person to be buried so soon after his or her death, Larry F. Stegall, executive director of the state's Funeral Directors Association, told CNN.

"It's not very common," he said. "I don't recall having heard of it, and I've been here 32 years."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/andy-griffith-death-funeral-mayberry-matlock-344795
That's probably a good thing. I was reading about how the Westboro Baptist Church was planning to picket his funeral. :ohno:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/andy-griffith-death-jim-nabors-344684

Jim Nabors Remembers Andy Griffith: 'He Was a Legend'

The actor, who played Gomer Pyle on "The Andy Griffith Show," pays tribute to his former co-star, who died Tuesday.

Actor-singer Jim Nabors is among those paying tribute to Andy Griffith, who died Tuesday at age 86.

Nabors co-starred with Griffith in the classic comedy The Andy Griffith Show, which also featured Don Knotts, Ron Howard and Frances Bavier in its cast.



"I was saddened this morning to learn of the passing of my good friend Andy Griffith," Nabors said Tuesday. "He was a legend. My thoughts and prayers are with Andy's family."

Nabors played gas station attendant Gomer Pyle in The Andy Griffith Show, which ran on CBS from 1960-68.

His character was so popular with viewers that he was given a spinoff, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., in which Pyle enlists in the Marine Corps. It aired on CBS from 1964-1969.

Ron Howard Remembers Andy Griffith: He 'Shaped My Life'

Howard also paid tribute to Griffith on Tuesday, tweeting: "Andy Griffith His pursuit of excellence and the joy he took in creating served generations & shaped my life I'm forever grateful RIP Andy."

Griffith, who was 86, died at about 7 a.m. Tuesday morning at his home in Dare County, N.C., according to North Carolina’s WITN-TV. Emergency medical crews had responded to a call for help, but no cause of death was given.

"Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Andy Griffith this morning A performer of extraordinary talent, Andy was beloved by generations of fans and revered by entertainers who followed in his footsteps.

He brought us characters from Sheriff Andy Taylor to Ben Matlock, and in the process, warmed the hearts of Americans everywhere. Our thoughts and prayers are with Andy's family."



Andy Griffith was an active Democrat who helped President Obama on multiple occasions. He recorded a new take on his famed "Andy Griffith Show" in 2008 in support of Obama's quest for the presidency, and in 2010, recorded a spot in support of the president's health care reform act.

He also publicly backed former North Carolina Governor Mike Easley, as well as current Governor Bev Purdue.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/andy-griffith-death-president-obama-tribute-344649


Love you, Mr. Griffith! Enjoy the heavenly stay. While there, go fishing, maintain the order up there. Also defend the innocent. ;)

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/television/ron-howard-co-star-andy-griffith-a-leader-a-mentor-coach-article-1.1107552?localLinksEnabled=false

Ron Howard says co-star Andy Griffith was a leader, a mentor and coach
Howard, who played son Opie on 'Andy Griffith Show,' launched successful career as director and still called upon his old friend for advice

By Ron Howard / FOR THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, July 3, 2012, 10:56 PM

We stayed in touch via the phone. . . . My dad spoke with him about six weeks ago and Andy was upbeat and enjoying his life and hoping to find a part that he could do and be creatively engaged.

Occasionally I would ask for advice. Andy had a keen sense of story. I was beginning to do the adaptations of the Dan Brown mysteries (“Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons”). I had never been involved in a mystery.

He had done seasons of “Matlock,” which were all mysteries and I knew he was analytical. I remember calling and talking to him for about an hour or so and talking about the devices and the mechanics of the genre. It was helpful.

Looking back, I barely remember meeting Andy because I was 5. But I remember that first episode. It was a pilot of a spinoff of “The Danny Thomas Show.” The city guy was stuck in a speed trap and made to understand and appreciate the charms of Mayberry. And I was playing the sheriff’s son, Opie Taylor.

I think there was an honesty that Andy demonstrated. He could convey the humor, the foibles, the particulars of rural America without demeaning it.



Andy didn’t try to teach acting lessons. My father was — and is — an actor and he was around to help me. I think Andy observed that my father and I had a great relationship. He saw that my dad was a natural acting coach and modeled the Opie-Andy relationship on what he saw between my dad and me. He later said that.

I learned so much from the show and the environment he created. It was less about the specifics of comedy timing, although he taught me about that, and professional comportment, which he also taught me about. It was really about the joy of the creative process.

You could have fun on a set. You could be playful. You could tell jokes. You could laugh at other people’s jokes and you could still get your work done at the best-caliber TV show.

He really helped create and sustain a collaborative, open, creative environment. It felt safe to say what you thought. Good new ideas were celebrated by all. I’ve tried to carry that tone and that atmosphere with me throughout my life.



There was also a very unpretentious kind of humility there. He was famous for turning to the audience at the end of a show — or even early on — and saying, “I appreciate it and good night.”

A few years back, I realized that he really understood those words and he meant them. He never expected to be given anyone’s respect. He wanted to earn it. And he appreciated the opportunity to earn it. He knew he was a country boy who grew up and was making a great living doing exactly what he wanted to do.

Also, look at his career. Don’t forget about “Face in the Crowd” or his success on Broadway or his recording career and “Matlock.” He did so much great work in TV and movies. Over seven decades.

He was a leader on the set. If I wasn’t paying attention, he would say, “Pay attention, Ronnie.” He was an adult and a mentor in that way. More like a great coach.

That's 3 from TAGS in less than 2 months. :(

:rip: Andy Griffith
:rip: George Lindsey
:rip: Doug Dillard

That's 3 from TAGS in less than 2 months. :(

:rip: Andy Griffith
:rip: George Lindsey
:rip: Doug Dillard
Are Ron, Jim and Betty Lynn the only cast members left?

Are Ron, Jim and Betty Lynn the only cast members left?

Elinor Donahue and Jack Burns are still with us along with a few other recurring stars.

Elinor Donahue and Jack Burns are still with us along with a few other recurring stars.
Oh yea, I forgot about those two. Thanks Charles.

R.I.P Andy. You were a great talent.



He certainly was!!!

He started a trend for others to follow. There will never be another actor like him!!!

R.I. P., AG. :(

Incidentally, that was the year that my dad was born, 1926, and he died at only 59!!

Oh yea, I forgot about those two. Thanks Charles.



What about the one who played Goober - George Lindsey, I think is his name.

And don't forget Ron Howard (Opie). He's a surviving cast member. He went on to become a writer, producer and director.


He produced and directed several movies. :)

Oops, fogot that George died.

I think Francis Barvier (Aunt Bee) was the first one to die. She died back in the early '90s, I think.

What about the one who played Goober - George Lindsey, I think is his name.

And don't forget Ron Howard (Opie). He's a surviving cast member. He went on to become a writer, producer and director.


He produced and directed several movies. :)

Oops, fogot that George died.

I think Francis Barvier was the first one to die. She died back in the early '90s, I think.
Yea George died 2 months ago. It's been a sad time for Mayberry fans. :(

Yea George died 2 months ago. It's been a sad time for Mayberry fans. :(




WOW, I didn't know that! I thought it was longer back than that. :eek:

I think Francis Barvier (Aunt Bee) was the first one to die. She died back in the early '90s, I think.

Howard NcNear died first (1969), Frances Bavier died in 1989.

Howard NcNear died first (1969), Frances Bavier died in 1989.



Which charactor did he play, Floyd the Barber? :confused:

Which charactor did he play, Floyd the Barber? :confused:

Yes, he was Floyd.

well just to inject a little sense of humor for all of you here are 2 Andy Griffith Parody skits from MAD TV:

Andy Griffith '98:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOVL7bZrJhU&feature=related

CSI: Mayberry:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4shJ2EnEM28&feature=related


Enjoy!

Yes, he was Floyd.




Thought so.

He died way back then?! :eek:

"The Andy Griffith Show" would never be made today (http://www.hitfix.com//whats-alan-watching/andy-griffith-appreciating-the-late-great-sincere-tv-icon)

"The Andy Griffith Show" would never be made today (http://www.hitfix.com//whats-alan-watching/andy-griffith-appreciating-the-late-great-sincere-tv-icon)

Andy Griffith, who died today at the age of 86, was one of the great television stars of all time not because of his skill with a joke (though he was splendid as both comedian and straight man), nor because of his dramatic chops (though his performance in the 1957 movie "A Face in the Crowd" is seared in the memory of anyone who saw it), but simply because audiences found something innately decent and trustworthy about him. Whether as small-town sheriff Andy Taylor on "The Andy Griffith Show" or a crafty aging lawyer on "Matlock," Griffith was someone viewers wanted on their side.

The North Carolina-born Griffith began his performing career as a monologist, a role that doesn't offer any barriers between performer and audience. There are no co-stars, no costumes or sets, and even if you're creating another character — as he did in his famous routine "What It Was, Was Football," in which a country boy tried to make sense of what was happening in a football game — the performance rises and falls on how the audience responds to you, alone on that stage. And audiences very much liked the folksy Griffith, who used the success of the recorded version of "Football" to segue into a more traditional acting career, where his low-key charms were always front and center — even on the rare occasions when he wasn't playing such a good guy.

He was a hit in TV, stage and film versions of "No Time for Sergeants," as a country bumpkin who kept confounding his Air Force superiors. Legendary director Elia Kazan decided to play off of Griffith's persona as good-hearted, deceptively-clever yokel by casting him in "A Face in the Crowd," in which Griffith played Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a sweet country boy who becomes a first a local celebrity, than a national TV sensation, and even a player in presidential politics, with each step up the ladder making him privately colder, crueler and more arrogant than before. Critics and audiences were mixed on the film at the time — though everyone acknowledged the power and unexpected versatility of Griffith's performance — but it's now looked upon as a classic morality play about the corrupting influence of celebrity.

In 1960, veteran sitcom producer Sheldon Leonard decided to build a show around Griffith, and to use his current hit, "The Danny Thomas Show," to launch it. The series did an episode where Thomas was stopped for speeding in a small town called Mayberry by local sheriff Andy Taylor, played by Griffith. Viewers enjoyed the culture clash between high-strung city slicker Thomas and the homespun Griffith, and "The Andy Griffith Show" premiered later that year.

It's hard to imagine something like "The Andy Griffith Show" being made today. There was a lot of comedy wrung out of Andy's interactions with panicky deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts, who had co-starred with Griffith in "No Time for Sergeants") and colorful locals like Jim Nabors' Gomer Pyle (who would later join the Marines in a spin-off very much in the vein of "No Time For Sergeants"), but for the most part it was a quiet, easygoing show, defined more by the warmth in the relationship between widowed single dad Andy and his son Opie (played by a young Ron Howard) than by the silliness of the town. The series' famous opening title sequence shows father and son walking to the fishing hole, as the jaunty earworm of a theme song is whistled. This is a show, the credits promised, about a simple, peaceful place and a peaceful man who seemed simple but was really very wise and supremely comfortable in his own skin.

Though Griffith never got a writing credit, he seriously discussed each script with the writers, in the early sitcom tradition of stars as creative collaborators. And where some actors might have resented the instant popularity of Knotts as Barney and try to steal some of the laughs from him, Griffith was smart enough to realize the show was at its strongest when he was setting up Knotts for punchlines. It was a selfless creative decision: Knotts won multiple Emmys for the role, while Griffith was never even nominated for playing one of the more iconic characters in the history of the medium. There's little glory in being the straight man, but Griffith understood that he was the man for the job, and that he could still wring laughs and smiles from the patient, understanding way Andy dealt with Barney, Floyd the barber, Ernest T. Bass and the rest of the citizens of Mayberry.

Griffith left the series in 1967 to try movies again (CBS in turn continued the show under the title "Mayberry, R.F.D.," with new leading man Ken Berry and many of the supporting characters still in place), and though he worked steadily in film and television for the next two decades, he couldn't find a role as memorable or popular as Andy Taylor.

In the mid-'80s, his hair gone grey, Griffith returned to his roots as a country fella smarter than anyone expected, this time as Atlanta defense lawyer Ben Matlock, whose folksy manner helped him win all his cases. The show was a big hit in an era when viewers under 50 weren't yet the be-all, end-all they would later become, as older viewers enjoyed seeing a man their age (and whom they remembered so fondly from their younger years) continually outwit younger, slicker attorneys. (In early seasons of "The Simpsons," it was a running gag that Grampa Simpson and his neighbors at the retirement home all revered "Matlock.")

Griffith worked off and on for most of his life, sometimes playing against type, often in Andy Taylor mode. (In recent years, I was particularly fond of his small role in "Waitress" as the diner owner who so loved Keri Russell's pies.) It was always reassuring to see him again, or even to hear joking references to him on other shows that were always laced with the respect the industry had for him. On an episode of "Arrested Development," produced and narrated by Howard, the Bluths attempted to hire Griffith to appear in court with them dressed as Matlock, but they lost his services when he assumed they were making fun of him: solemnly, Howard's voiceover insisted that no one here was attempting to make fun of Mr. Andy Griffith.

Griffith was enough of a sport, and had such obvious affection for Howard, Knotts and everyone else he worked with over the years, that I suspect he would have been just fine with Opie getting a few laughs at his expense.

I thought the article would give some of the reasons why the show would never be made today. :confused:

I thought the article would give some of the reasons why the show would never be made today. :confused:




I could have sworn that a while back before most of the surviving cast members had died, that CBS was contemplating doing a reunion of the show
with the original cast members in place. :confused:

Just watched an ep of The Bionic Woman on DVD.

The title of the ep is called Angel of Mercy.

Andy Griffith appeared in the ep as Jack Starkey, the pilot of a chopper that crash-landed after being hit by guerillas at war.

Both himself and Jamie get lost and they are trying to find and rescue the U.S. ambassador and his family. They meet up with a 12-year-old boy who helps them in the search.

Does anyone remember him making that guest appearance on that ep of the show? :)

Since there are no Fireworks in my area tonight (I watched four displays in the last five days! :patriot:), tonight's TV for me will be my latest "Tribute to a Fallen Star", Andy Griffith. :rip: I will watch an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, followed by an Episode of Matlock, then the "Angel of Mercy" Episode from The Bionic Woman and finally, "I'm a Family Crook, Don't Shoot" from Hawaii Five-O.

I could have sworn that a while back before most of the surviving cast members had died, that CBS was contemplating doing a reunion of the show
with the original cast members in place. :confused:
NBC did air a reunion movie with most of the cast back in 1986. It was called "Return to Mayberry." I know there was talk about another reunion movie but that never took place.

Just watched an ep of The Bionic Woman on DVD.

The title of the ep is called Angel of Mercy.

Andy Griffith appeared in the ep as Jack Starkey, the pilot of a chopper that crash-landed after being hit by guerillas at war.

Both himself and Jamie get lost and they are trying to find and rescue the U.S. ambassador and his family. They meet up with a 12-year-old boy who helps them in the search.

Does anyone remember him making that guest appearance on that ep of the show? :)
I remember it but I haven't seen that episode in years.

NBC did air a reunion movie with most of the cast back in 1986. It was called "Return to Mayberry." I know there was talk about another reunion movie but that never took place.



I THOUGHT that there was a reunion with the old cast members!

I remember it but I haven't seen that episode in years.



I haven't seen it in years myself, but I DO remember him making the guest appearance on that ep of the show.

His charactor found an airplane that hadn't been used for eons. The landing gear legs were bent from a hard landing. Jamie used her bionic hand / arm to straighten them back into shape. :)

Since there are no Fireworks in my area tonight (I watched four displays in the last five days! :patriot:), tonight's TV for me will be my latest "Tribute to a Fallen Star", Andy Griffith. :rip: I will watch an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, followed by an Episode of Matlock, then the "Angel of Mercy" Episode from The Bionic Woman and finally, "I'm a Family Crook, Don't Shoot" from Hawaii Five-O.



I never...., Wait a minute!

Did he play a bad guy in that ep of Hawaii Five-O?

I think he was the boss and ringleader of a villainous motor cycle gang, right?

Here's the actual cause of the TV icon's death! Seems that he was suffering from heart-relatived problems and high cholesterol.

He could have gotten some help!! :eek:


http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/entertainment-eonline/20120706/b328138/

Also, does anyone remember the comedy film, Angel in my Pocket?

Andy Griffith starred in that as well. Came out around either in the the late '60s or early '70s. :)

http://i48.tinypic.com/2hn6de0.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/fk1ixk.jpg

That one is so cute!!! :)

another piece of my heart went to Heaven today. My husband and I had the "outstanding" privilege of hearing Andy talk when the TVLand statue of Andy and Opie was dedicated in 2003 in Mt. Airy, NC. It was a once-in-a-lifetime honor. I could've listened to him all day. I wouldn't trade that memory or the pictures for anything. We will miss knowing you are here with us Andy, but can't wait to see you again in Heaven. You will always be in our hearts.

another piece of my heart went to Heaven today. My husband and I had the "outstanding" privilege of hearing Andy talk when the TVLand statue of Andy and Opie was dedicated in 2003 in Mt. Airy, NC. It was a once-in-a-lifetime honor. I could've listened to him all day. I wouldn't trade that memory or the pictures for anything. We will miss knowing you are here with us Andy, but can't wait to see you again in Heaven. You will always be in our hearts.


You Better believe it!

http://i48.tinypic.com/2hn6de0.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/fk1ixk.jpg



That is very cool.Andy is fishing in that great fishing hole in the sky.Andy was pure gold.They simply don't get any better than him.

I was never fortunate enough to meet Mr. Griffith but my father did back in the 60's. He lived in near a gas station/country store and he and my grandfather were there one day when Andy came in. My dad said he got a Coke and a pack of crackers and sat down in a rocking chair and shot-the-breeze with those who were there. He stayed about 30 minutes and was headed to Troy, NC where his former wife, Barbara Edwards is from. my maternal grandfather and my next-door neighbor went to school at Troy with her.

I was never fortunate enough to meet Mr. Griffith but my father did back in the 60's. He lived in near a gas station/country store and he and my grandfather were there one day when Andy came in. My dad said he got a Coke and a pack of crackers and sat down in a rocking chair and shot-the-breeze with those who were there. He stayed about 30 minutes and was headed to Troy, NC where his former wife, Barbara Edwards is from. my maternal grandfather and my next-door neighbor went to school at Troy with her.



I was never fortunate enough to meet him either.I would of loved to though.That is a great story.About your dad and grandpa getting to meet him.

Griffith’s death a ‘shock’ to close friends
by Tom Joyce

Tom Joyce/The News


http://www.mtairynews.com/view/full_story/19192906/article-Griffith%E2%80%99s-death-a-%E2%80%98shock%E2%80%99-to-close-friends

The word “shock” was used repeatedly Tuesday as persons who knew and worked with Andy Griffith reacted to word of his death.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” said Emmett Forrest of Mount Airy, a close friend of the actor’s and a longtime collector of memorabilia which formed the basis for the Andy Griffith Museum on Rockford Street.

Others, including Betty Lynn, an “Andy Griffith Show” actress; singer Donna Fargo; Karen Knotts, daughter of the late Don Knotts; and David Browning, the “Mayberry Deputy,” also lamented the loss of Griffith from undisclosed natural causes.

“What a shock,” Fargo said of the news of his death shortly after arriving back in her hometown Tuesday to appear at Fourth of July activities here including a parade.

“It’s been a heart-breaker to have him go,” a tearful Betty Lynn, known for her role as Thelma Lou to Mayberry fans, told reporters at the Andy Griffith Playhouse Tuesday afternoon during an impromptu news conference.

Forrest said one reason why Griffith’s passing was such a surprise to him involved a recent telephone conversation he had with the Mount Airy native.

“It was about four or five weeks ago, I guess, and he called and we had quite a conversation,” Forrest related. “At that time his voice was very, very strong and he sounded very healthy.”

Lynn also reported having a conversation with Griffith of late, when everything seemed fine with him.

“I talked to him on his birthday (June 1),” she said, adding that it is hard to accept the death of Griffith because he always seemed to be a pillar of strength to those around him.

He was “someone you always expected to be there,” the veteran actress added. “He was always the backbone for everybody.”

“A Loss To The Whole Country”

The death of Griffith was the top story for news organizations around the nation Tuesday, which those who knew him best say was a reflection of his universal appeal from roles such as that of Sheriff Andy Taylor.

“Well, it’s just an absolutely great loss for the whole country as far as I’m concerned,” Forrest said. “Andy is really an icon.”

“I think Andy’s passing is really just a sad day for all of us,” Fargo agreed. “Even if you didn’t know him personally, he just seemed like a part of the family because his show was on all the time.”

The singer added, “His death is a great loss not only for his family, but his friends and fans all over.”

Meanwhile, the actress who played Thelma Lou said Griffith became more than just a fellow cast member to her on his long-running series set in the fictional town of Mayberry.

“I really cared a lot about Andy,” she shared. “It wasn’t just somebody you worked with.”

Lynn said she had saved a telephone answering-machine message from Griffith which contained his greeting of “Hello, Thelma Lou!” However, the message was accidentally erased.

“And now I can’t listen to that anymore.”

“An Amazing Guy”

Karen Knotts, whose late father played Deputy Barney Fife, was another who reacted to Griffith’s passing.

“I just feel really sad,” she said by telephone Tuesday from Los Angeles.

“I hate to see him go,” Knotts said of the beloved actor, who was 86. “I knew it had to happen sometime — I just didn’t want it to be soon.”

Knotts added that she always will remember how Griffith “looked out” for her father, both on “The Andy Griffith Show” and in real life.

“The people were important — the jokes were second,” she said in reference to how Barney Fife was portrayed as a comical, but equally lovable, character. Don Knotts and Griffith remained lifelong friends, and Griffith made sure to cast Knotts as a guest star in later television projects such as his “Matlock” show.

“He was a very good friend to my dad,” Karen Knotts added. “He always looked out for him.”

She called Griffith “an amazing guy,” one who “had so much heart for the people he knew.”

Knotts further appreciated Griffith’s abilities as a fun-loving individual.

“What I remember most about him is his enormous laugh — just like a hurricane,” she said. “He was an amazing storyteller.”

Forrest said he will never forget the good man behind the show business facade. “Andy was a very generous person. He has been generous to Mount Airy High School, the Surry Arts Council, Grace Moravian Church and to me. To me, he was a very generous, giving person.”

David Browning of Bristol, Va., who has portrayed the Mayberry Deputy for more than 20 years, including at events in Mount Airy, considers the loss of Griffith the end of an era.

“A great icon has passed away,” Browning commented Tuesday regarding the individual who was at the forefront of Mayberry appreciation.

“He was the man. You hope the day never comes that the leader leaves us — but that day has come and it’s real, real sad.”

“Lost Colony” Reaction

The long-running production of “The Lost Colony” in Manteo was a big part of Andy Griffith’s life. He first appeared in the play in 1947 while attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and remained in its cast until 1953.

Griffith later would make Manteo his permanent home.

“He fell in love with this little island,” Charles Massey, a spokesman for “The Lost Colony,” said Tuesday.

But Massey said that to many people across the nation, Griffith had become “the face and voice of North Carolina.”

Efforts to honor his memory were to include the dimming of the lights for Tuesday night’s performance of “The Lost Colony.” Also, Massey said a large reproduction of the cover of an old program for the play containing Griffith’s picture in the role of Sir Walter Raleigh was to be displayed on an easel as theater-goers arrived.

“He has always been a supporter of ‘The Lost Colony,’” Massey said, and became a favorite citizen of Manteo over the years. “He had a quiet gentleness about him.”

That sentiment was shared closer to home Tuesday by Betty Lynn as she fought back emotion.

“He was a wonderful person and I really loved him a lot,” she said of Griffith.

“And I’ll miss him.”

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-andy-griffith-mayberry-cast-where-are-they-now-20120703,0,4553749.story

The residents of Andy Griffith's Mayberry: Where are they now?


By Patrick Kevin Day

July 3, 2012, 6:33 p.m.

Andy Griffith's death on Tuesday meant the most prominent cast member of the landmark "Andy Griffith Show" had finally departed.

Costar Don Knotts preceded Griffith in death in 2006 and Frances Bavier (who played Aunt Bea) died in 1989. Many of Mayberry's older residents have been long gone, such as Floyd the barber (Howard McNear) in 1969 and Otis the drunk (Hal Smith) in 1994.

But fans of "The Andy Griffith Show" can take heart that the streets of Mayberry haven't gone completely empty. There are still several surviving cast members from the show, and a few still have thriving careers in Hollywood.



Most prominent among them is Ron Howard, who played Andy's son Opie and is now one of the most successful film directors in Hollywood. Howard began directing short films soon after the end of "The Andy Griffith Show" in 1968 and had already achieved box-office success by the time "Return to Mayberry" was filmed in 1986. Howard's next film, about Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda, is due to be released in 2013.

Howard's brother, Clint, also appeared on the show as Leon, the young, sandwich-eating cowboy who showed up in five episodes of the series. Clint Howard still has a very active acting career, with regular roles in his brother's films, in addition to a part in Rob Zombie's upcoming film, "The Lords of Salem."

Jim Nabors, who played good-hearted gas station attendant Gomer Pyle, is the last surviving adult male member of the cast. Nabors, who also starred in the spin-off series "Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C." currently lives in Hawaii and regularly sings "Back Home Again in Indiana" before the start of the Indianapolis 500 in Indianapolis. However, this year the 82-year-old Nabors was set to undergo heart valve surgery on Memorial Day weekend and had to cancel.



Betty Lynn, who played Barney's girlfriend Thelma Lou, currently lives in Mount Airy, N.C. It was Andy Griffith's birthplace and widely believed to be the inspiration for Mayberry. She makes monthly appearances on the town's Andy Griffith Museum on the third Friday of the month.

Elinor Donahue, who played the town pharmacist and Andy's girlfriend in the show's first season, continues to work occasionally. She most recently appeared on several episodes of the soap opera "The Young and the Restless" in 2010 and 2011. She lives with her third husband, retired Broadway actor and dancer Lou Genevrino, in the retirement community Sun City in Palm Desert.

Maggie Peterson, who played Charlene Darling in several episodes of the series, married jazz musician Gus Mancuso and settled in Las Vegas, where she worked for many years as a location manager for film and TV. She's a regular attendee of the Marshfield Cherry Blossom Festival in Marshfield, Mo.



Jack Burns, who played Deputy Warren Ferguson in several episodes of the series, has had a lengthy post-Mayberry career as a voice actor, lending his voice to Vince, the crash test dummy in theU.S. Department of Transportationspots, among other projects.

Arlene Golonka, who played Millie Hutchins in two episodes of the series, is semi-retired and lives in Santa Monica. Her last screen role was on "The King of Queens" in 2005.

Bernard Fox, who played Malcolm Merriwether, had a long post-"Andy Griffith" acting career, including a role in James Cameron's "Titanic." He retired from acting in 2004 and lives with his wife in London.

He was a funny guy at times. Almost or much like Leslie Neilson was before HE died.

It's too bad that he didn't go to the hospital immediately after his heart attack. He would have still been with us today!! :(

He was a funny guy at times. Almost or much like Leslie Neilson was before HE died.

It's too bad that he didn't go to the hospital immediately after his heart attack. He would have still been with us today!! :(


hey speaking of both Leslie Neilsen and Andy Griffith did you know that both of them were in the 1996 box office comedy bomb Spy Hard?


believe it or not it's true, Leslie played as Secret Agent WD-40 Dick Steele while Andy played as the evil General Rancor.

hey speaking of both Leslie Neilsen and Andy Griffith did you know that both of them were in the 1996 box office comedy bomb Spy Hard?


believe it or not it's true, Leslie played as Secret Agent WD-40 Dick Steele while Andy played as the evil General Rancor.




Didn't know that.

http://i47.tinypic.com/5afaf8.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/rigg7r.jpg

Didn't know that.


well now you do,Buddy!

I love the Pearly Gates cartoon. It's comforting to know that they were all waiting for him at the fishin hole.

It's too bad that he didn't go to the hospital immediately after his heart attack. He would have still been with us today!! :(

What makes you think so? Even if he had went to the hospital immediately afterwards it's no guarantee he would've survived.

I love the Pearly Gates cartoon. It's comforting to know that they were all waiting for him at the fishin hole.



do you mean this cartoon:http://www.forgottenhollywood.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/cartoon.jpg