Andy Griffith Biography

Adny Griffith's 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show remains one of the best-loved television shows of the 20th century. Griffith got his start playing a country yokel on radio and in recorded routines like "What It Was, Was Football." He parlayed that hayseed persona into a similar role in No Time for Sergeants, which Griffith made into a hit as a TV movie (1955), a Broadway show (1955), and then as a 1958 feature film. Two years later he began his run as Andy Taylor, the good-hearted sheriff of small-town Mayberry, North Carolina on The Andy Griffith Show. The gentle comedy co-starred Ron Howard as Griffith's freckled son Opie, and Don Knotts as the comical deputy Barney Fife. The show ran until 1968 and continued its popularity in decades of daily reruns. In the 1980s, Griffith scored again with another long-running series, Matlock, in which he played gruff, country-crafty trial lawyer Ben Matlock. The series ran from 1986 to 1995 and was such a hit with senior citizens that it became a running punch line for comedians. Curiously, despite Griffith's extreme popularity, he was never nominated for an Emmy Award for either Matlock or The Andy Griffith Show.

Extra credit: The Andy Griffith Show also starred Francis Bavier as Aunt Bee and Jim Nabors as cheerful half-wit Gomer Pyle, who was spun off into the show Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.... After Griffith's show ended in 1968, some of the supporting characters stepped into a sequel, Mayberry, R.F.D., which ran from 1968-71... Griffith's hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina, promotes itself as the real-life inspiration for his show... Griffith attended the University of North Carolina... He is no relation to actress Melanie Griffith.

Other TV comedy stars of Griffith's era: Danny Thomas of Make Room for Daddy, Bob Denver of Gilligan's Island, and Eva Gabor of Green Acres.