By Lucie M. Winborne, ReMIND Magazine
Andy Samuel Griffith made a humble debut on June 1, 1926, in Mount Airy, N.C., to parents Carl and Geneva Griffith. Originally aiming to be a preacher, Griffith enrolled at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where, fortunately for a legion of fans, the school’s drama and musical theater programs set him on a different course. Upon graduation, he taught high-school music before embarking on an entertainment career with wife Barbara Edwards. The couple’s routine included Andy’s monologue “What It Was, Was Football.” He would go on to become a guest monologist on The Ed Sullivan Show.
In 1955, Griffith delighted audiences as naive Air Force draftee Will Stockdale in the TV version of Ira Levin’s play No Time for Sergeants. He reprised the role on Broadway, earning his first Tony nomination, and in a film version with Don Knotts. His first feature movie was 1957’s A Face in the Crowd, directed by Elia Kazan, and, with Knotts, he made appearances on The Steve Allen Show. But it was a guest appearance on The Danny Thomas Show that inspired The Andy Griffith Show and immortalized him as homespun, wily yet kindly Sheriff Andy Taylor of small-town Mayberry, flanked by Frances Bavier as his Aunt Bee, Ron Howard as his son Opie, and, of course, Knotts as bumbling yet well-meaning Deputy Barney Fife. An instant hit, the show remains a beloved classic in syndication.
After the show was canceled in 1968, Griffith reunited with several of his costars in the 1986 TV movie Return to Mayberry and hosted The Andy Griffith Show Reunion in 1993, serving as executive producer for both shows and for the 1968-71 spinoff Mayberry R.F.D. He also appeared in several more TV movies and shows, and released gospel albums for Sparrow Records, one of which earned him a Grammy in 1997.
After being sidelined by Guillain-Barré syndrome in 1983, Griffith’s next major TV role was as a folksy yet cantankerous (and very expensive) defense attorney in the series Matlock. His last movie appearance was in the 2009 romantic comedy Play the Game.
Thrice-married with two children, the man whose Andy Taylor character was ranked by TV Guide as No. 8 on its list of “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time” died at the age of 86 in July 2012 at his home in North Carolina.
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