Whatever Happened to The Cast of Andy Griffith? (Jerry Skinner Documentary)

this is sheriff Andy Taylor star the 1960s hit television show The Andy Griffith Show Andy Samuel Griffith was born June the 1st 1926 in Mount Airy North Carolina to Carl Lee Griffith a carpenter by trade and Geneva Nunn Griffith a housewife he was an only child and very shy as a youngster it said that he soon learned that he could hide his shyness by making everyone laugh he attended Mount Airy high school where he showed an interest in music and the arts in 19 and 44 after graduating from high school Andy was offered a part in the local production of a play about the history of Roanoke Island called The Lost Colony he continued for several years play in different parts and finally playing the lead role as Sir Walter Reilly in 19 and 49 Griffith graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in music in August that same year he made his college sweetheart Barbara Bray Edwards after college and he taught music and drama at Goldsboro high school in Goldsboro North Carolina while teaching school during the next three years and he writes a funny monologue about watching a football game for the first time he named it what it was was football now Barbara and Andy developed a comedy act and began performing after Griffin's monologue became a hit on a radio the next few years in 1955 he was asked to play the part of will Stockdale a simple-minded country boy that wanted to join the infantry critics stated that Andy Griffin did not play will Stockdale he was will Stockdale from his television performance he was asked to play will Stockdale on Broadway in 1957 Andy Griffith made his film debut end a face in the crowd it starred Lee Remick and Patricia O'Neill some say that Griffin gave his best ever performance as lonesome Rhodes who manipulated people and craved power in 1958 and he is picked again to play of Stockdale but this time in the film version of no time for sergeants along with Nick Adams during the stage performance of no time for sergeants Griffin had become close friends with actor Don Knox this friendship lasted for years until Knox's death in 2006 Andy and Don spoke by phone almost every day without fail and people say that they thoroughly enjoyed each other's company it was a true friendship when Danny Thomas and Sheldon Leonard presented the idea of a television comedy show that would star a small southern town country sheriff Andy Griffin was perfect for the part of sheriff Andy Taylor when Griffiths close friend Don Knox heard about the show he told Andy if you're a sheriff you need a deputy Andy agreed Knox was quickly hard as deputy Barney Fife although it was unusual for the producer writer and star to allow a cast member as Knox was to have a seat at the management table and insisted that Don have a say and within weeks Andy and Dunn were riding own scenes during the next five years done Knox would win five Emmys as the good intended goof-up deputy Barney Fife with a good-natured Andy Griffin setting a tone for the show some say it was kind of like a family picnic that show soon become a major hit during the course of the show Andy and his wife Barbara would adopt two children first a son Andy Griffith jr. who later became a real estate developer in Los Angeles area and in 1996 he would die of alcohol problems he was 37 years old their second child dixie nan Griffith is shown here with her dead in 2005 when he received the Presidential Medal of Honor The Andy Griffith Show was about a small-town Sheriff that was a widow with a small son while being cared for by the sheriff's ain't be to play the part of Opie the sheriff's son six year old Ronnie Howard was hard ronald William Howard was born in 1954 in Duncan Oklahoma he was the oldest of two boys his younger brother Clint would also later on become an actor they were born to rants and Jean Howard who were both performers by the time producer Sheldon Leonard hired young Ronnie to play Opie Taylor Ronnie had already been of serious actor making his acting debut at the age of 18 months now this was in 1956 in frontier women that his daddy Rance Howard also played in now run his childhood was spent growing up mostly on the integral it started at the age of six making the pilot in 1959 until the show ended in 1968 money was always treated with kindness he said in respect by the case especially Andi and Dawn Ron Howard recalled years later when he was 7 he said he was having trouble with one of his lands when he suggested what he thought a kid would actually say he said he was so proud when they accepted his suggestion he couldn't quit smiling and Andy asked him what you grinning at youngster and Ronnie said it's the first anyone who's ever listened to me and he said first idea there was any damn good now run always spoke highly of the cast when asked about Francis Bouvier who played aunt bee he said I don't think that she enjoyed being around children very much and Francis had developed the reputation of not being very sociable with the rest of the cast and Andy Griffith once said that Francis never liked him and he didn't know why sheesh was nothing he said like aunt bee she was very sophisticated when Francis Elizabeth Bouvier was hard to play V she was already an established actress having been brought up in New York and attending prestigious acting schools her career started on the stage as a trained Broadway actress the fact that everyone accepted her as ain't B shows what a great actor she really was after leaving Broadway from Hollywood in 1950 she played in her first movie The Day the Earth Stood Still well Michael Rennie and Patricia O'Neill in 1954 she was in the television series it's a great laugh that starred Michael O'Shea and William bishop in 1957 she also starred with Eve Arden in the Eve Arden show Booya one enemy in 19 is 67 for her portrayal of ain't be she was the only cast member who started with the show and stayed until the end in 1968 and then stayed another two years with a spin-off show Mayberry RFD that starred ken berry in a 1970 is the interview Francis said I played ain't be for ten years and it's very very difficult for an actress or an actor to create a role and be so identified that you as a person no longer exist after living between New York and LA for most of her life everyone was surprised when at the age of seventy bluee moved to Siler City North Carolina her reason she said was that she fell in love with the state and thought it was so beautiful the trees and everything she bought a seventeen room five bath two-story house on West Elm Street in Siler City sight unseen during the first few years she helped with charity organizations such as the Easter Seals Drive and so on she served as grand marshals at local parades but in the last few years she had become a recluse she seemed to be overwhelmed by her many fans bus loads would stop in front of her house walk on her lawn in fear through the window eventually retreating to her home and her 14 kids very seldom receiving visitors and most of them were delivery people it's been said at one time Andy and also run Howard stopped by to see if she would be willing to appear on the maybe reunion show she would only talk to him through the door and she said that she was too sick to perform so the show used the excuse that he had passed on in 1989 she was living in her bedroom and the cats had the run of the basement the house was in bad need of repair learning she had both heart disease and cancer she called Andy Griffith a few months before her death and apologized for not cooperating more on the show in November of 1989 Frances was taken to the Chatham Hospital in Siler City with chest pains she was discharged from the coronary unit on December the 4th to return back home two days later on the 6th Frances Elizabeth Louie died from heart disease related to cancer Frances was never married and she had no children in her will she left part of her estate to the University of North Carolina public broadcasting for television it's been reported she also left a part to the Siler City Police and Fire Retirement System and several other charities Frances Bouvier is buried in the old wood cemetery in Siler City North Carolina Aunt Bea was 86 years old the Andy Griffin Show debuted in 1916 and run until 1968 and in nineteen and sixty-five and he announced to the cast that the show would be closing he believed it had already run its course naturally everybody started planing what to do next Don Knox signed a five-year contract were Universal to make movies now after the contract was saying Knox learned that the producers had persuaded Andy to continue the show for another three years Don did make guest appearances on the Griffith Show in 1966 and 1967 went in a total of five Emmys for his betrayal of Barney Fife Jesse Donald Knox was born July the 21st nineteen and twenty four in Morgantown West Virginia he was a youngest of four boys born to William Jesse and Elsie more NOx Don grew up with his dad had mental problems even to the point of pulling a knife on his youngest son for years Don was affected by his dad's actions however when he was 13 his dad passed away and his mother Elsie took care of the family by running a boarding house in Morgantown as a youngster Don created a ventriloquist act with a dummy that he named Danny he earned money wherever he could by performing at private parties and schools after graduating from Morgantown high school in June of 1943 Don entered the military and served in the Pacific during World War two entertaining the troops with Danny he said he got so tired of performing with a dummy that while onboard a ship he throwed his dummy overboard he said he swear he could hear Danny calling for help after being discharged from the military in 1946 he enrolled at the University of West Virginia while there he meets and marries Catherine Mets they will have two children Kiran and Thomas Kiran becomes an actress and Thomas electrical engineer after college Don and Catherine moved to New York and in 1953 Don got his first major break when he landed a role on the soap opera search for tomorrow that lasted until 1955 it was his only serious role to ever play and in 1956 he becomes a part of the Steve Allen weekly TV variety show he was one of the characters on the man and the street interviews and at that same time NOx was appearing on Broadway in no time for sergeants where he met Andy Griffith in 1968 he was in the movie version of the same name with Griffith three years later Dunn was hard to play Barney on The Andy Griffith Show he was hard to play straight men actually Framed II but they soon learned that it worked better the other way around after leaving The Andy Griffith Show Don and Kathryn divorced after 19 years of marriage Don will bury two more times in 1974 to Laura Lee Chung May they will divorce in 1983 and in 2002 he may as Frances Yarborough they've remained married until his death in 2006 in the course of his career Knox starred in numerous movies in 1968 he started in the shakiest gun in the West in 1975 he starred in the Disney film the Apple Dumpling gang with Tim Conway in 1979 Don went back to television as mr. Furley in Three's Company with John Ritter the show ran all the way until 1984 in 1986 he teamed up again with Indy and run Howard in return to maybe in 1388 through 1992 Dunn played in a recurring role with his old friend Andy Griffith as the pesky neighbor in Matlock and in 2005 done begin taking treatments for lung cancer he took those treatments at the cedar cyanide Medical Center in Los Angeles now in February of 2006 while in the hospital he got to feeling better and was allowed to go home he was visited by his friend Andy Griffin who flew all the way from North Carolina to California just to visit done within two days February of the 24th 2006 Don Knox dies from complications of lung cancer his wife Frances and his daughter Karen were by his side he was buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles although he was one of the America's best-known personalities for years he had suffered from severe hypochondria also shyness and depression Don Knox's star is located on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at seventy eighty three Hollywood Boulevard Don Knox was 81 years old after The Andy Griffith Show ended in 1968 Ron Howard was one of few child actors that was able to successfully transition into a teenage actor Ron graduated from John Burroughs High School in 1972 in 1974 run won the role of Richie Cunningham and the TV show Happy Days the series run until nineteen and eighty four while starring in Happy Days run man's his high school girlfriend Cheryl Ally On June of 7th 1975 in nineteen and seventy six run played with John Wayne and Lauren Bacall and the Shootist and was nominated for a Golden Globe Ron and Sheryl help for children brass Dallas born in 1981 the twins Jocelyn and Paige born in 1985 and Reed Kraus he was born in 1987 in nineteen and 84 runner Howard began directing movies instead of acting in front of the camera something that he had wanted to do ever since he was very young in 1984 there was splash that he directed in 1985 run directed cocoon in 1995 he directed Apollo 13 run and Clint's mother passed away from heart disease on September the 2nd 2000 she was 73 years old and that same year run directed How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 2002 Ron Howard won the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture for a beautiful mind run Howard has achieved the due respect from all his peers as one of the best actors and directors in Hollywood and on top of all of that Opie Taylor has grown up to be a very nice man after the closing of the andy griffith show the cast helps support the spin-off show Mayberry RFD by performing in a few of the first episodes in 19 and 72 Andy Griffith and Barbara Edwards Griffiths divorced and three years later on 18th of January 19 and 75 she marries Michael Sinclair five years later on July the 23rd 19 and 80 Barbara Griffith Sinclair dies she's buried it too far slum Memorial Park the Hollywood Hills California Barbara was 53 years old and 19 and 75 the same year that Barbara had married Michael Sinclair and Emmaus actress solo cast Ola they divorced in 1981 at the time of their divorce andy says he'll never marry again Never Say Never because two years later on the 2nd of April 1983 Andy man Cindy night despite their age difference he was in his 50s and she was 27 the marriage lasted for 29 years until his death in 1986 three years after me and Cindy and he began starring in another hit TV show Matlock it ran from 1986 until 1995 during Matlock Andy would sometimes call on his old friends such as Don Knox and others from The Andy Griffith Show and I always stayed in contact with his friends in 2000 Griffith underwent quadruple bypass surgery after suffering a heart attack and in 2007 he underwent hip surgery after a fall and had suffered from Julian Bar syndromes that paralyzed his legs he couldn't walk for seven months on July the 3rd 2012 ambulances was called to Griffin's home at man tale home located in Roanoke Island North Carolina he had suffered a heart attack Andy Samuel Griffith died at his home at the age of 86 and his request and he was buried in the Griffith family of State Cemetery on Roanoke Island within 5 hours of his death and a Griffith star is on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6148 Hollywood Boulevard Andy Samuel Griffith was 86 years old

Channel: Jerry Skinner

Views: 1,701,839

Rating: 4.7920198 out of 5

Keywords: Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Aunt Bee, Francis Bavier, Ron Howard, Mayberry, Matlock

Id: hQw7jSS6X6U

Length: 24min 48sec (1488 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2016