The legendary actor, who wrote his name with golden letters to television history, Andy Griffith, came from a small town at the Blue Ridge Mountains, grow in his poor family.
Since he was a young boy, he always interested in music. In 1944, he went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and studied music.
At his time in high school, he was a shy kid, as he didn’t know what he was capable of. On the other hand, his friends at school knew he had some unique talents. As they helped him to discover himself, he went on with his acting talents to use in drama lessons at his school.
It was 1953, when he appeared on TV. He made a monologue in “What It Was Was Football,” and that led him to take the role of Will Stockdale in “No Time for Sergeants.”
And he reached to his peak with Sheriff Andy Taylor, in “The Andy Griffith Show,” which aired on CBS. The show stayed on TV for eight years. At the show, he appeared with his friend, Don Knotts, as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife and Ron Howard, as Andy’s son, Opie.
Ron Howard stated, “Don had Andy literally in tears once a week. [I learned] about the spirit of collaboration, which I’ve carried with me forever,”
After he left the show, Griffith stated, as he launched his own company, Andy Griffith Enterprises, ”I wanted to prove that I could play something else, but there were 249 episodes out there of ‘Mayberry,’ and it was aired every day. It was hard to escape,”
With his first wife, Barbara Bray Edwards, adopted their children, Sam and Dixie. Their son, Sam was a real-estate developer, but for a long period, he had a drinking problem, and he passed away when it was 1996, when he was 37 years old. As it was a hard time for his family, it is sure that he couldn’t accept the truth, in regards of losing his son.
His daughter, Dixie, had talked about how Sam’s passing affected her father as, “It affected my dad on a very, very deep level,”
“I went to my brother’s funeral service, but my dad wasn’t able to go. There would be too many magazines and cameras, and it just wasn’t a good place for him to be.”
“So many people wanted to be a part of him. It goes back to the time when his show was on. It was such a sweet show, representing Americana at its best. We long for that in a way — the easier times, the gentler times,”
In 2012, Andy Griffith passed away at the age of 86, in his home at Manteo, Roanoke Island, North Carolina. His third wife, Cindi Knight stayed with him, until he gave his last breath.
Knight stated, “Andy was a person of incredibly strong Christian faith and was prepared for the day he would be called Home to his Lord,”
And his friend, country singer Brad Paisley, stated, as he talk about Griffith, “An actor who never looked like he was acting, a moral compass who saved as many souls as most preachers, and an entertainer who put smiles on more faces than almost anyone; this was as successful a life as is pretty much possible. Andy Griffith made the world a better place, and I was so proud to call him a friend.”
What do you think? Let us know.
