Andy Griffith

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For other persons named Andy Griffith, see Andy Griffith (disambiguation).
Griffith as Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show
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Griffith as Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show

Andy Samuel Griffith (born June 1, 1926) is an American actor, Grammy Award winning singer[1], writer and producer from Mount Airy, North Carolina.

He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned a bachelor's degree in music in 1949. While at UNC, he was president of the UNC Men's Glee Club and was a member of the Alpha Rho Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, America's oldest fraternity for men in music. After graduation, he taught English at Goldsboro High School, Goldsboro, NC for a few years.

Contents

[edit] TV legacy

Griffith is best known as "Sheriff Andy Taylor" in the popular 1960s television series The Andy Griffith Show and in the title role in the television series Matlock, which ran from 1986 to 1995.

He is loved by many people all over the world, and notorious for having every episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Matlock" have a hidden meaning behind them. [citation needed] He is one of the most famous television actors of the 20th century, and one of the most loved, iconic figures in both music and television history.

[edit] Comedian to film star

Griffith started out in show business as something of a stand-up comedian, although a better description might be monologist. His first success was a 1953 live recording of "What It Was, Was Football," a story about a country boy at his first football game delighting in the "big orange drinks" and the boys running up and down the "cow pasture" in "the awfulest fight I have ever seen in my life" and "these purty girls a-wearin' these little-bitty short dresses and a-dancin' around." Later that year, he recorded "Number One Street", telling the story of a rural family travelling to Florida on U.S. Route 1.

By 1954, he was on Broadway, starring in No Time for Sergeants, a play about a country boy in the Air Force, made into a film in 1958, in which he also starred, and which is considered the direct inspiration for Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.. Also in 1958, Griffith portrayed a U.S. Coast Guard enlistee in the movie Onionhead.

[edit] Dramatic pinnacle

In 1957, Griffith starred in A Face in the Crowd. Again, he played a country boy, but this time the country boy was a terrifying sociopath, a drifter who became a television host and used his show as a gateway to political and personal power. With a cast including Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau, Tony Franciosa and Lee Remick in her film debut, this now-classic film showcased Griffith's powerful talents as a dramatic actor and singer, often shouting blues numbers with almost frightening intensity, unlike the gentle folk and country tunes he later sang on The Andy Griffith Show. It also showed early on the power of television upon the masses. Directed by Elia Kazan, written by Budd Schulberg, ostensibly based on the supposed onstage phoniness of Will Rogers and the controversial 1950s TV host Arthur Godfrey, the prescient film was seldom run on television until the 1990s, a mark of its rising stature as an American classic. A 2005 DVD reissue came complete with a mini-documentary on the film with comments from Schulberg, Griffith, Franciosa and Neal.

[edit] The Andy Griffith Show

The Andy Griffith Show, which aired from 1960 to 1968, became an instant hit with its American audience. Viewers immediately felt a connection with Taylor, his son Opie (Ron Howard), Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier), Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts), Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors), Goober Pyle (George Lindsey) and the entire town of Mayberry.

[edit] Matlock and other series

Griffith as Ben Matlock
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Griffith as Ben Matlock

After leaving his still-popular show in 1968, Griffith starred in less successful series such as The Headmaster (1970), The New Andy Griffith Show (1971), Salvage 1 (1979), and The Yeagers (1980).

He scored another prime-time hit in 1986 with Matlock. Griffith played the title role of Ben Matlock, a criminal defense attorney with a Southern drawl, a signature seersucker suit, and an open countenance that belied his sly intelligence. The series ran from 1986 to 1992 on NBC and from 1992 until 1995 on ABC. Distributed by Viacom it has seen long-running success in syndication. In 2001, he made a brief appearance on The WB's Hit drama Dawson's Creek.

[edit] TV movies

He also starred in many television films such as The Strangers In 7A (1972), Winter Kill (1974) and Pray for the Wildcats (1974). In 1981 Griffith won an Emmy nomination for his role in the TV film Murder In Texas and in 1983 won further acclaim for his role as a homicidal villain in the TV film Murder In Coweta County, co-starring music legend Johnny Cash as the hero. During this period, Griffith also appeared in two big screen movies, both of which were flops at the box office. He co-starred with Jeff Bridges in the 1975 comedy Hearts of the West, and appeared alongside Tom Berenger as the villainous Colonel Ticonderoga in the 1985 movie Rustler's Rhapsody. He also had an appearance as the villain in the 1996 movie Spy Hard.

[edit] Singing and recording career

Griffith sang as part of some of his acting roles, most notably in A Face In The Crowd and on some episodes of The Andy Griffith Show. Within recent years, he has recorded successful albums of classic Christian hymns, for Sparrow Records. In 1999 Andy was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame with fellow artists, Lulu Roman, Barbara Mandrell, David L Cook, Gary S. Paxton, Jimmy Snow, Loretta Lynn and Jodi Miller. [2]

[edit] Albums

  • The Collection (2005)
  • Pickin' and Grinnin': The Best of Andy Griffith (2005)
  • Bound for the Promised Land: The Best of Andy Griffith Hymns (2005)
  • The Christmas Guest (2003)
  • Back to Back Hits (2003)
  • Absolutely the Best (Remastered) (2002)
  • Favorite Old Time Songs (2000)
  • Wit & Wisdom of Andy Griffith (1998)
  • Just as I Am: 30 Favorite Old Time Hymns (1998)
  • Sings Favorite Old-Time Songs (1997)
  • Somebody Bigger Than You and I (1996)
  • American Originals (1993)
  • Shouts the Blues and Old Timey Songs (1959) (Note: this set includes a guest appearance by bluesmen Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry).
  • Just for Laughs (1958)

[edit] Honors

[edit] Trivia

Memorial statue in Pullen Park, Raleigh, North Carolina
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Memorial statue in Pullen Park, Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Griffith may have been an inspiration for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Huckleberry Hound, introduced in 1958, although voice actor Daws Butler had employed the same generic "Southern drawl" for other cartoon characters starting in the 1940s.
  • Griffith, revered for his wholesome image for decades, revealed a more complex side of himself in the A Face in the Crowd DVD documentary, where he recalled director Kazan prepping him to shoot his first scene with Lee Remick, playing a teenage baton twirler who captivates Griffith's character Lonesome Rhodes on a trip to Arkansas. To make it clear the expression and emotion he wanted from Griffith for this scene, which had no dialogue, just Rhodes's leer, Kazan, the actor recalled, summed it up for Griffith in just one phrase: "F**k her!"
  • Before The Andy Griffith Show, Griffith appeared as a country sheriff (who was also justice-of-the-peace and editor of the local newspaper) in an episode of The Danny Thomas Show. This episode, in which Thomas's character, Danny Williams was stopped for speeding in the little town of Mayberry, was the inception of Griffith's own show, produced by Sheldon Leonard, who was Thomas's producer.
  • Griffith was spoofed in a surreal sketch on the Canadian comedy series SCTV. The sketch conflated his Andy Taylor character with the persona of TV talk show host Merv Griffin. In SCTV's version of Mayberry, the sheriff (Rick Moranis) and Floyd the barber (Eugene Levy doing Howard McNear) both exclaimed, "Ooh!" ultimately in unison.
  • It is reported that Griffith traveled from his Manteo, North Carolina residence to Los Angeles to visit Don Knotts in the hospital as Knotts succumbed to cancer.
  • To this day, the town of Mount Airy, Griffith's home town, annually celebrates The Andy Griffith Show. In the town, Floyd's Barber Shop is still open and visitors can partake a meal in the Snappy Lunch diner, a place Griffith often visited growing up and even mentioned once on The Andy Griffith Show.
  • In Episode 2x01 and 2x02 of the TV-sitcom Married... with Children we meet Dumpwater's only celebrity: The Man who met Andy Griffith.
  • He broke his hip in 2006.
  • William Harold Fenrick of Platteville, Wisconsin legally changed his name to Andrew Jackson Griffith and ran for sheriff of Grant County in November of 2006 (he lost). Subsequently, actor Griffith filed a lawsuit against Griffith (Fenrick), asserting that he violated trademark, copyright and privacy laws by changing his name for the "sole purpose of taking advantage of Griffith's notoriety in an attempt to gain votes."

[edit] Home

This personal biographic section does not cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since December 2006.
  • Griffith lives in Manteo, North Carolina.
  • Wife: Cindi Griffith (Cindi Knight); married 1983, second wife.
  • Son: Andrew Samuel Griffith Jr. (aka Sam Griffith), real-estate developer; born 1957; died January 17, 1996
  • Daughters: Dixie Griffith, Nan Griffith

[edit] References

  1. ^ Press release from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Griffith's alma mater. Griffith received the Grammy in 1997 for his album "I love to tell the story"
  2. ^ Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame
  3. ^ 2005 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients.

[edit] External links

Griffith] at the Internet Movie Database

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