Don Knotts – played Barney Fife on Andy Griffith, died at 81

[Garibaldi]

LOS ANGELES – Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show,” has died. He was 81.

Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at a Los Angeles hospital, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs “The Andy Griffith Show,” and another Knotts hit, “Three’s Company.”

Unspecified health problems had forced him to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown, W.Va., in August 2005.

The West Virginia-born actor’s half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and five Emmys.

The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the top: The others are “I Love Lucy” and “Seinfeld.” The 249 episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.

No. 1, with one bullet
As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.

Knotts, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the Fife character and doesn’t mind being remembered that way.

His favorite episodes, he said, were “The Pickle Story,” where Aunt Bee makes pickles no one can eat, and “Barney and the Choir,” where no one can stop him from singing.

“I can’t sing. It makes me sad that I can’t sing or dance well enough to be in a musical, but I’m just not talented in that way,” he lamented. “It’s one of my weaknesses.”

Knotts appeared on six other television shows. In 1979, Knotts replaced Norman Fell on “Three’s Company,” playing the would-be swinger landlord to John Ritter, Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt.

Early in his TV career, he was one of the original cast members of “The Steve Allen Show,” the comedy-variety show that ran from 1956-61. He was one of a group of memorable comics backing Allen that included Louis Nye, Tom Poston and Bill “Jose Jimenez” Dana.

G-rated family films
Knotts’ G-rated films were family fun, not box-office blockbusters. In most, he ends up the hero and gets the girl — a girl who can see through his nervousness to the heart of gold.

In the part-animated 1964 film “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” Knotts played a meek clerk who turns into a fish after he is rejected by the Navy.

When it was announced in 1998 that Jim Carrey would star in a “Limpet” remake, Knotts responded: “I’m just flattered that someone of Carrey’s caliber is remaking something I did. Now, if someone else did Barney Fife, THAT would be different.”

In the 1967 film “The Reluctant Astronaut,” co-starring Leslie Nielsen, Knotts’ father enrolls his wimpy son — operator of a Kiddieland rocket ride — in NASA’s space program. Knotts poses as a famous astronaut to the joy of his parents and hometown but is eventually exposed for what he really is, a janitor so terrified of heights he refuses to ride an airplane.

In the 1969 film “The Love God?,” he was a geeky bird-watcher who is duped into becoming publisher of a naughty men’s magazine and then becomes a national sex symbol. Eventually, he comes to his senses, leaves the big city and marries the sweet girl next door.

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[GTO Man]

He was one of the best.

[Anonymous]

I ran into a tape of Matlock the other month. Knotts was on with Griffith. I had to double check that it was indeed Matlock and not the Andy Griffith show (of course the fact that it was in color and they were both gray haired and wrinkled kinda gave it away )

[Garibaldi]

He definitely was one of the best, it is an end of an era.

[Anonymous]

The article I found was more specific on his cause of death stating it was pulminary and respiratory complications. It also said Griffith was visiting him regularly while in the hospital. RIP

[Garibaldi]

How old is Andy now?

[GTO Man]

I believe he is 79, born June 1 1926.

[circletrack]

Very sad indeed. We’ve lost many great actors in the last few months.

[Garibaldi]

Quote:

I believe he is 79, born June 1 1926.

He’s getting up there too. What was his last tv/movie appearance?

[Anonymous]

They did a Andy Griffith Reunion show just the other year.

[Garibaldi]

Really? Is that out on dvd or viewable somewhere?

[Author]

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