Andy Samuel Griffith was an American actor, comedian, television producer, southern gospel singer, and writer. He was a Tony Award nominee for two roles, and gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan’s film A Face in the Crowd. He became better known for his television roles, playing the lead roles of Andy Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show and Ben Matlock in the legal drama Matlock. He died of a heart attack on December 17, 2011, at the age of 90.
About Andy Griffith in brief
Andy Samuel Griffith was an American actor, comedian, television producer, southern gospel singer, and writer. Known for his Southern drawl, his characters with a folksy-friendly personality, and his gruff but friendly voice. Griffith was a Tony Award nominee for two roles, and gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan’s film A Face in the Crowd. He became better known for his television roles, playing the lead roles of Andy Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show and Ben Matlock in the legal drama Matlock. His only other appearance on the stage was in a spin-off of The Merv Griffin Show, which he co-wrote and co-starred in with Don Knotts. He died of a heart attack on December 17, 2011. He was buried in Mount Airy, North Carolina. He is survived by his wife, Geneva, and their three children. He also leaves behind a wife and two step-daughters, who he had with his first wife, Barbara, and a daughter with whom he had a son, Andy Griffith Jr., who died in 2012. He had a brother, Carl Griffith, who was also an actor and played the lead role in the film version of No Time for Sergeants, which is considered the inspiration for the later television situation comedy Gomer Pyle – U.S. S. Pinafore. Griffith also had a daughter, Barbara Griffith-Griffith, who appeared in the television series The Golden Age of Comedy, which she co-hosted with her brother, Bob Greene, in the early 1980s.
Griffith died of lung cancer on December 16, 2011, at the age of 90. He leaves behind his wife and three children, all of whom are now in their 80s and 90s and live in North Carolina and South Carolina. The couple had two sons, Andy Jr. and Andy Griffith III, who is now in his late 60s and 70s, and one daughter, Amy Griffith. Griffith had a great love of music, particularly swing, and was a member of the Carolina Playmakers at UNC-Chapel Hill, where he was president of the chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, America’s oldest fraternity for men in music. He wrote a monologue, What It Was, Was Football, which was released as a single in 1953 on the Colonial Records label. The monologue was a hit for Griffith, reaching number nine on the charts in 1954. Griffith’s first role on Broadway was in Ira Levin’s full-length theatrical version of the same name on Broadway in New York City. He won the 1956 Theatre World Award, a prize given for debut roles on Broadway. He played Sir Walter Raleigh in The Lost Colony, a play about Roanoke Island still performed today. His role earned him a nomination for the 1956 Tony Awards, but he lost to Ed Begley. He later reprised his role for the film No Time For Sergeants; the film also featured Don knotts as a corporal in charge of a manual-dexter.
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