Iconic television actor Andy Griffith died 3 July 2012 at his home in North Carolina, hours after suffering a heart attack. Born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, on 1 June 1926, he’ll be remembered as Sheriff Andy Taylor as The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68) and later in his career as the title lawyer on Matlock (1986-95).
After earning a degree in music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he became a regular on the Ed Sullivan Show and Steve Allen Show in the 1950s. His first leading role was on the stage, in the Broadway play No Time for Sergeants (1955) for which he received a Tony nomination.
Reporting his death, MSN notes “his film debut in 1957’s A Face in the Crowd mined a darker side of Griffith, one that he largely abandoned in favor of more populist slices of entertainment. Working with legendary director Elia Kazan, Griffith gave his finest dramatic performance as Larry ‘Lonesome’ Rhodes, a drifter who is discovered by an ambitious producer and transformed into a national television phenomenon.”
His few genre roles include appearances on The Demon Murder Case (1983), Fantasy Island (1982), The Bionic Woman (1979), and Frosty’s Winter Wonderland (1976). He also starred in the short-lived series Salvage 1, where he run a salvage operation working with, among other things, his home-made spaceship.
In addition to career, Griffith was a successful recording artist. He recorded several hit albums of Christian hymns and earned a Grammy Award. He also recorded “The Fishin’ Hole,” the theme song to The Andy Griffith Show.
Twice divorced, he is survived by his third wife, Cindi Knight (they married in 1983) and an adopted daughter from his first marriage.

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