Even the biggest celebrities in Hollywood get starstruck from time to time—and recent Academy Awards host Conan O’Brien revealed the actor who knocked his socks off! The 61-year-old comedian, television host and podcaster revealed to The New York Times ahead of his big hosting gig which celebrity left him gobsmacked.
Conan O’Brien’s nostalgia for ‘Andy Griffith’
When asked why he accepted the Oscar hosting gig, O’Brien revealed that it boils down to the fact that he’s nostalgic, “particularly, now, about my childhood.” He continued, “The biggest thrill I’ve had in my career is meeting the celebrities that were on my television when I was a little boy. So when I met Don Knotts, I lost my mind. When I met Tom Cruise, I was happy and he was very lovely to me. But it couldn’t have the same impact [as Don Knotts].”
Don Knotts is beloved perhaps most notably for his role as Barney Fife in The Andy Griffith Show. As the bumbling deputy sheriff of Mayberry, Knotts brought joy and laughter into the homes of people across the world season after season, and his legacy lives on to this day. As reported by MeTV, Knotts told the Associated Press that bringing Fife to life was “the richest experience of my life.”
Don Knotts’ legacy & his hilarious take on comedy
Knotts was also beloved for his role in Three’s Company as Mr. Furley, the laugh-inducing landlord fans grew to love, and it’s a part he looked back on fondly. “It was a very broad comedy show, lots of broad jokes, lots of physical humor. John Ritter is a great physical comedian, could do great falls, and I found myself doing a lot of falls on the show,” he shared in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation. Furley also had quite the look, and Knotts revealed that there was someone in the costume department who was responsible for thinking up the most outlandish looks possible for his character.
“Loudest colors, craziest design. They were all outlandish. Just real loud, bright blue, bright red, just ridiculous stuff,” he happily remembered.
Conan O’Brien chats with Don Knotts
While he might have been fangirling on the inside, back in 1999, Conan O’Brien sat down with Don Knotts to discuss his iconic characters in a lovely chat that revealed both Knotts’ admiration for his work, and O’Brien’s admiration for Knotts! While appearing on Late Night With Conan O’Brien, the actor revealed that there was certainly a little Barney in him.
“I think you made being nervous funnier than any other performer I’ve ever seen,” Conan praised. In response, Knotts shared some of Fife’s origin story. “I saw a guy at a luncheon giving a speech, and he was that nervous. I mean, he was spilling water all over himself, and then I dreamed a monologue about a nervous guy, and I got up and wrote the rest of the monologue and did it on The Tonight Show. That developed later into Barney Fife.”
Though Knotts passed away in 2006, his lasting legacy lives on as someone who brought countless hours of joy and laughter.
