More than sixty years ago, actor Andy Griffith truly came to the attention of the American public with The Andy Griffith Show, the gentle family sitcom set in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina that remains beloved all these years later. In it, he plays Sheriff Andy Taylor and led an ensemble of characters and actors that the audience never forgot.
Among them, of course, were Ron Howard (who would go on to star in Happy Days and enjoy a successful career as a producer and director) as Andy’s son, Opie; the always-brilliant Don Knotts as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife, Frances Bavier as the Taylors’ Aunt Bee, Jim Nabors and George Lindsay as mechanics Gomer and Goober Pyle and Howard McNear as Floyd the Barber. All told, it remains one of the greatest examples of Classic TV ever produced.
Following the conclusion of The Andy Griffith Show, the actor starred in a couple of other short-lived series, feature films and TV movies, but it was 26 years after that show’s debut that he once again achieved small-screen success with the gentle (there’s that word again) legal drama Matlock, which ran for nine seasons. Bookends to a career that seemed to suggest he moved from one success to the other, but the truth is that in between those two shows, Andy struggled in his career, attempting one project after another that just failed to appeal to the audience.
Along the way, he actively tried to change his image from the “aw shucks” persona he made famous as Andy Taylor — and he did indeed manage some dark and somewhat disturbing performances along the way — and doing his best to stay active in Hollywood, which became more difficult to do than one might suspect.
What follows is our look back at the life and times of one of TV’s most beloved actors, revealing how he pursued his dreams in the first place, and all the ups and downs of his career that you might not be aware of. Until now, that is.
The North Carolina Influence
Andy was born June 1, 1926 in North Carolina and it’s obvious that the experience had a great impact on him, with much of The Andy Griffith Show being inspired by it. But it wasn’t all happiness and sunshine — times were tough for the Griffith family. While his parents saved for a house, they stayed with relatives. And because they couldn’t afford a crib, Andy used to have to sleep in dresser drawers. It wasn’t until 1929 when the Griffiths were able to buy their own home.
Music Captured His Heart
Although Andy joined the Mount Airy High School drama department, it was at school that he was able to more fully explore his love for music. A Baptist, he also found inspiration from Grace Moravian Church minister Ed Mickey, who led the brass band and actually is the person that taught Andy to not only sing, but how to play the trombone (which he managed to save up the money to buy his own instrument). Various things solidified Andy’s interest in music. First off, Country Western music was always playing on the family radio, and then there were services at the Haymore Baptist Church, which were filled with hand-clapping, body-swaying and singing. Additionally, he would constantly look at the musical instruments featured in the Spiegel catalog, and then, in 1941, he saw and fell in love with the film Birth of the Blues, which, as the title suggests, is about the start of Jazz.
As quoted in the book Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show, Andy said, “I was not athletic and I wasn’t a good student, so I was kind of nobody. So when I started all this music business … I became a little somebody then.”