Posted on 02/25/2006 2:38:42 PM PST by lunarbicep
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 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, 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 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 Emmies.
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.
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 Bea 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
What a bummer!
He was great on the old Steve Allen Show on the Man On The Street segment. RIP
If there is, we'll have to nip it in the bud, I tell ya, nip it in the bud!
I loved those Man on the Street segments of the Steve Allen Show..I remember that Tom Poston, played a guy who always forgot his name, and then there was another actor(tho I cannot remember his name), who played an extremely cheery guy name Gordon Hathaway...and then there was Don Knotts, who played the highly nervous little fellow, who could barely speak...now that was comedy...
So he really did know how to handle a firearm!
Don Knotts (the nervous one)
Bill Dana (My name...Jose...Jimenez)
Tom Poston (couldn't remember his name)
Louis Nye (Hi-ho, Steverino!)
Dayton Allen (Whyyyyyyy not?)
Who'm I forgetting?
< ]B^)
Believe it or not, that was my first thought.
Gotta send this on to our oldest son.
Is that your frat, too?
You got that right! The guy you're thinking of was Louis Nye, who also died within the past year.
Man, all the guys I enjoyed as a kid--they're all going now.
Ah, but your post is more correct...thanks for that mention of Louis Nye...I just could not remember his name...and I had forgotten(how could I?) all about Jose Jimenez, played by Bill Dana...
Thanks...
He was one of the best. So sorry to hear the news of his passing. Hollyweird can't come even close today. No wonder I don't watch network TV, except for local news to see how many died today on our streets.- Wow, did I write this? Talk about "profiling". You betcha'
Don, thanks for the laughs
What letter did he say is impossible to pronounce when riding a motorcycle with your mouth open?
And thanks to you as well, for Louis Nye...
Its kind of scarey, isnt it, when those who made us laugh when we were kids, are now all going to that big Comedy Club in the sky..
Maybe two comedians to take the ride up together?
He played the guy who worked with explosives that was always shaking. Steve would ask him 'Are you nervous?' he would reply 'Nope!.
I go back to the Steve Allen days...a well-loved man. He will be missed.
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