There were a dozen actors on “The Andy Griffith Show” that were regulars in the 1960s sit-com, set in the small town of Mayberry, North Carolina for 249 episodes. Of the twelve, five are still alive, including Griffith himself, while seven of them have passed away. Andy Griffith, Ron Howard, Jim Nabors along with George Lindsey, “Gomer” and “Goober”, are living, as is actress Betty Lynn, while the people that portrayed Aunt Bee, Floyd the barber, Howard Sprague, Otis the town drunk, the often belligerent mayor, Andy’s girlfriend Helen Crump, and beloved deputy Barney Fife have all gone on to their final rest.
Griffith played Sheriff Andy Taylor on his series from 1960 until 1968, with a pair of shows spinning off from it; “Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.” debuted in 1964 while “Mayberry R.F.D.” ran from 1968 until 1971. The show depicted life in sleepy Mayberry, where Andy had little to do as sheriff except run off the occasional moon shiner or outwit criminals that came into town to take advantage of the local unsophisticated populace. Griffith started in movies in 1957, appearing in films such as “A Face in the Crowd” and “No Time for Sergeants.” He stayed on “The Andy Griffith Show” for eight seasons, had some other series where he was much less successful and then hit it big again in “Matlock” as a southern lawyer from 1986 until 1995. Griffith, born in 1926, is currently 81 years old and last year had hip replacement surgery.
Ron Howard made sure that he was not defined as simply Opie Taylor, Andy’s son, going on to star in “Happy Days” as Richie Cunningham and in films like “American Graffiti” and “Grand Theft Auto”, which he directed. Howard has become an incredibly successful director of several blockbuster motion pictures, with films like “Apollo 13”, “Splash”, “Cocoon”, and “A Beautiful Mind” big box-office hits. Ron Howard, married to his wife Cheryl since 1975, lives in Greenwich, Connecticut and is 53 years old.
Jim Nabors got his own show when his Gomer Pyle character left Mayberry and joined the Marines in 1964. Nabors, now 77, played a slow-witted but good hearted fellow who was the mechanic at Mayberry’s only garage. His high-pitched manner of speaking belied a fine baritone singing voice, and in fact Nabors has recorded almost thirty albums and has five gold records. He currently lives in Hawaii and runs a macadamia nut ranch. George Lindsey, who took over as the mechanic once his cousin Gomer left for boot camp, will be 72 this December. He joined the cast as Goober Pyle and stayed with the show until its end, went on to the spin-off, and then was a regular for twenty years on “Hee Haw.” George also did voiceover work for Disney animated films, and although he has always had work acting as a simple character, in real life he has a degree in Bioscience.
The last living regular from “The Andy Griffith Show” is Betty Lynn, who for 26 episodes in the first five seasons was Barney Fife’s girlfriend Thelma Lou. Lynn, 81, began in television in 1948 and appeared on a plethora of shows. She just last year moved to Mount Airy, North Carolina, the actual town on which Mayberry was supposedly based on.
With us no longer is Don Knotts, the Emmy Award winning actor who played in many movies as a milquetoast type in dangerous situations but forever famous as Fife, the shaky deputy who bumbled his way through the show’s first five seasons before leaving. Knotts also appeared in “Three’s Company” as landlord Ralph Furley. He died in 2006 at 81 from complications due to lung cancer.
Frances Bavier played Aunt Bee, taking care of Andy and Opie, and she appeared in all but ten episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show.” Bavier died at 86 in 1989 from heart problems. Howard McNear was Floyd the barber, a pleasant but sometimes odd man who ran the barbershop where Mayberry’s residents congregated. McNear did plenty of work in radio before playing a barber on “Leave it to Beaver.” He had a stroke during the third season of “The Andy Griffith Show” but remained on the show for a couple more years, despite the fact that he could not stand on his own. His scenes were written with him sitting down or standing with the help of a device that was hidden behind whoever he was giving a haircut to. Howard died in 1969 at 63 years of age.
Aneta Corsaut was schoolteacher Helen Crump, Andy’s steady love interest who eventually married him in the very first episode of “Mayberry R.F.D.” before they moved away to another town. Aneta was in 66 Andy Griffith episodes, and she is also known for her role in the sci-fi horror film “The Blob”, in which she made her film debut along with Steve McQueen. Aneta was also in several “Matlock” episodes; she succumbed to cancer in 1995 at 62. Hal Smith, Otis the drunk, never drank in real life. He however could easily play the stumbling Otis, who worked in a candle factory by day and drank himself silly every night, often coming into the jail and locking himself up so he could sleep it off. Smith did voice work for Disney, often providing the voice of Owl. Smith was killed by a heart attack at 77 in 1994.
Jack Dodson portrayed Howard Sprague 26 times over the years in Mayberry, coming in during the sixth season. Sprague was a county clerk who lived with his overbearing mother, a refined but delicate individual who always wore a bow tie. Dodson died in Los Angeles in 1994 when he was 63 years old. Parley Baer was also a radio stalwart before doing much television work. He played Mayor Stoner, never a big supporter of the laid-back Sheriff Taylor, who was always left looking bad. Baer was done in by complications from a stroke at 88 in 2002; he also provided the voice of Ernie Keebler in the cookie commercials.
