Andy Griffith (1926 – 2012)

Andy Griffith, the star of one of the country’s most beloved sitcoms, “The Andy Griffith Show”, died at age 86.

Andy started out his career doing comedy monologues, his most famous was “What It Was, Was Football”.  He would also work Shakespeare into his country routines, talking about Romeo and Juliet with a down home twang.  Andy Griffith knew you could be country without being an idiot.

And he carried that into “The Andy Griffith Show”.  His characters were from the South, but they didn’t have to be buffoons with no redeeming qualities.  Andy made sure his show was filled with funny, but also sweet moments.  He created the ideal hometown for his alter ego Sheriff Andy Taylor.  To this day, when someone wants to talk about a Utopian place to live in America, the name “Mayberry” comes up.   Andy (both Griffith and Taylor) knew he was a hick, but that didn’t disqualify him from having dignity and grace.

Andy Griffith also was a hit on Broadway early in his career with “No Time For Sergeants” and received critical acclaim in the movies in “A Face In The Crowd”.  Later in life, he conquered television all over again with the hit show “Matlock”.  But Andy Griffith will always be remembered as Sheriff Andy Taylor, the sheriff without a gun and the last cop that America really trusted.

Here’s Andy Griffith’s classic routine “What It Was, Was Football”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I42JIgfnMYE]

Andy Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes in Elia Kazan’s classic “A Face In The Crowd”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaLQMs_VDLw]

And on “The Andy Griffith Show” working with little Ronnie Howard and showing his true comic genius by letting another actor have the punchlines.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrPD55FVd4o&feature=related]