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Don Knotts, TV's Barney Fife, dies at 81
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-26 10:14
LOS ANGELES - Don Knotts, who kept generations of TV audiences laughing as
bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show" and would-be swinger
landlord Ralph Furley on "Three's Company," has died. He was 81.
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actor Don Knotts, famous for his portrayal of the bumbling, jittery deputy
on the television comedy series "The Andy Griffith Show," seen here in
Hollywood, California in 2004, has died at the age of 81, news reports
said. [AFP] |
Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at a Los
Angeles hospital, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land,
which airs his two signature shows.
Griffith, who remained close friends with Knotts, said he had a brilliant
comedic mind and wrote some of the show's best scenes.
"Don was a small man ... but everything else about him was large: his mind,
his expressions," Griffith told The Associated Press on Saturday. "Don was
special. There's nobody like him.
"I loved him very much," Griffith added. "We had a long and wonderful life
together."
Unspecified health problems had forced Knotts to cancel an appearance in his
native Morgantown in August.
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 Emmys.
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."
Knotts appeared on several other television shows. In 1979, he replaced
Norman Fell on "Three's Company," also starring John Ritter, Suzanne Somers and
Joyce DeWitt.
Early in his TV career, he was one of the original cast
members of "The Steve Allen Show," the comedy-variety show that ran from
1956-61. He was one of a group of memorable comics backing Allen that included
Louis Nye, Tom Poston and Bill "Jose Jimenez" Dana.
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