Andy Griffith Biography

At first intending to become a minister, Andy Griffith became active with the Carolina Playmakers, the prestigious drama-and-music adjunct of the University of North Carolina. He spent several seasons portraying Sir Walter Raleigh, in the summertime outdoor drama 'The Lost Colony', spending the rest of those years as a schoolteacher.

Griffith continued performing fitfully as an after-dinner speaker on the men's club circuit until, under the guidance of agent and producer Richard O. Linke, he returned to acting, attaining stardom in the role of bumptious Air Force rookie, Will Stockdale, in the TV and Broadway productions of 'No Time For Sergeants'. Before committing 'Sergeants' to film, Griffith made his movie debut in director Elia Kazan's 'A Face in the Crowd'.

During 1957 and 1958, Griffith starred in a 1959 Broadway musical version of 'Destry Rides Again'; he also ran a North Carolina supermarket. In February 1960 he first appeared as Andy Taylor, the laid-back sheriff of Mayberry, North Carolina, on an episode of 'The Danny Thomas Show'. This one-shot was the pilot film for the Emmy-winning 'The Andy Griffith Show', in which Griffith starred from 1960 through 1968.

Griffith owned half of the series, ruling the set with an iron hand. An unsuccessful return to films, with 1969's 'Angel in My Pocket', was followed by an equally unsuccessful 1970 TV series, 'Headmaster'. For the next years, Griffith confined himself to guest-star appearances, often surprising his fans by accepting cold-blooded villainous roles.

In 1985, he made a triumphal return to series television in 'Matlock', playing a folksy but very crafty Southern defense attorney. A life-threatening disease known as Gillian-Barre syndrome curtailed his activities in the late 1980s, but Andy Griffith continued, over the subsequennt decade, with his infrequent 'Matlock' two-hour specials.