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Andy Griffith: Characters
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Andy Griffith is one of television's most personable and enduring star performers. He is perhaps best known as Andy Taylor, the central character in The Andy Griffith Show, which aired on CBS from 1960-1968 and consistently ranked among the top ten shows in each of its eight seasons. As a "down home" attorney in the even longer running Matlock, Griffith continued to make a unique contribution to television Americana.
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Fifty years ago, the actor Andy Griffith starred in what would become a prophetic commentary about monstrous media creations. A Face in the Crowd was Griffith's film debut; it followed his character — Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes — as he rose from vagrant locked up in a country jail to become a national household celebrity who wounds the nation and destroys himself.
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Griffith left the show in 1968, feeling that he had contributed all he could to the character of Andy Taylor. Ironically, the program reached the number one position that year. The show's sponsor, General Foods, was not ready to relinquish the successful vehicle ... and a transitional program aired introducing a new lead character and a new name: Mayberry, RFD. Griffith remained as a producer, and the ratings strength continued as several of the supporting characters stayed on. The program was canceled in 1971, however, when CBS decided to abandon its rural programming for more "relevant" shows targeted at younger viewers.
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After spending time in rehabilitation for leg paralysis due to Guillain-Barre Syndrome in 1986, Griffith came back to work in another popular TV series as the title character Ben Matlock, in Matlock. Griffith's character was a country lawyer in Atlanta, who was known for his southern drawl and always winning his cases. By the end of its first season it was a ratings powerhouse on Tuesday nights. Also starring on Matlock during the first season was familiar actress Linda Purl who played Matlock's younger daughter Charlene Matlock. She had limited appearances with the seasoned actor and was dismissed from the show after 1 season. Purl was replaced by Nancy Stafford, who was Miss Florida in the Miss Universe Pageant of 1976, an unknown actress at the time, future speaker and best-selling author of Christian books.
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(AP Photo/Fox Searchlight Pictures) :: This undated photo provided by Fox Searchlight Pictures shows actor Andy Griffith on the set of "Waitress." Griffith stars as a diner owner in the critically acclaimed film. At the age of 81, Andy Griffith has been discovered. But he's now a breakout star of sorts in the critically acclaimed "Waitress." He's only a supporting character in a movie starring Keri Russell as Jenna, a top-notch pie maker trying to leave her brutish husband, but steals the show as the cranky owner of the diner where she works.
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Griffith is now the legal name of the former William Fenrick, a co-owner of Downtown Discs, a Platteville music store. He filed the paperwork in May to change his name and run as an independent for sheriff. (For trivia buffs, the character that the actor Andy Griffith played on the '60s TV show "The Andy Griffith Show" was actually called "Andy Taylor.")
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