Native of Mt. Airy, NC and famous for his role as Andy Taylor on the Mayberry TV Show died at home this morning.
Source: Wall Street Journal, July 3, 2012.
Mayberry has lost a sheriff.
Andy Griffith, the star of the classic TV show that bears his name, has died. He was 86 years old.
The Dare County Sheriff’s office confirmed that an ambulance went to Griffith’s home on Roanoke Island off the North Carolina coast this morning and that Griffith died there at approximately 7 a.m.
“Andy Griffith passed away, after an illness, during the early morning on July 3 at his home in Manteo, N.C., with his wife Cindi at his side. He was 86 years old,” Griffith’s family said in a statement. “Mr. Griffith has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island.”
Griffith was an actor, director, producer, writer and singer. He starred in such memorable TV shows as the sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show” and the legal drama “Matlock.”
Born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, in 1926, he performed recorded monologues early in his career, including “What It Was, Was Football,” which was a hit on the record charts. The comic recording featured a rural man trying to figure out the mystifying rules to football. The Charlotte Observer wrote that “it established Griffith as a southern comedic voice.”
