RIP Don Knotts

Website · Post by **brian** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 6:55 pm

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.

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.

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Post by **trucker2000** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:22 pm

The world has truely lost a great actor.

Post by **AnneB** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 7:27 pm

I didn't realise he was that old.

Xjmt · Post by **Xjmt** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:50 am

The only thing I remember seeing him on was the Steve Alan show. He played a very nervous 'man in the street' who could never remember what his name was or where he lived.

For that memory alone he will be missed.

BevH · Post by **BevH** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:36 am

He was a favorite here in Kansas City, performing almost annually at the dinner theater here. His last performance here was in 2003. A wonderful talented man... he will truly be missed.