Andy Griffith Studied to Be a Moravian Minister!

Before the Andy Griffith Show…  way before Matlock… Andy Griffith made his film debut in the black-and-white film “A Face in the Crowd.”  He played a country boy, a complex young man with a mean streak.  A power-hungry drifter, who achieved success—first as a television host, and then in the political realm.

Director Elia Kazan cast Griffith as the lead in the 1957 film, and his co-stars included Patricia Neal, Lee Remick, Walter Matthau and Tony Franciosa. 

Griffith was raised Baptist.  While a student at Mount Airy High School in North Carolina, he admired the leader of the school’s brass band, a Moravian minister.  In college, Andy first studied to be a Moravian minister, then switched majors and graduated with a bachelors of music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Andy Griffith, a role model on the small screen, died today at his North Carolina home.  He will be missed.

Here’s a dramatic scene from “A Face in the Crowd”—far from the dusty roads in Mayberry.