Andy Griffith (1926-2012)

CBS News: Andy Griffith dead at 86

Actor Andy Griffith, whose portrayal of a rural sheriff in a popular 1960s TV show earned him the title of “America’s Favorite Sheriff,” died Tuesday morning. He was 86.

Andrew Samuel Griffith was born June 1, 1926, in Mt. Airy, N.C., a town much like Mayberry. As a child, he sang and played slide trombone in the band at Grace Moravian Church. He originally wanted a career as a musician, but his skills as a storyteller, mixed in with lots of country humor, soon came out. …

Griffith is most famous for television, playing Sheriff Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show, but he was never better than he was in A Face in the Crowd. As “Lonesome Rhodes” in Elia Kazan’s 1957 movie, Griffith was just astonishing — charismatic, frightening, magnetic and repulsive all at the same time. A terrific performance in a terrific film:

Update: From Mark Evanier’s lovely remembrance: “The best thing I can tell you about Andy Griffith, who has just died at the age of 86, is that I never saw or heard any reason to think he was not like the characters he played on TV.”