Andy Griffith Biography

Fast Facts

• Was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1991, the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999, the Christian Music Hall of Fame in 2007, and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010
• Graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in Music in 1949
• Diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Symdrome in 1983 and needed physical rehabilitation to help him walk again after being bedridden several months by the disease
• After abandoning his initial plans to become a preacher, he went on to teach music and drama at Goldsboro High School
• Quote: "If you think and feel what you're supposed to think and feel, hard enough, it'll come out through your eyes -- and the camera will see it․"
• Quote: "(On the notion that he was playing himself in "The Andy Griffith Show"): "You're supposed to believe in the character․ You're not supposed to think, 'Gee, Andy's acting up a storm․'""
• Initially working as a monologist, he would go on to perform on Broadway during his early days in Ira Levin's "No Time for Sergeants," a role which would garner him a Tony nomination and Theatre World Award win
• Best known for his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor in "The Andy Griffith Show" and Ben Matlock in "Matlock," he would later find success in the recording industry after leaving television for gospel music
• Slept in dresser drawers as a child when his parents could not afford a home for their only child
• Declined an offer by Democratic party officials to run for a North Carolina seat in the U․S․ Senate in 1989