Farewell Don Knotts, aka Barnie Fife

Seems like only yesterday, we turned on the old B/W TV to watch "The Andy Griffith Show". Yes, I grew up watching Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, and Ronnie Howard. As well as watching many of the movies that he starred or co-starred in. His role in "No Time For Sergeants" is forever embedded in my mind as true comedy. I would find it hard to believe that anyone could ever replace him in that role or as Barnie Fife. Don's passing is indeed a great lose for the world and he will forever be remembered in the hearts of those that grew up with him.

Don Knotts - 1924 - 2006

Birth Name: Jesse Donald Knotts
Date Of Birth: 21st July 1924
Place Of Birth: Morgantown, West Virginia, USA
Height: 5’ 10”
Spouses:Loralee Czuchna (1974 - 1983)Kathryn Kay Metz (1947 - 1964)
Debut Film:“No Time For Sergeants” (1958)
Debut TV Appearance:“Search For Tommorow”(1953-55)
Signature TV Role: Deputy Barnie Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show” (1960 - 1968)
Trivia: During the 1960’s, Don won 5 “Emmy Awards” for his work on “The Andy Griffith Show”.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television 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 the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center, said Sherwin Bash, his friend and manager.

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. Knotts appeared on several other television shows. In 1979, he joined "Three's Company," playing the landlord to John Ritter, Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt.

Early in his TV career, he was one of the original cast members of "The Steve Allen Show," a comedy-variety show that ran from 1956-61. He was one of a group of memorable comics backing Allen that included Louis Nye, Tom Poston and Bill "Jose Jimenez" Dana. Knotts' G-rated films were family fun, not box-office blockbusters. In most, he ends up the hero and gets the girl - a girl who can see through his nervousness to the heart of gold. Some of his movies include "The Incredible Mr. Limpet," "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo".

In 1998, he had a key role in "Pleasantville," playing a folksy television repairman whose supercharged remote control sends a teen boy and his sister into a TV sitcom past. In recent years, he said he had no plans to retire, traveling with theater productions and appearing in print and TV ads for Kodiak pressure treated wood.