![]() ![]() Written by Schulberg and directed by Kazan, the film satirized the perils of national advertising, and Griffith’s chilling performance of a hick who wins the ear of politicians was a precursor to such contemporary satires as Bob Roberts. A Face in the Crowd, in which he delivered a stirring performance as a talented hobo singer who becomes a national phenomenon. The production was made into a TV show and a movie, with Griffith reprising his role as a country boy in the U.S. Following the tour, he made a foray into Broadway, playing in No Time for Sergeants, which he performed 345 times on the Great White Way (Knotts also appeared in the play). His style was, not surprisingly, more popular outside of the Big Apple. Neither the Sullivan appearance nor the nightclub act flourished, so Griffith took off on a tour. Griffith was booked on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1954 and, during the same year, made his nightclub debut at New York’s Blue Angel. STORY: TV’s Andy Griffith Tributes Span Film and Series WorkĪ single, “What It Was, Was Football (Parts I & II),” credited to Deacon Andy Griffith, made the top 10 of Billboard’s pre-Hot 100 sales chart in 1954. His subsequent homespun comedy albums have sold in the millions. The humor and subsequent album caught the attention of a record executive, and Griffith was signed to do comedy albums. Realizing he couldn’t use the same material, he came up with the idea on the 75-mile drive. Griffith came up with the idea for the album while en route to speak before a civic group, which his wife had mistakenly booked twice. His act was so successful that Griffith quit his day job and in 1953 recorded the comedy album What It Was, Was Football. He won a part in the Carolina Playmakers’ The Lost Colony and met his first wife, Barbara Edwards, who would later serve as his early booking agent.įollowing graduation, Griffith taught high school music for three years in Goldsboro, N.C., moonlighting as a singer-dancer-guitarist. Early on in life, he considered going into the ministry, but while studying music at the University of North Carolina he was encouraged to take up acting. Griffith was born an only child June 1, 1926, in Mount Airy, N.C. Griffith was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1991 for his body of comedic and dramatic work, which also included the 1977 miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors. When he received a People’s Choice Award in 1987 for playing the attorney, he admitted that it was his all-time favorite role. Griffith also served as executive producer on Matlock. PHOTOS: Hollywood’s Notable Deaths of 2012 While those series were hits, Griffith never was nominated for an Emmy for either role. His only Emmy nomination came for his turn as the father of a murder victim in the 1981 NBC telefilm Murder in Texas. Earlier, he earned a Tony nomination for his work in 1955’s No Time for Sergeants.Ī fixture on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s, Griffith starred as Sheriff Andy Taylor alongside Don Knotts and Ron Howard in The Andy Griffith Show, which aired from 1960 to 1968 on CBS, and as crafty Atlanta defense attorney Ben Matlock on NBC’s and ABC’s 1986-95 legal drama Matlock. Griffith made his film debut as Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, a manipulative country boy who goes power-mad, in Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd, the classic 1957 drama written by Budd Schulberg. PHOTOS: Andy Griffith, A Life in Pictures
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