"But I guess you could say I created Andy Taylor," he said. He described himself as having the qualities of one of his last roles, that of the cranky diner owner in "Waitress," and also of his most manipulative character, from the 1957 movie "A Face in the Crowd." In a 2007 interview with The Associated Press, Griffith said he wasn't as wise as the sheriff, nor as nice. With great grace, he handled the constant barrage of people wanting to talk to Andy Taylor," Fincannon said. That role "put heavy pressure on him because everyone felt like he was their best friend. He described his friend as the symbol of North Carolina. Strangers who asked where Griffith lived would receive circular directions that took them to the beach, said William Ivey Long, the Tony Award-winning costume designer whose parents were friends with Griffith and his first wife, Barbara.Ĭraig Fincannon, who runs a casting agency in Wilmington, met Griffith in 1974. He protected his privacy in the coastal town of Manteo, by building a circle of friends who revealed little to nothing about him. Griffith was more complicated than the role he played - witnessed by his three marriages if nothing else.īut that perception led people to believe Griffith was all that was good about North Carolina and put pressure on him to live up to an impossible Hollywood standard. Griffith passed away this morning at his home peacefully and has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island," Doughtie told The Associated Press, reading from a family statement.Īlthough he acknowledged some similarities between himself and the wise sheriff who oversaw a town of eccentrics, they weren't the same. Griffith, 86, died Tuesday at his coastal home, Dare County Sheriff Doug Doughtie said in a statement. He used that part of me to find the emotion of evil, the various thousands of moods that the man had.”“A Face in the Crowd” is available on DVD and will be airing on Turner Classic Movies on July 18, kicking off the cable network’s salute to Griffith.Also screening will be the 1958 film version of “No Time for Sergeants,” the 1958 comedy “Onionhead” and the underrated 1975 comedy “Hearts of the West,” in which Griffith shines as an actor who plays in “B” Westerns in the 1930s.Raleigh | It was all too easy to confuse Andy Griffith the actor with Sheriff Andy Taylor, his most famous character from "The Andy Griffith Show."Īfter all, Griffith set his namesake show in a make-believe town based on his hometown of Mount Airy, N.C., and played his "aw, shucks" persona to such perfection that viewers easily believed the character and the man were one. Griffith told him he could do it and then proved it to both Schulberg and Kazan the next day when he did a impression of evangelist Oral Roberts performing a “healing.”“At that moment, he and Budd could both see that I had a wild side,” Griffith told the Times. Lee Remick also made her film debut in the film as a cheerleader who becomes his unhappy wife.The film was not a success, but it has grown in relevance over the last 54 years.In a 2005 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Griffith recalled that he had a beer with Schulberg after the screenwriter caught a performance of “No Time for Sergeants,” a Broadway production adapted from a 1955 live TV show in which he played the naive recruit Will Stockdale.They discussed “A Face in the Crowd,” but Schulberg felt that Griffith was too nice to be able to pull off someone so odious and ambitious as Rhodes. LOS ANGELES - Andy Griffith, who died Tuesday at the age of 86, was best known for his folksy homespun humor as Sheriff Andy Taylor on the classic “The Andy Griffith Show,” but he was first introduced to film audiences as a dramatic actor of conviction and power.The North Carolina native, who started as a stand-up comedian and had scored with audiences on both “The Steve Allen Show” and “The Ed Sullivan Show,” made his film debut in 1957’s “A Face in the Crowd,” director Elia Kazan and his “On the Waterfront” screenwriter Budd Schulberg’s dark social commentary.Griffith plays Lonesome Rhodes, a hard-drinking, womanizing hobo with a gift of gab who becomes an overnight radio and TV sensation thanks to an enterprising young radio producer (Patricia Neal).
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