Actor Don Knotts died today. He was 81 years old.
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.
Andy Griffith, who had visited Knotts in the hospital before his death, said his longtime friend had a brilliant comedic mind and wrote some of the show’s best scenes.
“Don was a small man … but everything else about him was large: his mind, his expressions,” Griffith told The Associated Press on Saturday. “Don was special. There’s nobody like him.
“I loved him very much,” Griffith added. “We had a long and wonderful life together.”
Unspecified health problems had forced Knotts to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown, W.Va., in August.
From Episode #103, “Opie’s Ill-Gotten Gain”
Barney: Boy, I tell you, if I ever came home with anything less than As, I just didn’t dare come home.
Andy: I don’t remember you getting all As.
Barney: I did that once. Remember? The teacher made such a fuss about it that all the kids hated me.
Andy: I don’t remember.
Barney: Well, it’s a fact. I didn’t want ’em thinking I was some kind of a snob or an egghead or something, so I buckled down and got bad marks.
Andy: That must have taken real effort.
Barney: You think you’re kidding. Listen, an IQ can be a mixed blessing sometimes. Some people want it and can’t get it. I got it and had to get rid of it. Life’s funny that way, you know?
Others: Jack Lewis |
Don Knotts Dies: Was TV Hit For Three Decades
Another comedy great — so successful that he was a smash hit on three series, in three decades and a batch of p…