(Reuters) – Actor Andy Griffith, whose portrayal of a small-town sheriff made “The Andy Griffith Show” one of television’s most enduring shows, died today at his North Carolina home at age 86.
“At approximately 7 a.m., July 3, 2012, Andy Griffith passed away at his home on Roanoke Island, Dare County, North Carolina. The family will release further information shortly,” county Sheriff J.D. Doughtie said in a written statement.
Griffith created another memorable character, the folksy defense lawyer in “Matlock” in the 1980s and 1990s, but it was his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor on the “The Andy Griffith Show” in the 1960s that gave him a place in television history.
The show depicted life in the friendly, slow-moving fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, which was widely believed to have been based on Griffith’s own hometown, Mount Airy, in that state.
There was little crime to fight in Mayberry so the stories centered on the sheriff and his interactions with the quirky townspeople.
“The basic theme of our show was love,” Griffith said in a 2003 interview with CNN. “All the characters loved each other. And all the actors loved each other, too.”
The show, a situation comedy, was an entertaining diversion for viewers to the social and political upheavals of the 1960s.
“It was at a point where America was really in turmoil,” executive producer John Watkin told USA Today. “‘The Andy Griffith Show’ and Mayberry represented in some sense this kind of idealized view of what America was. It contains such a heart, such a sense of community.”
Some said Griffith’s Mayberry was too sanitized with none of the strife generated by the anti-war and civil rights protests of the time. In fact, there were no regular black characters on the show.
“We tried in every way to get that to happen but we were unable to do it,” Griffith told USA Today in discussing Mayberry’s all-white population.
Griffith was born June 1, 1926, and had ambitions of being a preacher. At the University of North Carolina he earned a degree in dramatic arts in 1949 and started performing in singing groups.
