Andy Griffith 

Andy Griffith was Sheriff Andy Taylor in the hit television series The Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s, and the star and title role lead in Matlock, a popular crime investigation series running from 1986 to 1995. Actor, singer, writer, and producer Andy Griffith was born June 1, 1926—the same day as legendary actress and sex symbol Marilyn Munroe—in North Carolina. He lives there today, in Manteo, with his second wife Cindi Griffith (born Cindi Knight), whom he married in 1983. Andy Griffith has three children; son Andrew Samuel Griffith Jr., who died in 1996 when he was almost 40; and daughters Dixie and Nan Griffith. 

Andy Griffith started out in show business in the early 1950s after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, earning a BA in music and then teaching English at a high school in New York. He began as a type of stand-up comedian, moved on to Broadway, and then broke into film and television acting.  He starred in Broadway play No Time for Sergeants, which was later made into a movie in which he also starred (1959). Andy Griffith played the lead role in the 1957 A Face in the Crowd with fellow actors Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau. 

However, it was his stint on The Andy Griffith Show from 1960 to 1968 that really gave Andy Griffith the popularity he still enjoys today. The hit show co-starred actors Ron Howard, Frances Bavier, Don Knotts, Jim Nabors, George Lindsey, and many others. When he left the show in 1968, he starred in a few less successful series before landing the role of criminal defense attorney Benjamin Matlock in the prime time hit series Matlock, which ran on both NBC and ABC. Matlock ran for nearly a decade and also starred Linda Purl, Kene Holliday, Nancy Stafford, Kari Lizer, Julie Sommars, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Brynn Thayer, Daniel Roebuck, and Carol Huston. 

Andy Griffith also enjoyed a career of acting for many TV movies. He won an Emmy nomination for his work in 1981’s Murder in Texas, and more acclamation for starring alongside legendary music sensation Johnny Cash in Murder in Coweta County (1983). In addition, he enjoyed a singing and recording career featured as part of his roles on TV series and movies.

Griffith has also recorded and released many successful albums, mostly of classic hymns, including, more recently, Bound for the Promised Land: The Best of Andy Griffith Hymns and Pickin’ and Grinnin’: The Best of Andy Griffith, both released in 2005. Andy Griffith received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 9, 2005.