Don Knotts biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Actor and comedian. Born July 21, 1924, in Morgantown, West Virginia. Before he entered high school, Knotts began performing as a ventriloquist and comedian at various church and school functions. He traveled to New York City to try and make his way as a comedian, but returned home to attend West Virginia University when his career failed to take off. After his freshman year, Knotts joined the Army, and during World War II he toured the Pacific Islands as a comedian in a G.I. variety show called "Stars and Gripes."

Acting Debut

After graduating from college in 1948, Knotts again moved to New York, where he quickly became a regular on several television and radio programs. In 1955, he made his debut on Broadway in the hit comedy, No Time For Sergeants, which marked his first collaboration with Andy Griffith. Knotts appeared as a regular member of the ensemble cast on NBC's The Steve Allen Show, from 1956 to 1960; he moved to Hollywood when the show relocated in 1959. He also reprised his No Time for Sergeants role in the 1958 film version, alongside Griffith, a fellow regular on The Steve Allen Show.

Commercial Breakthrough

In 1960, Knotts joined Griffith on a new sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show, playing Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife to Griffith's Sheriff Andy Taylor. Knotts stayed with the tremendously successful show for five seasons, during which he won three Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role in a Series. Though he left The Andy Griffith Show in 1965 to pursue a film career, his periodic returns in 1966 and 1967 earned him two more Emmys.

His first leading role in a film came in 1964, with The Incredible Mr. Limpet. The film began a string of appearances in low-budget family films for Knotts including The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), The Reluctant Astronaut (1967), and The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968) that won him widespread recognition as a film actor. By 1970, however, Knotts clean-cut humor seemed somewhat out of place in a more sophisticated film industry, and he began to appear in a series of somewhat more juvenile films, beginning with the Disney comedy-Western, The Apple Dumpling Gang, in 1975, co-starring the comedian Tim Conway, who became a frequent collaborator.

Three's Company

In 1979, Knotts returned to his successful TV roots, joining the risque hit comedy, Three's Company, as the eccentric, leisure suit-clad landlord Mr. Furley. He remained on the show until it went off the air in 1984. In 1986, he joined his Andy Griffith Show co-stars, including Griffith and Ron Howard, on a wildly popular TV movie special, Return to Mayberry.