![]() Well, I was between jobs then, so I called him up and suggested it. A few years later, I saw the pilot of Andy's show, and I noticed he didn't have a deputy. "I had two small parts in 'No Time for Sergeants,' which Andy was starring in. Knotts and Griffith first met on the Broadway stage. I went into special service with the Army, and they put me in an Army show for two years." It was a way of getting started." From 1951 to 1954, Knotts juggled parts in a radio drama and a children's TV show and played the neurotic Wilbur Peterson on the afternoon soap "Search for Tomorrow." "Mostly I did comedy or character roles. "I just copied Edgar Bergen, to tell you the truth. "I started in show biz as a kid, as a ventriloquist," says Knotts, who left Morgantown, W.Va., for Manhattan at age 17. "The 'Andy Griffith' cast was very much like a family, very much like people in a real small town," says Knotts, who won five Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Fife during his five-season tenure in Mayberry. He had a low boiling point, sometimes he would be blustery, oftentimes terrified. "He was a very childlike man who, when he felt a certain way, couldn't hide it. For Furley, I draw a little from Barney Fife and from some of my other characters."ĭeveloping the character of Barney Fife, Mayberry, N.C.'s, inept, hypertense deputy sheriff, "required a lot of creativity," Knotts says. "I think you always evolve a character with the writers of the series," says Knotts, who soon begins taping his fourth season as Ralph Furley on the ABC sitcom "Three's Company." "Of course, they always draw from things they've seen you do, or things in your own nature. Steve Allen liked it, and made the nervous guy one of the regular 'Man on the Street' people on his 'Tonight' show. ![]() "See, I attended this banquet and the guy who was speaking was kind of shaking all over and spilling his water, and it struck me funny. "I wrote that 'nervous guy' character into a monologue early on in my career," Knotts says on the phone with nary a stutter or a stammer. But it's hard to avoid picturing him that way, since his jittery, jumpy screen persona made him one of television's most recognizable character actors.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |