Feb. 26, 2006
 
DON KNOTTS—1924-2006: Lovable West Virginia Native Passes to the Mountaintop in the Sky
 
By Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network Writer
 
When West Virginians think about “stars” in Hollywood, they can count only a few that have come from the Mountain State, among them, Huntington’s Soupy Sales, and Dagmar (Egnor), Peter Marshall, Logan’s Joanne Dru, who died in 1996, and Morgantown’s Don Knotts.
 
Knotts, born July 21, 1924, rose to iconic status as Deputy Barney Fife on “The Andy Griffith Show” which still airs in re-runs. The homespun wisdom and comedy in Mayberry proved to have greater mystique than many a situation comedy. Knotts won five Emmies for his role as Fife on Andy Griffith which ran from 1960-1968.
 
The 249 episodes of Griffith still receive high ratings, as, for instance, WSAZ runs it weekday mornings.
 
Bug eyed, soft spoken Fife was unlike some of the other characters which Knotts played. He appeared on “I Love Lucy,” “Seinfeld,” and played the landlord on “Three’s Company,” which introduced Suzanne Somers and John Ritter to the tube. At the time, “Company” had a controversial theme --- a man living with two women --- which eventually became a ‘classic’ of its own.
 
Knotts who graduated from WVU with a Speech degree after military service in World War II, also appeared in dozens of G-rated comedies, such as “The Reluctant Astronaut,” “The Love God,” “The Ghost and Mr. Chicken,” “Apple Dumpling Gang,” “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo,” “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” “The Shakiest Gun in the West,” and “Pleasantville.”
 
According to a spokesperson for TV Land which airs reruns of “Three’s Company” and “Andy Griffith,” Knott died Friday, Feb. 24, 2006 from pulmonary and respiratory complications. According to the Los Angeles Times, quoting longtime manager Sherwin Bash, he died of lung cancer at UCLA Medical Center. Family members said that Andy Griffith was one of his last visitors on Friday night.