A person who says he does not know Andy Griffith must be living in a hole in the wall and have no access to a television set. Born on 1st June 1926 as Andy Samuel Griffith, he is 83 years old today. His life as a child growing up in North Carolina wasn’t a rosy picture. Staying with his relatives as his parents couldn’t afford a house, he would often be forced to sleep in dresser drawers. He was a shy student in school and he knew from the very beginning that he was considered from the wrong side of the tracks. He started his college life majoring in Moravian preaching but soon realized it would be better for him to major in music. In 1949, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He released his first single in 1953 after he had tasted success in performing monologues. He started his Broadway career in 1955 in a show called “No Time for Sergeants” and in 1958 he reprised the role for a movie. The first TV appearance he made was in the adaptation of “No Time for Sergeants” in 1958.

He played the role of a sheriff called Andy Taylor; of a make believe town called Mayberry, North Carolina on the Andy Griffith Show in 1960. His old friend Don Knotts also acted in the show and it also featured a young Ron Howard, as his son. He quit the show in 1967 for pursuing his career in movies. The show still continued though with Ken Berry taking Andy’s role and the name being changed to Mayberry, RFD. He had a set back in 1983 when he suffered from Guillain-Barr