Farewell Barney Fife: Don Knotts dies at 81

TV legend Don Knotts died Friday night at a Los Angeles hospital from pulmonary and respiratory complications. Knotts was 81.

Knotts gave us one of television’s most memorable characters: Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. His portrayal of the fumbling Fife won Knotts five Emmys. It also earned him a spot in Tube Talk Girl’s column as one of TV’s best characters of all time. http://tubetalk.blogspot.com/2006/02/tvs-all-time-best-characters.html

“Don was a small man ... but everything else about him was large: his mind, his expressions,” friend Andy Griffith told The Associated Press on Saturday. “Don was special. There’s nobody like him.”

While Barney Fife was Knotts’ most well-known character, he will also be remembered in the TV world as that silly wanna-be swinger Ralph Furley on Three’s Company.

His most recent project was voicing Mayor Turkey Lurkey in the 2005 hit animated-film Chicken Little.

For more on Knotts’ life and death, read the complete story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11566794/.

As a tribute to Barney Fife and his legacy, read Tube Talk Girl’s vintage column Missing Mayberry by clicking here: http://tubetalk.blogspot.com/2006/02/missing-mayberry.html


Tube talk girl can be reached by e-mail at jennifer@tube-talk.com.

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