Andy Griffith Timeline

From the WSJ (I think they could have added BRIEF to the title, but it's a start)

Andy Samuel Griffith

• Born June 1, 1926, in Mount Airy to Mr. and Mrs. Carl Griffith.

• Graduated from Mount Airy High School in 1944.

• Studied music at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; graduated in 1949.

• Taught school and high school glee club in Goldsboro before becoming an actor.

• Played Sir Walter Raleigh for seven years in "The Lost Colony," performed by the Carolina Playmakers in Manteo.

• Created a one-man show while living in Goldsboro that he performed for area civic clubs; he came up with his famous "What It Was, Was Football" monologue on the way to a gig.

• Griffith recorded the monologue at a recording studio in Goldsboro. A record executive for Capitol Records heard it on the radio and signed Griffith to a recording contract.

• In 1954 Griffith performed in the Broadway play and TV adaptation of "No Time for Sergeants." His career was on the way up. A movie version was released in 1958.

• In 1957 he was in "A Face in the Crowd," playing Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a bumpkin who becomes a TV superstar but is not the man the public believes him to be.

• In 1960 Griffith created his best-known role, Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry. The show, based on Mount Airy, ran for eight years.

• In the 1970s and 1980s Griffith did guest-starring roles on TV shows and movies and was in several mini-series and made-for-TV movies.

• In 1986 Griffith created Ben Matlock, his second well-known character. Matlock was a lawyer based in Atlanta, and like another well-known TV lawyer, Perry Mason, his clients were rarely found guilty. "Matlock" lasted until 1995.

• In 2005 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.

• July 3, 2012, Griffith died at his home on Roanoke Island.

Good Video here. Keep watching when the first one is over. There are more!