Imagine growing up with famous comedian Don Knotts as your father. You might picture lots of funny faces at the dinner table or knock knock jokes on the way to school. The Andy Griffith Show actor’s daughter, Karen, once gave some insight into what it was really like at home with Don.
Don Knotts, Kathryn Metz, and their two children | CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images Karen Knotts on what Don Knotts was like as a father
Karen and her brother, Tom, grew up in Glendale, CA, which she says is about as Mayberry-like as a neighborhood is going to get in Los Angeles. She and Tom were still young when their parents divorced. Even so, they had a pretty idyllic childhood, according to Karen.
“It was a little surreal,” she told the Murfreesboro Post in 2011. “We lived in Glendale, which was almost Mayberry-like in smallness. It was a tight-knit community,...
Don Knotts, Kathryn Metz, and their two children | CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images Karen Knotts on what Don Knotts was like as a father
Karen and her brother, Tom, grew up in Glendale, CA, which she says is about as Mayberry-like as a neighborhood is going to get in Los Angeles. She and Tom were still young when their parents divorced. Even so, they had a pretty idyllic childhood, according to Karen.
“It was a little surreal,” she told the Murfreesboro Post in 2011. “We lived in Glendale, which was almost Mayberry-like in smallness. It was a tight-knit community,...
- 5/13/2023
- by Kelsey Goeres
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The Andy Griffith Show actor Don Knotts had his daughter, Karen Knotts, in 1954 with his first wife, Kathryn Metz (they also had a son together named Thomas). While there was a lot of love between Don and Karen, they disagreed on one major thing when Karen was a young teen.
Don Knotts didn’t want daughter Karen to enter the world of show business
Karen thinks of Don as a “great father.” But they did disagree about one thing. Karen wanted to act for as long as she could remember. Don didn’t think that was a good idea.
”I always wanted to be an actress, even when I was young, but he said, ‘No, that’s not a good life for a child,’” she told the Murfreesboro Post in 2011.
But when Karen auditioned for drama class in junior high she “came alive.”
Karen Knotts | Valerie Macon/Getty Images
“I thought,...
Don Knotts didn’t want daughter Karen to enter the world of show business
Karen thinks of Don as a “great father.” But they did disagree about one thing. Karen wanted to act for as long as she could remember. Don didn’t think that was a good idea.
”I always wanted to be an actress, even when I was young, but he said, ‘No, that’s not a good life for a child,’” she told the Murfreesboro Post in 2011.
But when Karen auditioned for drama class in junior high she “came alive.”
Karen Knotts | Valerie Macon/Getty Images
“I thought,...
- 5/7/2023
- by Kelsey Goeres
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Don Knotts, best known for his role as Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, died on Feb. 24, 2006 at the age of 81. He died from pulmonary and respiratory complications as a result of lung cancer at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His family was by his side, including daughter Karen Knotts who, at one point, excused herself from the hospital room because she was laughing so hard.
Don Knotts | Kevin Winter/Getty Images Don Knotts was cracking jokes until the very end — just ask his daughter
“Here’s the thing about my dad,” Karen told Closer Weekly in 2018. “He had this funniness that was just completely, insanely natural. When he was dying, he was making us laugh in hysterics.”
“He was literally dying, but he did something or said something that caused my stepmother and me to go into fits of laughter, which is why I ran out,...
Don Knotts | Kevin Winter/Getty Images Don Knotts was cracking jokes until the very end — just ask his daughter
“Here’s the thing about my dad,” Karen told Closer Weekly in 2018. “He had this funniness that was just completely, insanely natural. When he was dying, he was making us laugh in hysterics.”
“He was literally dying, but he did something or said something that caused my stepmother and me to go into fits of laughter, which is why I ran out,...
- 4/27/2023
- by Kelsey Goeres
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Back in the 1960s, the line between TV and movie stars was never more clearly defined, with actors from television seldom being able to make it on the big screen while film actors turned their noses up at the small screen. Don Knotts, however, was an exception, not only dreaming of movie stardom, but actually achieving it. In some ways, that's pretty surprising when you consider just how successful he was as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. He played the character with the understanding that series star Andy Griffith only intended to stay with it for five years, giving himself a deadline of sorts by which he needed to parlay that show's success into something bigger. Andy ended up changing his mind because of financial incentives thrown his way, while Don didn't, having been offered a five-film deal with Univeral. He chose to leave the show,...
- 4/23/2018
- by Ed Gross
- Closer Weekly
Don Knotts, the beloved Barney Fife of The Andy Griffith Show, was on his deathbed in February 2006, when his daughter, Karen, felt the need to run out of the room... so she could laugh. As horrific as that might sound, anyone who knew Don wouldn’t be the least bit offended to hear that response. “Here’s the thing about my dad,” says Karen in an exclusive interview. “He had this funniness that was just completely, insanely natural. When he was dying, he was making us laugh in hysterics. He was literally dying, but he did something or said something that caused my stepmother and I to go into fits of laughter, which is why I ran out. I thought to myself, ‘I don’t want to be standing there in front of this man, my dearly beloved father, who’s dying, and laughing. I was telling this story to Howard Storm,...
- 4/6/2018
- by Ed Gross
- Closer Weekly
Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Glenn Strange, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Bela Lugosi in Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein, 1948.
Looking for something to get you into that Halloween frame of mind? Why not do it with fellow movie geeks and fans of the horror genre tomorrow afternoon and evening in Hollywood. The Academy is hosting an October-long celebration of classic horror films in honor of .Universal.s Legacy of Horror.- part of the studio.s year-long 100th anniversary celebration.
Saturday Double-double Feature*
.Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. (1948) and .The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.(1966)
Saturday, October 27, at 2 p.m.
Linwood Dunn Theater
1313 Vine Street, Hollywood
Special guests scheduled include actress Joan Staley, who played Alma Parker in .The Ghost and Mr. Chicken,. and Karen Knotts, daughter of Don Knotts, who played Luther Heggs in the film. Figuring the answers to the mystery lie in the old Simmons mansion, Luther Heggs (Knotts...
Looking for something to get you into that Halloween frame of mind? Why not do it with fellow movie geeks and fans of the horror genre tomorrow afternoon and evening in Hollywood. The Academy is hosting an October-long celebration of classic horror films in honor of .Universal.s Legacy of Horror.- part of the studio.s year-long 100th anniversary celebration.
Saturday Double-double Feature*
.Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. (1948) and .The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.(1966)
Saturday, October 27, at 2 p.m.
Linwood Dunn Theater
1313 Vine Street, Hollywood
Special guests scheduled include actress Joan Staley, who played Alma Parker in .The Ghost and Mr. Chicken,. and Karen Knotts, daughter of Don Knotts, who played Luther Heggs in the film. Figuring the answers to the mystery lie in the old Simmons mansion, Luther Heggs (Knotts...
- 10/26/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
©AMPAS
Fan of the Master of Suspense? You’re about to get your full of the iconic English director Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema, in the upcoming weeks. On Saturday evening (October 20) HBO unveiled it’s latest film, The Girl. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock focused on characters in peril, on the run, or under suspicion. His leading men were handsome but compromised; his leading ladies were cool, beautiful and preferably blonde. One such actress was Tippi Hedren, an unknown fashion model given her big break when Hitchcock.s wife saw her on a TV commercial. Brought to Universal Studios by Hitchcock and offered a seven-year contract, Hedren was shocked when the gifted director, at the peak of his successful career, quickly singled her out and cast her to star in the ambitious and terrifying film The Birds. Little did she...
Fan of the Master of Suspense? You’re about to get your full of the iconic English director Alfred Hitchcock, one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema, in the upcoming weeks. On Saturday evening (October 20) HBO unveiled it’s latest film, The Girl. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock focused on characters in peril, on the run, or under suspicion. His leading men were handsome but compromised; his leading ladies were cool, beautiful and preferably blonde. One such actress was Tippi Hedren, an unknown fashion model given her big break when Hitchcock.s wife saw her on a TV commercial. Brought to Universal Studios by Hitchcock and offered a seven-year contract, Hedren was shocked when the gifted director, at the peak of his successful career, quickly singled her out and cast her to star in the ambitious and terrifying film The Birds. Little did she...
- 10/21/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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