Don Knotts, the wiry, bug-eyed comedian who gained fame as a member of Steve Allen's stock company and vaulted into TV icon status with his Emmy-winning portrayal of the hapless Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, has died. He was 81. Knotts died Friday of pulmonary and respiratory complications at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after battling lung cancer. At his bedside at the time of his death was longtime co-star Andy Griffith and Griffith's wife, Cindi, along with Knotts' wife, Francey, and two children, according to a statement issued by Knotts' manager, Sherwin Bash. "Don was a small man ... but everything else about him was large: his mind, his expressions," Griffith told the Associated Press on Saturday. "Don was special. There's nobody like him."...
- 2/27/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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