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| Image courtesy imdb.com |
On this day, in 1924, Jesse Donald Knotts was born in Morgantown, West
Virginia. The fourth son of William
and Elsie Knotts, Don’s childhood wasn’t a happy one. William, already a
schizophrenic and alcoholic, suffered a nervous breakdown after the birth of
his fourth child and frequently threatened his children at knifepoint. William
died from complications associated with pneumonia when Don was 13 and his
mother was forced to open a boarding house to make ends meet. Don became an
introverted kid who found release by performing on stage.
In high school, Don began performing
as a ventriloquist and stand-up comedian at local church and school functions.
After high school, he went to New York to start a career as a comedian. It didn’t
pan out. He returned home and enrolled at West Virginia University as an
education major. After his freshman year, he took a break from college to join
in the fighting of World War II. From 1943-46, Don spent most of his tour of
duty travelling between the islands of the Pacific, doing stand-up as part of a
GI show called Stars and Gripes.
Along the way he earned the World War II Victory Medal, Philippine
Liberation Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with 4 bronze service stars),
Army Good Conduct Medal, Marksman Badge (with an M1 Carbine) and the Honorable
Service lapel pin. After his honorable discharge, Don returned home, resumed
his studies at WVU and graduated in 1948.
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| Image courtesy rocketshoppe.com |
With his degree in hand, Don moved to New York again and promptly never used
it. This time around he had all sorts of contacts from his days in Special
Services and his entertainment career began to build. Not only was he a much
more confident stand-up performer in the city’s night clubs, he managed to land
a recurring role on a radio program,
Bobby
Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders, as a wisecracking know-it-all. This led to
wider fame on television. In 1953, Don started two years on the soap
Search for Tomorrow which rolled into a permanent
role as part of the repertory company on
The
Steve Allen Show. It was on the latter show that Don perfected his
character of the extremely nervous man, something he would use to great comedic
effect for the rest of his career. During his tenure with Steve Allen, Don also
broke onto Broadway in the show
No Time for
Sergeants and onto the silver screen with the movie version of the same. It
was one of Don’s co-stars in Sergeants, Andy Griffith, who would change his
life forever.
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| Image courtesy walmart.com |
In 1960, Andy was given his own television show, aptly named
The Andy Griffith Show. Andy was to play
a small town sheriff and Don was hired to be his deputy. Initially, the plan
was for Andy to be the comedic lead while Don played the straight man. By the
second episode, though, Andy could see that the show worked way better the
other way around and the character of Barney Fife was allowed to blossom into
one of the most beloved guys ever to grace a television screen. During the
first five seasons of
Andy Griffith,
Don won three Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the bumbling law man. Andy had
always maintained that his show would only run for five seasons. Don believed
him when he said that and sought out a movie contract as what he thought was
the series end drew nigh. So it was a surprise to Don when additional seasons
were announced. He hadn’t actually signed anything yet with a movie studio, but
he felt that he might not have another opportunity to do so. He left the show
and eventually signed a five picture deal with Universal. He wasn’t done with
Barney Fife, however. Don continued to occasionally play the role in specials
and
Mayberry RFD, the spin-off to
Andy Griffith. People loved the
character so much that Don would pick up another two Emmy Awards during those
rare Barney sightings, bringing his total up to five for the same character
(and a perfect nomination/win ratio).
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| Image copyright Disney |
After leaving The Andy Griffith Show, Don spent the next several years
starring a string of mostly forgettable comedies on the big screen. The more
recognizable titles are
The Ghost and Mr.
Chicken, The Incredible Mr. Limpet and
The
Shakiest Gun in the West, but none of them are going to make anyone’s best
of list. Don also continued to work steadily on television well into the
Seventies with guest appearances on
Scooby-Doo,
1969’s
The Bill Cosby Show and
Here’s Lucy.
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| Image copyright Disney |
In 1975, Don became part of the Disney family when he teamed up with fellow
funnyman Tim Conway for fairly mediocre (but profitable) family comedy,
The Apple Dumpling Gang. Don would
become a staple of Disney comedies for the next few years, with roles in
Gus, No Deposit, No Return, Herbie Goes to
Monte Carlo, Hot Lead and Cold Feet and ending the decade by joining Tim once
again in a sequel,
The Apple Dumpling
Gang Rides Again. It would be over two decades before Don appeared (or at
least his voice did) in another Disney production as Mayor Turkey Lurkey in
2005’s
Chicken Little. His last
performance period came a year later in the direct-to-video film
Air Buddies, a sequel in Disney’s
Air Bud franchise.
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| Image courtesy historygarage.com |
As the Seventies drew to a close, Don would strike television gold once
more. The popular sitcom
Three’s Company
was losing its landlords to their own spin-off,
The Ropers. Don was brought in as the apartment complex on the show’s
new manager, Ralph Furley. John Ritter recalled everyone being terrified of Don’s
star status, but he quickly integrated himself into the existing show and remained
a regular cast member until the series finale in 1984. The aging Don Juan
wannabe character of Mr. Furley would be something that Don would parody again
and again for the rest of his life on venues as different as
Robot Chicken and the
TVLand Awards.
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| Image courtesy metv.com |
Following the end of
Three’s Company,
Don’s career began slowing down. He joined the cast of the short lived sitcom
What a Country! for thirteen episodes in
1987 (why was it short lived? It starred Yakov Smirnoff and he said the show’s
title. A lot). He rejoined Andy Griffith for several episodes of
Matlock, playing his pesky neighbor
between 1988 and 1992. The highlight of his post-Company days is undoubtedly
his portrayal of the mysterious TV Repairman in the 1998 hit fantasy/cautionary
tale,
Pleasantville.
As the millennium rolled over, Don began suffering from macular
degeneration, which severely limited the number of public appearances he could
make. He did continue to work, however, most notably teaming up with Tim Conway
again for a series of direct-to-video children’s shows called
Hermie and Friends. His final two live
action appearances came in 2003 in a cameo on his old co-star John Ritter’s new
show,
8 Simple Rules, and a 2005
cameo on
That 70s Show, both of them
as landlords. In early 2006, Don contracted pneumonia which ultimately claimed
his life on February 24 of that year in Los Angeles, California. He was 81.
