Don Knotts, who kept generations of TV audiences laughing as
bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on ''The Andy Griffith Show'' and would-be
swinger landlord Ralph Furley on ''Three's Company,'' has died. He was
81.
Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory
complications at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical
Center, said Sherwin Bash, his friend and manager.
Griffith, who
had visited Knotts in the hospital before his death, said his longtime
friend had a brilliant comedic mind and wrote some of the show's best
scenes.
''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.
''I loved him very much,'' Griffith added. ''We had a long and wonderful life together.''
Unspecified health problems had forced Knotts to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown, W.Va., in August.
The
actor's half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25
films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and
five Emmys.
The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of
the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final
year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the
top: The others are ''I Love Lucy'' and ''Seinfeld.'' The 249 episodes
have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active
network of fan clubs.
As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts
carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after
shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight
gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.
His favorite episodes, he said, were ''The Pickle Story,'' where
Aunt Bee makes pickles no one can eat, and ''Barney and the Choir,''
where no one can stop him from singing.
''I can't sing. It makes
me sad that I can't sing or dance well enough to be in a musical, but
I'm just not talented in that way,'' he lamented. ''It's one of my
weaknesses.''
In recent years, he said he had no plans to retire, traveling with
theater productions and appearing in print and TV ads for Kodiak
pressure treated wood.
The world laughed at Knotts, but it also laughed with him. He
treasured his comedic roles and could point to only one role that
wasn't funny, a brief stint on the daytime drama ''Search for
Tomorrow.''
''That's the only serious thing I've done. I don't miss that,'' Knotts said.
CorruptoCo Blogfest: Corporate Angel Network: A Real Angel In The Skies
Next week many bloggers will devote space to "Corporation Appreciation Week". A week where we temporarily turn the lights on in the roach-infested world of Corruptco. Before the week begins I wanted spotlight one of the best Corporate activities I know about, so this is a salute to one of the good guys that deserves a White Hat and much respect.
Corporate Angel Network is
the only charitable organization in the USA whose sole mission is
to ease the emotional stress, physical discomfort and financial burden
of travel for cancer patients by arranging free flights to treatment
centers, using the empty seats on corporate aircraft flying on routine
business.
Based in White Plains, NY, Corporate Angel Network occupies an office
donated by the Westchester County Airport. 50 part-time volunteers
and five paid staff work with patients, physicians, corporations,
flight departments and leading treatment facilities to arrange 1,200
flights a year.
Eligibility to participate in our program is open to all cancer patients,
bone marrow donors, and bone marrow recipients who are ambulatory
and not in need of medical support while traveling. Eligibility is
not based on financial need, and patients may travel as often as necessary.
Thanks to the generous cooperation of 500 of America’s top corporations,
including 56 of the top 100 in the Fortune 500, Corporate Angel Network
has coordinated more than 17,000 flights since it’s founding
in 1981. The program offers an obvious and meaningful benefit to cancer
patients along with the opportunity for companies with corporate aircraft
to provide a wonderful community service by merging business activities
with social responsibility.
In 1981, three people shared the dream of using empty seats on corporate
aircraft to transport cancer patients to treatment centers nationwide.
Leonard M. Greene, founder and president of Safe Flight Instrument
Corporation, Priscilla H. Blum, a licensed commercial pilot, and Jay
N. Weinberg, then owner of a Mt. Vernon, NY Avis Car Rental franchise
together developed the idea of asking corporations to accept these
patients as guest passengers.
As cancer survivors, Blum and Weinberg knew how expensive and grueling
transportation is for cancer patients who must fly long distances
for specialized treatment. Greene too had firsthand experience, having
lost his wife to cancer. He contributed his foundation, funds, business
expertise, and aviation contacts to the effort.
On December 22, 1981, Greene, a pilot, personally flew the first Corporate
Angel Network flight, bringing a patient home to Detroit for Christmas
from treatment in New York City. From that day forward, Corporate
Angel Network literally soared. One by one, corporations across America
were asked to participate and one by one, they joined.
Since its inception, Corporate Angel Network has received numerous
awards in recognition of its service to cancer patients, including
the highest volunteer award from the President of the United States,
The Volunteer Action Award. The organization has coordinated more
than 17,000 regularly scheduled corporate flights with cancer patients
aboard and attracted into its network 500 corporate participants,
56 of them in the top 100 of the Fortune 500.
Corporate Angel Network welcomes support in the form of cash, bequests,
and donation of airline tickets. Contributions come from grateful
patients for whom we have arranged free flights, from their relatives
and friends, from enthusiastic individuals who want to ensure that
our program is available to all who need it, from Corporations, and
from foundations.
We also need volunteers. Individuals in the vicinity of Corporate
Angel Network's White Plains, NY offices can volunteer to enter corporate
flight schedules into the secure database, schedule flights for patients,
write thank you letters to corporations and contributors, help arrange
ground transportation, research and contact new corporations, solicit
pro bono advertising, and help with reception and telephones. Volunteers
work with patients and their families, corporate flight schedulers,
pilots, secretaries, dispatchers, mechanics, fixed-based operations
(FBOs), doctors and nurses, social workers, and private car operators.
Regardless of where they live, volunteers are needed to locate companies
with aircraft that could become Corporate Angels, and to find ground
transportation, lodging and other support services in key cities,
such as Boston, Houston, Seattle, and Raleigh-Durham, where the majority
of our patients are treated.
