United States actor Don Knotts, famous for his portrayal of the bumbling, jittery deputy on the television comedy series The Andy Griffith Show, has died at the age of 81, news reports said on Saturday.
Knotts died late Friday of lung cancer at Cedars Sinai medical centre in Los Angeles, his manager, Sherwin Bash, told The Los Angeles Times.
Knotts appeared in numerous television series and films, but he rose to fame playing the high-strung Deputy Barney Fife in a fictional small-town sheriff’s office on the Griffith show.
Knotts won five Emmy Awards for his role and often ended up stealing the spotlight from Griffith, who played Sheriff Andy Taylor.
The series consistently earned top ratings during its eight-year run on CBS television between 1960 and 1968, with many of the episodes focused on the sheriff rescuing Fife from his latest panicky predicament.
Sheriff Taylor allowed his nervous deputy to carry only one bullet and required him to keep it in his shirt pocket to avoid more disasters.
On Friday, his former co-star Griffith was one of his last visitors at the hospital, family members said.
Born Jesse Donald Knotts on July 21 1924 to a poor family in Morgantown, West Virginia, Knotts dropped out of college to make a career as a comedian and actor.
His big break came in the late 1950s, when he joined a comedy team on The Steve Allen Show, where he cultivated his “nervous man” routine.
Despite leading roles in several comedy movies, including The Incredible Mr Limpet (1964), The Ghost and Mr Chicken (1966) and The Reluctant Astronaut (1967), Knotts never achieved genuine film stardom.
A younger generation of comedians has come to admire Knotts, including Jim Carrey, who expressed interest at one point in a remake of The Incredible Mr Limpet. The film tells the story of a meek man rejected by the navy who is transformed into a graceful fish.
Knotts is also known for his role on another television comedy series in the 1970s and 1980s, Three’s Company.
He played Ralph Furley, the suspicious landlord with delusions about being a swinger.
Despite health problems, Knotts continued to work in recent years. He provided the voice for Turkey Mayor in Walt Disney’s animated family film Chicken Little, released in November 2005.
He also appeared on Las Vegas on NBC and on Fox’s That ’70s Show. — AFP