ANDY GRIFFITH

BORN JUNE 1, 1926

“I was given a gift, and I try to respect and hone it. I’m a thankful man. I absolutely love what I do,” Griffith told Parade in a February 4, 1990, cover story. Perhaps known best for the folksy The Andy Griffith Show, which ran for eight years starting in 1960, Griffith also had received rave reviews in No Time for Sergeants on Broadway and in movies, including A Face in the Crowd, directed by Elia Kazan. He starred in TV’s Matlock from 1986-1995 and appeared with Keri Russell in Waitress in 2007. If he hadn’t died in 2012 at age 86, he’d be 97.