There have been many masters of physical comedy but there is only one Don Knotts. The talented comedian and actor was known for his distinct physical humor, hilarious facial expressions, and mastery of evoking nervous energy.
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00:00Don Knotts will always be remembered for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife on The
00:05Andy Griffith Show. While Don Knotts was especially funny on the small screen, his tragic real-life
00:11story includes a wounded childhood, struggles with insomnia and pill addiction, and later
00:16severe health struggles.
00:18Jesse Donald Knotts was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1924, when Knotts' brother-in-law
00:24Daniel DeVise did a deep dive into Knotts' childhood in his book Andy and Dawn, The Making
00:29of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show. He wrote that Knotts' childhood was
00:34horrible.
00:35Knotts was an accidental child that came along 14 years after his next closest sibling. His
00:41two older brothers shared their bedroom with the family's various borders while Knotts
00:46slept on a cot in the kitchen. His father, Jesse Sr., was mostly bedridden by the time
00:51Knotts was born. Closer Weekly says the elder Knotts was a schizophrenic alcoholic, while
00:56The New York Times adds that he also suffered from hysterical blindness.
01:00Abuse was a regular part of his childhood. Around age 30, Knotts' mother, Elsie, asked
01:06him if he remembered a horrifying confrontation where his father had threatened him with a
01:10knife. In order to get from his kitchen bedroom to literally anywhere else, Knotts needed
01:15to walk through the living room and past the sofa where his father spent most of his time.
01:20Sometimes, a young Don would sneak by. Otherwise, it invariably ended with threats.
01:25It's no wonder, then, that as a young boy, Don Knotts was already pale, thin, and was
01:29regularly sick. He'd later recall,
01:32"...I did not come into the world with a great deal of promise."
01:35Knotts' relationship with his brothers was complicated as well. They were funny, says
01:39The New York Times, especially his brother William, nicknamed Shadow, an impressive feat
01:44when there was so little to laugh about.
01:46"...and I think it was probably because of him that I really got interested in comedy
01:53myself."
01:54But there was more to it. Knotts' daughter Karen would later tell Closer Weekly that
01:58her father was mistreated by his brothers, too. They were often drunk and fought, until
02:03Shadow tragically died after suffering an asthma attack. Knotts was only a teenager
02:08at the time. It's difficult to imagine growing up in that kind of environment with that kind
02:12of fear, and Don Knotts had a deep desire for happiness. He later revealed some of the
02:17coping mechanisms he used, saying that he managed to find some comfort by filling my
02:21space with imaginary characters with whom I would act out some happy drama.
02:26Things started to improve as he entered his teenage years. His daughter Karen told Closer
02:30Weekly,
02:31"...when his father passed, he was 13 years old. At that point, that burden, that huge
02:36burden, lifted off him, and he became old enough that he was able to get the other brother
02:40under control, so he was no longer terrorized at home."
02:43She also recalled that once her father entered high school, he really started to come into
02:47his own. He was class president, he had a yearbook column, he was popular, and he had
02:52a best friend for the first time. But in 1976, he told the Los Angeles Times he had a slightly
02:57different view of his youth.
02:59"...I felt like a loser. I was unhappy, I think, most of the time. We were terribly
03:04poor and I hated my size."
03:06It's perhaps not entirely surprising, then, that it was during Don Knotts' early teens
03:11that he turned to a friend named Danny. Who was Danny? Ventriloquist's dummy. And with
03:16the dummy, he started performing.
03:18There's an oft-repeated rumor about Knotts that says he was once an incredibly strict
03:22Marine Corps drill instructor. That's balderdash, and it also ignores his actual military service.
03:29According to the New York Times, when World War II rolled around, everyone was convinced
03:33that the military wouldn't take such a sickly, undernourished man. But they did, and they
03:38found the perfect place for him. Knotts toured the Pacific front as a member of the comedy
03:42troupe Stars and Gripes, who were tasked with entertaining the troops. And he also
03:46worked as a nurse when those services were needed.
03:49It was while he was in the military that he caught the eye of another, older comedian
03:53named Red Ford. Ford's comments stuck with him, and he would remember what he said years
03:57later.
03:58You know something? You're a funny little son of a b----.
04:00By the time he was out, he wasn't a ventriloquist anymore. He had moved on to other types of
04:05comedy, and according to Appalachian Talk, he threw his dummy Danny off a ship while
04:09he was somewhere in the South Pacific.
04:11After the military, and after graduating from West Virginia University in 1948, Don
04:16Knotts headed for New York City. He had $100 in his pocket, according to the L.A. Times,
04:21and his career started out like many. He was rejected. He was turned down for a series
04:25of radio gigs, then landed a spot on a soap opera, but it took seven years before he got
04:30a role on Broadway, some attention, and a co-star that would become a lifelong friend.
04:34That co-star was Andy Griffith, and the play was a comedy called No Time for Sergeants.
04:38From there, he started making a reputation as the perfect person to play a certain type
04:43of character, nervous, anxious, and non-threatening. And here's the thing. The New York Times says
04:48that he absolutely stole some of the material he was doing, and those he stole from were
04:52largely fine with it. Why? Because the small, thin, nervous Knotts was the perfect sidekick
04:58to make others look more manly, so anyone he shared the screen with looked more like
05:02a leading man.
05:03Well, I mean, any complaints? Anything wrong?
05:05With me? Oh, gosh, no. I'm as strong as a bull.
05:09It was Don Knotts who went to Andy Griffith and suggested himself for the role of Barney
05:13Fife, and according to the L.A. Times, he was almost joking when he said it. But Griffith
05:18absolutely went for it, and it was a match made in TV heaven. Knotts had made it and
05:23found the success that most aspiring actors and comedians could only dream of, but not
05:27all was well behind the scenes.
05:30According to DeVise, Knotts had long struggled with massive feelings of inferiority. Long
05:35before he even made it to the small screen alongside Andy Griffith, he would become so
05:39distraught that before a performance, he might spend days in bed. In the 1950s, his doctors
05:45gave him a prescription for anti-anxiety drugs, to which he became addicted. Wrapped up in
05:50his anxiety was hypochondria, too, along with chronic insomnia. DeVise says that his insomnia
05:56stemmed from a tendency to stay out too late and enjoy the company of too many women. But
06:01he also says that Knotts quit all his bad habits with the snap of his fingers. After
06:05an accidental overdose of sleeping pills and an ultimatum from his third wife, Knotts changed
06:11at least some of his ways.
06:13While success did come for the poor boy from West Virginia, Don Knotts' daughter Karen
06:17told Closer Weekly that the long, hard years of his childhood definitely left their mark,
06:23saying,
06:24"...things came back to haunt him."
06:25Another part, according to DeVise, was that Knotts had difficulty reconciling his lives.
06:30He constantly played characters who were submissive, anxious, nervous, and often the butt of the
06:34joke. And at the same time, he'd found more success than he'd ever imagined. Reconciling
06:39those two things proved difficult, and DeVise says that Knotts was a good way into his career
06:45when he found himself sitting in the office of a Hollywood therapist, screaming and cursing
06:49at God in an attempt to rid himself of depression, self-doubt, and the lessons of his Bible-loving
06:54father.
06:55I've never really amounted to anything. My whole life has just been one big failure after
07:03another."
07:04Still, Knotts' daughter Karen remembered,
07:06"...he was mercurial. He had a lot of different kinds of moods. He fought a lot of depression
07:11and I helped him, or thought I did, because I could see how he had this endless loop of
07:16thought that would always lead to a downward spiral."
07:19On a more positive note, she felt that by the end of his life he had overcome a lot
07:23of his past trauma and that he'd worked hard to become a happy person who loved people.
07:28There are a few different stories as to why Don Knotts left The Andy Griffith Show. His
07:32daughter Karen told Closer Weekly that the work was hard and there were only so many
07:36storylines the show could go through. According to the L.A. Times, though, Knotts had only
07:41ever intended on doing five seasons of the show when it started, and that's what he did.
07:45In 1967, he told them,
07:47"...the grind gets to you in television, and that's primarily the reason I'm concentrating
07:51on pictures."
07:52The Andy Griffith Show continued on without him for the most part, though he did continue
07:56to make the occasional guest appearance. But the general consensus is that without Knotts,
08:00it just wasn't the same. There is a positive here, though, and that's the fact that Griffith
08:05and Knotts remained friends. The tragedy, on the other hand, is that Knotts never quite
08:09made it in the movie career that he'd been hoping for. After leaving TV, he scored a
08:13five-film deal with Universal. In hindsight, movies like The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The
08:18Reluctant Astronaut, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken were absolutely brilliant. Not only
08:23did Mr. Limpet kickstart the idea of mixing animation and live-action, but later comedians
08:28from Martin Short to Jim Carrey have cited them as a major inspiration. Unfortunately
08:34at the time, Knotts didn't see the critical acclaim that he thought he should have.
08:38When Knotts was only 57 years old, he was given a troubling diagnosis of macular degeneration.
08:44According to the Mayo Clinic, the condition interferes with a person's ability to see
08:48directly in front of them and makes anything in their direct line of sight appear distorted
08:52or blurry. In some cases, it can even lead to an inability to recognize faces, and it
08:57usually gets progressively worse. Knotts struggled with the diagnosis. Per The New York Times,
09:03Knotts once said,
09:04I got pretty depressed for a while, and then one day I said to myself, I bet a blind person
09:09would give his right arm to have the vision I have."
09:12Knotts continued to work, and according to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation,
09:16he continued to participate in his favorite hobby, swimming laps. Eventually, though,
09:21his eyesight had deteriorated to the point where he could no longer drive or read.
09:26In the early 70s, variety shows were all the rage, which led to the opportunity of a lifetime,
09:31The Don Knotts Show. The show seemed like it had everything that would have made it
09:35a major hit. According to MeTV, they had given the show 22 weeks to make an impact, and it
09:41didn't. Knotts talked about the show, saying,
09:43We did all kinds of things. There was tremendous competition that season for variety, because
09:48everybody and his brother had a variety show.
09:51The show was on NBC, and Knotts went on to say that they essentially had stolen him away
09:55from CBS. That didn't go over well, but everyone had been so convinced it was going to be a
10:01hit that they didn't see where it could possibly go wrong. The Andy Griffith Show director
10:05Bob Sweeney was even brought in to try to fix things. MASH's Gary Berghoff was brought
10:10in as a recurring sketch comedy character, and they even debuted acts like The Carpenters.
10:14Still, it came to a premature end, while Don Knotts continued to make appearances on other
10:19variety shows.
10:21It was in the early 2000s that Closer Weekly reports that Don Knotts was diagnosed with
10:27By that time, he and his longtime friend Andy Griffith had fallen a bit out of touch, but
10:32Griffith rushed to his side and was right there with him as he fought it. According
10:36to their Matlock co-star, Nancy Stafford, as soon as the two of them were together,
10:40it was like they never skipped a beat. They fell into this routine of singing, laughing,
10:44and telling jokes together. It was hysterical. They had this amazing communication.
10:49I. Uh-uh. You. Uh-uh. We. Uh-uh. Us. Our. Our. Our. Fall. Stop. Four score and seven
10:55years ago, we were at a fall. Third. Third. Oh, third.
10:59Unfortunately, Knotts would ultimately lose his battle with cancer. He passed away on
11:03February 24, 2006, and People reported that one of the very last people to go and sit
11:09at his bedside was Andy Griffith. Griffith later recalled,
11:12"...I told him I loved him and I held his hand. His chest heaved several times and I believe
11:17he heard my voice."
11:18Fourteen years after passing, his daughter Karen shared some regrets.
11:22"...he had this funniness that was just completely, insanely natural. When he was dying, he was
11:26making us laugh in hysterics. He was literally dying. But he did something or said something
11:32to cause my stepmother and I to go into fits of laughter, which is why I ran out."
11:36And that is what Karen Knotts regretted, leaving her dad's side to laugh. She added that she
11:41had been telling the story to the director Howard Storm, who told her she should have
11:45laughed out loud and let him hear her.
11:47"...he was right. I should have just stood there and blasted out laughing."