What a Character! Don Knotts Dead at 81

If I could only count the number of hours I spent watching TV with him on. You wonder how they manage to keep a straight face through all of it.

Don Knotts, TV's Lovable Nerd, Dies at 81

By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on ``The Andy Griffith Show,'' has died. He was 81.

Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs ``The Andy Griffith Show,'' and another Knotts hit, ``Three's Company.''

Unspecified health problems had forced him to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown in August 2005.

The West Virginia-born 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 Emmies.
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