George Lindsey dies at 83

George Lindsey dies at 83

By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times
May 7, 2012, 12:21 p.m.

George Lindsey, the Southern-born actualization amateur who played dim barbarian Goober Pyle, the affable gas base auto artisan on "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Mayberry R.F.D.," died aboriginal Sunday morning. He was 83.

Lindsey, who afterwards was a approved on the long-running country music ball actualization "Hee Haw," died at a healthcare centermost in Nashville afterwards a abrupt illness, said his administrator and booking agent, Carrie Moore-Reed.

"George Lindsey was my friend," Andy Griffith said in a statement. "I had abundant account for his aptitude and his animal spirit."

Noting that he had his endure chat with Lindsey a few canicule ago, Griffith said: "I am blessed to say that as we begin ourselves in our 80s, we were not abashed to say, 'I adulation you.' That was the endure affair George and I had to say to anniversary other. 'I adulation you.' "

"The Andy Griffith Show," the archetypal 1960s bearings ball starring Griffith as the attentive sheriff of Mayberry, N.C., was in its fourth division in 1964 if Lindsey aboriginal appeared as the accessory of aboveboard gas base accessory Gomer Pyle, played by Jim Nabors.

Lindsey's actualization became added arresting afterwards Nabors larboard the actualization to brilliant in the aftereffect alternation "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." in 1964.

As Goober, Lindsey wore a amber acquainted beanie with turned-up scalloped edges and had a annoy gauge, pens and pencils blimp into the abridged of his plan shirt and a rag blind out of the aback abridged of his high-wasted pants.

"I had a lot of agitation with that part," he said in a 2005 account with Alabama's Montgomery Advertiser newspaper. "I'd been arena a lot of abundant actualization roles. I'd done them on 'Alfred Hitchcock,' and 'Twilight Zone' and some others, and at aboriginal I begin myself just accomplishing an clothing of Jim Nabors accomplishing Gomer. I assuredly said, 'Look, acquaint me about this guy and who he is.' "

Lindsey generally recalled that Griffith told him, "Goober's the affectionate of guy that would go into a restaurant and say, 'This is abundant salt.' "

"Andy Griffith angry out to be the greatest abecedary I've anytime had," Lindsey, an Alabama native, told The Times in 1968. "He kept tellin' me to play myself, to let it appear to me, instead of aggravating to be funny."

Over the years, admirers of the actualization generally would ask Lindsey to echo a band he said during his aboriginal actualization on the series: a arena in Sheriff Andy Taylor's appointment in which Gomer asks Goober to do his "take-off on Cary Grant" for Andy.

The abashed Goober bound gives in and delivers a humorously terrible: "Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy, Judy."

"Couldn't you just affirm Cary Grant was appropriate actuality in this room?" an afflicted Gomer says.

"Yeah, that was good, Goober," says Andy.

One of Lindsey's admired episodes was the one in which, as a applied joke, adolescent Ron Howard's Opie and a acquaintance adumbrate a miniature walkie-talkie beneath the collar of the devious dog Goober has adopted.

"Goober anticipation he had a talking dog," Lindsey said in a 1985 Associated Press interview. "It appear Goober's artless qualities; it fabricated you beam and cry."

Lindsey believed "The Andy Griffith Show," which becoming Don Knotts 5 Emmy Awards as Deputy Barney Fife, was accepted because "it was honest and simple."

"At that time, we were the best acting ensemble on TV," he said. "The scripts were terrific."

After Griffith larboard the high-rated CBS alternation in 1968, Lindsey connected to play Goober on the aftereffect series, "Mayberry R.F.D.," starring Ken Berry. It was canceled in 1971.

An alone adolescent in a poor family, he was built-in in Fairfield, Ala., on Dec. 17, 1928, and grew up in Jasper, Ala. He majored in biological science and concrete apprenticeship at what is now the University of North Alabama.

After admission in 1952, he spent four years in the Air Force and addition year as a history abecedary and arch basketball drillmaster at Hazel Green High School in Alabama afore affective to New York City, area he advised acting on the GI Bill at the American Theatre Wing.

One of his aboriginal jobs on TV was as one of the liars on the quiz console actualization "To Acquaint the Truth." He did a actor ball act to accomplish ends accommodated and afterwards played adverse Ray Bolger in the 1962 Broadway agreeable ball "All American."

After landing in Hollywood that aforementioned year, Lindsey in fact auditioned for the role of Gomer Pyle — and, he afterwards said, was told he had the allotment — afore it went to Nabors, a adolescent Alabama native.

Lindsey's afterwards credits included accouterment choir for characters in the Disney activated appearance "The Aristocats," "The Rescuers" and "Robin Hood." He aswell had a continued run on the amalgamated "Hee Haw."

"I absolutely don't do Goober on 'Hee Haw.' I do George Lindsey," he told the Associated Press in 1982. "Maybe I don't apperceive area George Lindsey stops and Goober begins. If you're in a series, as I was for seven and a bisected years, you draw on every claimed acquaintance for that character."

Although he already resented getting assort as Goober, Lindsey abstruse to embrace the role that brought him acclaim and provided the appellation for the 1995 book "Goober in a Nutshell," which he wrote with Ken Beck and Jim Clark.

As Lindsey said in the 1985 AP interview, "Goober is Everyman. Everyone finds something to like about ol' Goober."

Lindsey, who was divorced, is survived by his son, George Lindsey Jr.; his daughter, Camden Jo Lindsey Gardner; two grandsons; and his longtime companion, Anne Wilson.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-george-lindsey-20120507,0,2459388.story

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