Andy Griffith Dead At Age 86; Photo's Of Cindi Knight, Don Knotts, And Griffith's Incredible Career

Andy Griffith, the great American Actor known for his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show, died on Tuesday. He was 86.

According to multiple news outlets, emergency medical crews responded to Griffith's North Carolina home on Tuesday morning. The acting legend was confirmed dead around 7 a.m.

Griffith, while best-known for his CBS network television show, was also a writer, director, producer and Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer.

He began college studying to be a Moravian preacher, but he changed his major to music and became a part of the school's Carolina Play Makers, according to CBS.

Griffith then attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and graduated with a bachelor of music degree in 1949.

Griffith starred on The Andy Griffith show from 1960-1968. The show took place in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, where Taylor, a widower, was the sheriff and town sage.

Although the late star never received a writing credit for the show, he is said to have had a big impact on a large portion of the script development.

In 1967, Griffith was under contract with CBS to do one more season of the show when he decided to quit the show to pursue a movie career and other projects. He made final appearances as Taylor in the 1986 reunion television film, Return to Mayberry, and in two reunion specials in 1993 and 2003.

Griffith married Cindi Knight in 1983 after he divorced his first wife, Barbara Bray Edwards, in 1972.

He and Knight married after the two had met while he was filming Murder in Coweta County.

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