They were closer than anyone knew.”Ĭertainly, Andy hid his affair from then-wife Barbara, who he wed in 1949 and divorced in 1972. “Andy couldn’t get enough of Aneta,” the author wrote-quoting one of Andy’s buddies as saying the relationship “was true love. She became his real-life lover almost immediately after joining the cast in 1963. “Most of us were deathly afraid of Andy,” confessed George Lindsey, who played Goober Pyle on the sitcom.īut two people who weren’t cowed by Andy were his lifelong buddy Don and Aneta Corsaut, who played Helen Crump, his girlfriend, on the sitcom. The actor wrecked hotel rooms and smashed car windshields during fits of fury that also kept his cast and crew quaking in terror! The author also revealed Andy’s shocking dark rages. Written by Don’s brother-in-law Daniel De Visé, the book has branded both men as sex-crazed womanizers who cheated on their first wives - and going on secret double dates with their mistresses! Now a just-released blockbuster book, “Andy & Don,” rips the lid off the shameful secrets of the beloved stars who played Sheriff Andy Taylor and his bumbling deputy Barney Fife on the popular series, which ran from 1960 to 1968. And that bumbling Barney Fife was quite the player. Who knew that Sheriff Andy Taylor and Opie’s schoolteacher, Helen Crump were f*** buddies for nearly 30 years.

The book, Andy & Don from Simon & Schuster, is an amazing read and is fairly revealing. Daniel had another advantage, he was Don Knott’s brother-in-law. In the same vein- Don Knotts was totally different than Deputy Barney Fife Andy Griffith & Don Knotts: Womanizing Their Way Through Mayberry! The wonderful book, Andy & Don, by our friend- Washington Post writer and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Daniel de Vise, was well researched and fact checked. He was almost totally unlike the warm, kindly Sherrif Andy Taylor of Mayberry. However, much like his portrayal of Lonesome Rhodes where he was far from the “down-home” guy he conveyed to the public- he was a lot darker, angrier and arrogant as a person.

And as I posted before, he never won a Emmy and has received very little in the way of honors. His cynical work as Howard Pike aka Billy Pueblo with Jeff Bridges in “ Hearts of the West ” was brilliant. I believe his interpretation of the manipulative Lonesome Rhodes in Elia Kazan’s “ A Face in the Crowd ”was deserving of an Academy Award.

His portrayal as the hick Will Stockdale in No Time for Sergeants was a classic. Far from itĪndy Griffith as the laconic Andy Taylor was the voice of reason on The Andy Griffith Show. Personally, he was not quite the even keeled Sheriff Taylor of Mayberry that we remember. However, it will paint a complete picture of the man.

Griffith was an iconic performer and top level actor. It will be be the first comprehensive biography of Andy entitled “The Life and Times of Andy Griffith.” While it will not be all negative, since we certainly believe that Mr. We are in the midst of doing research for a new biography, due out next year about Andy Griffith.

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