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Transitions: Andy Griffiths
American television star Andy Griffith has died in North Carolina at the age of 86.
Griffith was the star of the 1960s program The Andy Griffith Show, as well as the 1980s legal drama Matlock.
He died at his home on Roanoke Island on Tuesday morning, according to Dare County Sheriff JD Doughtie.
His wife of three decades, Cindi Griffith, was at his bedside and issued a statement saying: "I cannot imagine life without Andy, but I take comfort and strength in God's Grace and in the knowledge that Andy is at peace and with God."
The family said Griffith "has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island," but did not elaborate.
Despite his later success with Matlock, it was the role of Sheriff Andy Taylor on the The Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s that gave him a place in television history.
The show depicted life in the friendly, slow-moving fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, which was widely believed to have been based on Griffith's own hometown, Mount Airy, in that state.
"North Carolina has lost its favourite son," governor Beverly Perdue said.
"Andy Griffith graciously stepped into the living rooms of generations of Americans, always with the playful charm that made him the standard by which entertainers would be measured for decades ... In an increasingly complicated world, we all yearn for the days of Mayberry."
President Barack Obama said he was saddened to hear of Griffith's death.
"A performer of extraordinary talent, Andy was beloved by generations of fans and revered by entertainers who followed in his footsteps," he said in a statement.
There was little crime to fight in Mayberry so the stories centred on the sheriff and his interactions with the quirky townspeople.
"The basic theme of our show was love," Griffith said in a 2003 interview with CNN.
"All the characters loved each other. And all the actors loved each other, too."
The show, a situation comedy, was an entertaining diversion for viewers to the social and political upheavals of the 1960s.
"It was at a point where America was really in turmoil," executive producer John Watkin told USA Today.
"The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry represented in some sense this kind of idealised view of what America was. It contains such a heart, such a sense of community."
Griffith was born June 1, 1926, and had ambitions of being a preacher. At the University of North Carolina he earned a degree in dramatic arts in 1949 and started performing in singing groups.
He first made a name with a comedy recording, What It Was, Was Football, a spoof of a rube trying to follow the action at his first football game. That led to an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and from there Griffith starred in both the stage and film versions of No Time for Sergeants.
He made a big impact as a dramatic actor in his first movie, 1957's A Face in the Crowd, playing a scheming drifter whose aw-shucks persona catapults him to success as a television show host until his dark side was exposed.
Griffith later played a small-town sheriff in a television episode of The Danny Thomas Show, which led to The Andy Griffith Show.
On Broadway, Griffith was nominated for two Tony awards, in 1956 as a featured actor in No Time for Sergeants and in 1960 as an actor in the musical Destry Rides Again.
He often recorded and won a Grammy award for his 1996 gospel album "I Love To Tell The Story."
Griffith spent most of his later years in the Atlantic Coast town of Manteo, North Carolina.
He was married and divorced twice before he wed Cindi Knight Griffith in 1983. He had two children.
Reuters/ABC
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