Andy Griffith, the television legend who died Tuesday, helped launch the TV careers of two of Alabama’s most famous native sons, both of whom appeared with him on “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Jim Nabors, who was born and raised in Sylacauga, played the naive and not-so-bright mechanic Gomer Pyle on the show.
Griffith discovered Nabors performing at a Santa Monica, Calif., nightclub, and he was hired to appear in one episode. Gomer was so popular, though, that he became a regular on the show, and after the fourth season, Nabors went on to star in his own series, ”Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”
He later appeared in three movies with Burt Reynolds, and for more than 30 years, sang ”Back Home Again in Indiana” to start the Indianapolis 500.
Nabors, who is 82, lives in Hawaii, where he recently underwent heart-valve replacement surgery. Fairfield native who grew up in Jasper, appeared on Griffith’s show as Gomer’s equally dim-witted cousin, Goober, also a gas-station mechanic.
After “The Andy Griffith Show” went off the air in 1968, Lindsey continued the role in the spin-off series “Mayberry R.F.D,” and then appeared for several years on the country- comedy show “Hee Haw.”
From 1973 to 1988, he sponsored the George Lindsey Celebrity Golf Weekend in Montgomery to raise money for the Alabama Special Olympics, and in 1998, he founded the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival in Florence, which just celebrated its 15th year.
Lindsey, who was living in Nashville,News outlets reported
