RALEIGH, N.C. - It was all too easy to confuse Andy Griffith the actor with Sheriff Andy Taylor, his most famous character from "The Andy Griffith Show."
After all, Griffith set his namesake show in a make-believe town based on his hometown of Mount Airy, N.C., and played his "aw, shucks" persona to such perfection that viewers easily believed the character and the man were one.
Griffith, 86, died Tuesday at his home along the coast, said Dare County Sheriff Doug Doughtie.
"Mr. Griffith passed away this morning at his home peacefully and has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island," Doughtie told The Associated Press, reading from a family statement.
Although Griffith acknowledged some similarities between himself and the wise sheriff who oversaw a town of eccentrics, they weren't the same. Griffith was more complicated than the role he played - witnessed by his three marriages if nothing else.
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But that perception led people to believe Griffith was all that was good about North Carolina and put pressure on him to live up to an impossible Hollywood standard.
He protected his privacy in the coastal town of Manteo, by building a circle of friends who revealed little to nothing about him.
In a 2007 interview with The Associated Press, Griffith said he wasn't as wise as the sheriff, nor as nice. He described himself as having the qualities of one of his last roles, that of the cranky diner owner in "Waitress," and also of his most manipulative character, from the 1957 movie "A Face in the Crowd."
"But I guess you could say I created Andy Taylor," he said. "Andy Taylor's the best part of my mind. The best part of me."
Griffith had a career that spanned more than a half-century and included Broadway, notably "No Time for Sergeants," movies and records.
"No Time for Sergeants," released as a film in 1958, cast Griffith as Will Stockdale, an overeager young hillbilly who, as a draftee in the Air Force, overwhelms the military with his rosy attitude. Establishing Griffith's skill at playing a lovable rube, this hit film paved the way for his sitcom. He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts Hall of Fame in 1992, and in 2005 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
"There is no doubt in my mind why Andy Griffith and the shows he starred in and produced were so beloved," Norman Brokaw, his agent for more than 50 years, said in a statement. "Behind his immense talent was simply a wonderful person."
Griffith's television series resumed in 1986 with "Matlock," which aired through 1995.
On this lighthearted legal drama, Griffith played a cagey Harvard-educated attorney who was Southern-bred and -mannered with a leisurely practice in Atlanta.
But Griffith would always be best known as Sheriff Taylor. In 2007, Griffith said "The Andy Griffith Show," which initially aired from 1960 to 1968, had never really left and was seen somewhere in the world every day.
Griffith set the show in the fictional town of Mayberry, N.C., where Sheriff Taylor was the dutiful nephew who ate pickles that tasted like kerosene because they were made by his loving Aunt Bee, played by the late Frances Bavier. His character was a widowed father who offered gentle guidance to son Opie, played by little Ron Howard, who grew up to become the Oscar-winning director of "A Beautiful Mind."
"His love of creating, the joy he took in it whether it was drama or comedy or his music, was inspiring to grow up around," Howard said in a statement. "The spirit he created on the set of 'The Andy Griffith Show' was joyful and professional all at once. It was an amazing environment."
Don Knotts was the goofy Deputy Barney Fife, while Jim Nabors was Gomer Pyle, the cornpone gas pumper. George Lindsey, who played Goober, died in May.
On StarNet: Look back at Andy Griffith's career in a slide show at azstarnet.com/gallery
