Andy Griffith’s WWII Career
Most folks will remember Andy Griffith for his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor and the small-town American values he captured on The Andy Griffith Show. A few others will mention the crafty Atlanta defense lawyer he played on Matlock.
We’d like to remember Andy for an amazing movie career, including a couple of iconic roles in World War II comedies.
Most famous is No Time For Sergeants, the WWII comedy where Griffith plays a country bumpkin drafted in the U.S. Army and later assigned to the Air Force. Based on a best-selling novel by Mac Hyman, Griffith got his big break in the Broadway play and later reprised the role of the seemingly unsophisticated Will Stockdale in the wildly successful movie version. It turns out Will has a lot more sense than the officers around him.
The movie’s also notable for its Manual Dexterity test, a scene that introduces the comic chemistry between Griffith and Don Knotts that would later flourish in their roles as Andy Taylor and Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show.
In this clip. Griffith talks about his role in developing the play and the movie. Over the course of his career, he proved be a shrewd businessman, keeping ownership of his tv series (and its spinoffs Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and Mayberry RFD).
Less well known and almost as funny is Onionhead, a 1958 movie where Griffith plays a college student who hopes to sit out WWII by joining the Coast Guard. Made quickly to cash in on his No Time for Sergeants success, it received mixed reviews at the time but the movie’s a lot better than it got credit for when it came out.
It features a great performance by Walter Matthau, Joey Bishop, James Gregory (from The Manchurian Candidate and Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes) and Claude Akins (Sheriff Lobo and Aldo in Battle for Planet of the Apes).
Matthau had famously played opposite Griffith and Patricia Neal in 1957’s A Face in the Crowd, one of the great Hollywood movies ever. Featuring Griffith as Lonesome Rhodes, a scheming drifter who becomes a media sensation, the character couldn’t be further from the actor’s image as kindly Sheriff Taylor.
Another great role that goes against the Sheriff Taylor image is the aging movie cowboy Pike in 1975’s Hearts of the West. Griffith teaches Jeff Bridges some hard lessons about the movie business.
Both Onionhead and Hearts of the West are tough to catch on TV, but Turner Classic Movies just anounced that they’re showing all four movies we talked about in this post on Wednesday night July 18th. Check ‘em out.
![Der Gro?mufti von Jerusalem [Amin al Husseini] bei den bosnischen Freiwilligen der Waffen-SS. Der Gro?mufti ist auf dem Truppenubungsplatz ein[getroffen] und schreitet die Front der angetretenen Freiwilligen mit erhobenem Arm ab.](http://images-undertheradar.military.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/nazicollaborators300.jpg)
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25 Comments
Griffith was the prime age in the middle of WW2 to serve & did not serve, he also supported obama
I do not believe he supported Obama. And you are probably younger than me which is okay but the Andy I
grew up with was morally sound unlike Obama.
Well sir I’m 65 yrs of age & Griffith did a TV ad with Ron Howard promoting obama & change & that is FACT, toby keith also supported obama.
I also remember he and Ron Howard doing that political ad for Obama. If memory serves, it was about five minutes long. It made me feel like one of my heroes had let me down. Ron Howards part in it didn’t surprise me at all but I was very disappointed with Mr. Griffith. But The Andy Griffith Show has always been and still is my favorite TV show!
I grew up watching Andy. I think he was a great American
and may God take him and keep him.
He stated in a interview last year that he voted and supported Obama for president an would vote for him again. Just shows what old age will do to the mind..
Shotbag and Paul russell, I did not know that. Thankyou
for letting me know. But I definately do not support
Obama and his Liberal Way of thinking
So. What does his support for Obama have to do with anything?
“I come to bury Ceasar, not to Praise him!“
Andy Griffth was a great talent who taught morals to a generation when there was little else being taught. Hardheaded country wisdom that City Folks never hear!
I agree with you Mr. Cheney. Andy represented the values of our past, and the values we would like to come back. I don’t care if he supported Obama or not. He was an American and that was has right to do that, just like all of us. I don’t like Obama for the choices he has made. But Andy made me laugh, think and forget. His ideas, his love and his principals will continue to live on in the wonderful shows he performed in. I will miss him and all the Mayberry cast. Rest in Peace Andy.
I adore The Andy Griffith Show, No Time for Sargeants!
But, I never did like Andy Griffith as a person; to me he came across as arrogrant when interviewed thru the years. Also, he was a left-wing liberal and did support socialsim and OBAMACARE. Pretty sad!
Andy was a Class act. Did not agree with his Politics, But as an actor and human being he was a class act. He had a way of making people laugh.
Just because he(Andy Griffith) didn’t fall in lock step with the political viewpoints of some. He is now rating a thumbs down. I thought Buddy Ebsen was a enjoyable actor as Jed Clampett and Barnaby Jones but I did not necessarily agree with his politics. Ditto for Charlton Heston and it’s no secret where John Wayne’s political sentiments laid. Heck, the right wing has Fred Dalton Thompson, a.k.a. Arthur Branch from Law & Order. So what’s the fuss?
the left has Jane Fonda, “nuf said”
California + Hollywood = Liberal.…… this is lesson one, do not forget it.….….I am going to California with a Romney bumper sticker and see how long it takes to get my tires slashed.
I think that as a son of the South who lived through the depression, he leaned Democrat. Most people who were of that generation grew up believing that Republicans would throw the baby out with the bath water and that Democrats were the only party that was for the common man, a falsehood the Democrats still espouse. But as a son of North Carolina he was a fine man and a great actor. Of course he will be missed.
Democrats USED to be for the underdog man, but they were taken over by the radicals on the way to their church services, and never recovered from the thief!! Today the Democratic Party is the “most dangerous” entity we have in Our Government.
Griffith, a great actor, was just like the majority of liberals: So rich that he could afford to be–and out of touch with the man on the street–or receiving some government largess and hoping for more.
From Wikipedia: In October 2008, Griffith and Howard briefly reprised their Mayberry roles in an online video Ron Howard’s Call to Action. It was posted to comedy video website Funny or Die. The video encouraged people to vote and endorsed Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Joe Biden
The Movie “No Time for Sergeants” was not a movie about World War II. It was about the misfortunes and misadventures of two country boys being “drafted” into the US Air Force in the 1950s.
I’ve known Andy for years. He said he voted for Obama, only because the left will kill your career if you say your a Republican. He secretly voted for Mcain
Saying you voted for someone and doing a five minute campaign endorsement commercial are two different things. Lay off the moonshine Otis.
I went to UNC (1948–52).I suspect that Andy was going for a preacher and avoided service during WW11.Note that he changed his major.Would like to know his draft
status.He had to be classified some thing.
Not sure but he graduated from high school in ’44 at the age of 18 just 1 year before the war ended.
Gees for god sake get over yourselves!!!!! Anyone would think that because you respect your political leader that you were a terrorist!!! I am sick of Yanks whining about your President!
Get on with life.
As for Universal Free Health Care, The UK has had it since the 1950s and nearly all of the Scandanavian countries. Australia since the 1970s. Yet in the “greatest country on earth” your health depends on how much you can pay or the insurance companies that you rip you off!!!
I am not a Democrat or a Republican I am a Human Being !!! and while you are at it get a decent electoral process. Voting in the US is a joke!!!