Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Lim Chang Moh - Malaysia's Foremost Film Critic
Lim Chang Moh, who passed away at 62 on July 14, 2012, will always be remembered as the country's foremost film critic.
He was best known for his film reviews in The Malay Mail. He retired in 2006 but continued to review films in his blog At The Movies With Lim Chang Moh.
The Malay Mail lifestyle editor Daniel Chan said: “His three decades as a film review columnist is a tough act to follow. He was a dear old friend and will be sorely missed.”
As production editor, Lim was highly respected for his command of English and perfectionist attitude towards ensuring there were no grammatical or spelling errors in the reports published by The Malay Mail.
Filmmaker Datuk Yusof Haslam described Lim as the country's foremost film critic, second to none.
Yusof hailed Lim as a prolific writer who did a good biography of former Chief Secretary To The Government Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid in 2008.
Educated at Penang Free School in Georgetown from 1964 to 1970, Lim graduated from University Malaya in 1974.
He joined the New Straits Times and later The Malay Mail where he wrote a long-running weekly column on movies titled At The Movies.
His son Jason has followed in his footsteps, frequently contributing movie reviews for The Star.
Lim also acted in one film, The Joshua Tapes in 2010.
Sabrina Yeap - Mother Teresa Of The Animals
Animal rights activist and friend of the stray dogs and cats Sabrina Yeap passed away today after a long illness.
She will always be remembered as the Mother Teresa Of The Animals.
Yeap was formerly in SPCA Malaysia before founding the Furry Friends Farm, a shelter for strays.
Three years ago she famously rescued stray dogs from Pulau Selat Kering in Klang.
One of the intelligent stray dogs, Hitam, became her special assistant in the mission.
Yeap famously said: “I can’t believe there is a heaven without dogs / pets.”
“Dogs / pets do more for people than people do for one another.”
“They don’t ask for anything in return. They are not part of today's great 'I want'.”
Hitam, the heroic black dog which helped her and became the most respected dog in Malaysia, passed on the same year.
RIP Sabrina. You are truly a saint.
Hitam and Noah are waiting.
She will always be remembered as the Mother Teresa Of The Animals.
Yeap was formerly in SPCA Malaysia before founding the Furry Friends Farm, a shelter for strays.
Three years ago she famously rescued stray dogs from Pulau Selat Kering in Klang.
One of the intelligent stray dogs, Hitam, became her special assistant in the mission.
Yeap famously said: “I can’t believe there is a heaven without dogs / pets.”
“Dogs / pets do more for people than people do for one another.”
“They don’t ask for anything in return. They are not part of today's great 'I want'.”
Hitam, the heroic black dog which helped her and became the most respected dog in Malaysia, passed on the same year.
RIP Sabrina. You are truly a saint.
Hitam and Noah are waiting.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
A Tribute To Paul Ponnudorai - By Eddin Khoo.
Eddin Khoo is a freelance writer who used to work for The Star.
He is my cousin and hails from Ipoh.
Paul Ponnudorai has left behind a legacy which we hope younger musicians will look up to, grab a hold of and run with.
If there was a single, striking quality to a Paul Ponnudorai performance, it was the touch of the epiphanous.
Undoubtedly a musician of the greatest dexterity, imagination and soulfulness, Ponnudorai had the ability to invoke, in a single song – however ordinary or even saccharine the song may be – the sense of great possibility and genuine timelessness.
It was this sense of epiphany that seemed to have touched him personally, on countless occasions not least of which was a near-fatal car accident in 1992 that left him with a blood clot in the brain and a recovery from surgery that could best be described as “miraculous”.
The incident was to indelibly transform him and his musicianship.
As he recalled to Time magazine in 2007, “Things that were so important – success, recognition, accolades – suddenly didn’t matter any more. And as a byproduct of my heightened awareness after the accident, I started listening to music – really listening to it.”
The “byproduct” of his listening was evident in his only solo album Right On Time, a sampling that reveals the consummate facility with which Ponnudorai claimed diverse and disparate styles ranging from the blues, bluegrass, gospel, folk and the most common pop styles.
These are all invested within that characteristic Ponnudorai combination of musical sinew and effortlessness.
In him, it was as if the act of creating musical seams was the most natural and rational thing in the world.
The Paul Ponnudorai experience contained a world – one that expressed the musical landscape from which he emerged.
Born to a large family committed to church or, as he movingly put it (in the Time interview) “I grew up soaked in the brine of the Bible.”
And the “brine of the Bible”, in Tamil churches such as his, naturally meant faith expressed in rhythm and music.
The music language that infused him was inspired also by the diverse setting that was his hometown of Ipoh in Perak, with its decaying jukeboxes and old record shops which, by the time of his growing up, reflected the passing of the country’s once principal mining town into quaint memory.
Ponnudorai carved a predictable path to national attention, winning the talent show Bakat TV in 1981 and subsequently playing and arranging for the most prominent of popular musicians – Francissca Peter, Datuk Sudirman Arshad, Datuk Sheila Majid and others.
Made In Malaysia, formed with Allan Perera, Jerry Felix and Daniel Soliano, was as close to a supergroup as Malaysia ever had and its capacity audiences at the Spuds club (now Life Centre) in Kuala Lumpur every Saturday night in the late 1980s attested to its super status.
Yet, it was his love of intimacy and deep sharing that kept him faithful to the bar-setting through the decades.
I had never known the Paul Ponnudorai of the stage.
Except for a few visits to the Spuds, my trail was different.
I – underaged and adulating – went to bars such as the Treffpunkt in Damansara Jaya, Selangor, where Paul alternated days with another teenage hero, Rafique Rashid.
After that, it was to All That Jazz many years later in a two-night spartan but beautiful solo set at the Instant Cafe Theatre’s Theatre Upstairs in KL where Paul, in characteristic fashion, transformed a bland Sir Cliff Richard song, The Twelvth Of Never, into a masterclass in ballad delivery.
Soon after, a modest event organised by a mutual friend, Errol D’Cruz, became an occasion for a moving performance of that John Hartford classic Gentle On My Mind.
At the end of the song, we realised we shared the same favourite lines – lines that, in recollection, appear to capture his sensibility so well – “And it’s knowing I’m not shackled by forgotten words and bonds and the ink stains that have dried upon some line.
That keeps you in the back roads by the rivers of memory, that keeps you ever gentle on my mind.”
The last performance I witnessed was in a modest pub in Taman Tun Dr Ismail in KL, even the name of which I can’t remember and an audience that could best be described as non-existent.
Still, it was the same generosity of spirit which pervaded his performance.
Here, during a version of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition, I commented on his flawless phrasing and his reply, intelligent and quick as always was, “That’s where I put the student who wanted to study English Literature at university, but never did.”
The route to Singapore and to Harry’s pub followed.
Jam sessions with musicians the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Toots Thielemens and a glorious musical camaraderie with Jeremy Monteiro followed, all of whom recorded their amazement of his musicianship and all of which I missed.
In the past few months, I inadvertently thought of Paul frequently and an afternoon conversation about him occurred on July 6, the very day of his untimely passing.
In a gesture of tribute then, a quick search on YouTube and a good listen to a song (spiritual Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho) that he, of course, learned at Sunday school and instant was the recognition of the spirit of the “brine of the Bible” that pervaded Paul.
No wonder then, that each time I witnessed Paul in performance, a biblical phrase refrained in my head, “And there for the grace of God, go I.”
Rest in peace, Paul Ponnudorai, dear friend, you return to where you belong – to sing with the angels.
He is my cousin and hails from Ipoh.
Paul Ponnudorai has left behind a legacy which we hope younger musicians will look up to, grab a hold of and run with.
If there was a single, striking quality to a Paul Ponnudorai performance, it was the touch of the epiphanous.
Undoubtedly a musician of the greatest dexterity, imagination and soulfulness, Ponnudorai had the ability to invoke, in a single song – however ordinary or even saccharine the song may be – the sense of great possibility and genuine timelessness.
It was this sense of epiphany that seemed to have touched him personally, on countless occasions not least of which was a near-fatal car accident in 1992 that left him with a blood clot in the brain and a recovery from surgery that could best be described as “miraculous”.
The incident was to indelibly transform him and his musicianship.
As he recalled to Time magazine in 2007, “Things that were so important – success, recognition, accolades – suddenly didn’t matter any more. And as a byproduct of my heightened awareness after the accident, I started listening to music – really listening to it.”
The “byproduct” of his listening was evident in his only solo album Right On Time, a sampling that reveals the consummate facility with which Ponnudorai claimed diverse and disparate styles ranging from the blues, bluegrass, gospel, folk and the most common pop styles.
These are all invested within that characteristic Ponnudorai combination of musical sinew and effortlessness.
In him, it was as if the act of creating musical seams was the most natural and rational thing in the world.
The Paul Ponnudorai experience contained a world – one that expressed the musical landscape from which he emerged.
Born to a large family committed to church or, as he movingly put it (in the Time interview) “I grew up soaked in the brine of the Bible.”
And the “brine of the Bible”, in Tamil churches such as his, naturally meant faith expressed in rhythm and music.
The music language that infused him was inspired also by the diverse setting that was his hometown of Ipoh in Perak, with its decaying jukeboxes and old record shops which, by the time of his growing up, reflected the passing of the country’s once principal mining town into quaint memory.
Ponnudorai carved a predictable path to national attention, winning the talent show Bakat TV in 1981 and subsequently playing and arranging for the most prominent of popular musicians – Francissca Peter, Datuk Sudirman Arshad, Datuk Sheila Majid and others.
Made In Malaysia, formed with Allan Perera, Jerry Felix and Daniel Soliano, was as close to a supergroup as Malaysia ever had and its capacity audiences at the Spuds club (now Life Centre) in Kuala Lumpur every Saturday night in the late 1980s attested to its super status.
Yet, it was his love of intimacy and deep sharing that kept him faithful to the bar-setting through the decades.
I had never known the Paul Ponnudorai of the stage.
Except for a few visits to the Spuds, my trail was different.
I – underaged and adulating – went to bars such as the Treffpunkt in Damansara Jaya, Selangor, where Paul alternated days with another teenage hero, Rafique Rashid.
After that, it was to All That Jazz many years later in a two-night spartan but beautiful solo set at the Instant Cafe Theatre’s Theatre Upstairs in KL where Paul, in characteristic fashion, transformed a bland Sir Cliff Richard song, The Twelvth Of Never, into a masterclass in ballad delivery.
Soon after, a modest event organised by a mutual friend, Errol D’Cruz, became an occasion for a moving performance of that John Hartford classic Gentle On My Mind.
At the end of the song, we realised we shared the same favourite lines – lines that, in recollection, appear to capture his sensibility so well – “And it’s knowing I’m not shackled by forgotten words and bonds and the ink stains that have dried upon some line.
That keeps you in the back roads by the rivers of memory, that keeps you ever gentle on my mind.”
The last performance I witnessed was in a modest pub in Taman Tun Dr Ismail in KL, even the name of which I can’t remember and an audience that could best be described as non-existent.
Still, it was the same generosity of spirit which pervaded his performance.
Here, during a version of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition, I commented on his flawless phrasing and his reply, intelligent and quick as always was, “That’s where I put the student who wanted to study English Literature at university, but never did.”
The route to Singapore and to Harry’s pub followed.
Jam sessions with musicians the likes of Wynton Marsalis, Toots Thielemens and a glorious musical camaraderie with Jeremy Monteiro followed, all of whom recorded their amazement of his musicianship and all of which I missed.
In the past few months, I inadvertently thought of Paul frequently and an afternoon conversation about him occurred on July 6, the very day of his untimely passing.
In a gesture of tribute then, a quick search on YouTube and a good listen to a song (spiritual Joshua Fit De Battle Of Jericho) that he, of course, learned at Sunday school and instant was the recognition of the spirit of the “brine of the Bible” that pervaded Paul.
No wonder then, that each time I witnessed Paul in performance, a biblical phrase refrained in my head, “And there for the grace of God, go I.”
Rest in peace, Paul Ponnudorai, dear friend, you return to where you belong – to sing with the angels.
Richard Zanuck - Award-Winning Film-Maker
Richard Zanuck passed away on July 13, 2012.
Read all about the man who made great movies as Driving Miss Daisy and Jaws from Wikipedia.
Richard Darryl Zanuck (December 13, 1934 – July 13, 2012) was an American film producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989 for Driving Miss Daisy.
Zanuck was born in Los Angeles, California, to actress Virginia Fox and Darryl F. Zanuck, then head of 20th Century Fox.
While studying at Stanford University, he began his career in the film industry working for Fox.
In 1959, Zanuck had his first shot at producing with Compulsion.
In the 1960s Zanuck became president of 20th Century Fox.
One year of his tenure, 1967, is chronicled in the John Gregory Dunne book The Studio.
After disastrous failures like 1967's Doctor Dolittle, he was fired by his father and joined Warner Brothers as executive vice president.
One year later he formed The Zanuck/Brown Company.
In 1968 he married model and actress Linda Harrison. They divorced in 1978.
Zanuck and Brown produced Steven Spielberg's early films The Sugarland Express (1974) and Jaws (1975).
They subsequently produced box office hits as Cocoon (1985) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989) before dissolving their partnership in 1988.
They were jointly awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award by the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences in 1990.
Zanuck worked with Tim Burton six times, producing Planet Of The Apes (2001), Big Fish (2003), Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007), Alice In Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012).
Read all about the man who made great movies as Driving Miss Daisy and Jaws from Wikipedia.
Richard Darryl Zanuck (December 13, 1934 – July 13, 2012) was an American film producer. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989 for Driving Miss Daisy.
Zanuck was born in Los Angeles, California, to actress Virginia Fox and Darryl F. Zanuck, then head of 20th Century Fox.
While studying at Stanford University, he began his career in the film industry working for Fox.
In 1959, Zanuck had his first shot at producing with Compulsion.
In the 1960s Zanuck became president of 20th Century Fox.
One year of his tenure, 1967, is chronicled in the John Gregory Dunne book The Studio.
After disastrous failures like 1967's Doctor Dolittle, he was fired by his father and joined Warner Brothers as executive vice president.
One year later he formed The Zanuck/Brown Company.
In 1968 he married model and actress Linda Harrison. They divorced in 1978.
Zanuck and Brown produced Steven Spielberg's early films The Sugarland Express (1974) and Jaws (1975).
They subsequently produced box office hits as Cocoon (1985) and Driving Miss Daisy (1989) before dissolving their partnership in 1988.
They were jointly awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award by the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences in 1990.
Zanuck worked with Tim Burton six times, producing Planet Of The Apes (2001), Big Fish (2003), Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street (2007), Alice In Wonderland (2010) and Dark Shadows (2012).
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Sage Stallone - Talented Son Of Sylvester
IT'S a tragic loss that Sage Stallone, the son of Sylvester Stallone, passed away of an undisclosed illness on July 13, 2012.
He was 36 and divorced.
Born on May 5, 1976, Sage was a talented actor, director, producer and screenwriter.
His mother is Stallone's ex-wife Sasha Czack.
Sage was of Italian, Russian and Israeli ancestry paternally and Czech ancestry maternally.
He made his acting debut in Rocky V with his father and later starred in the 1996 film Daylight.
Sage made a film Vic in 2006 and it was screened in the California Film Festival.
Wikipedia.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Paul Ponnudorai - Great Malaysian, Great Musician
Paul Ponnudorai passed away after a long illness on July 7, 2012 at 51.
A highly respected musician he was nicknamed PP King by fans, as he played the guitar as good as BB King.
Paul who hails from Ipoh participated in Bintang RTM (then Bakat RTM) in the 1970s and became active in the nightclub circuit.
Time magazine has described him as one of the greatest musicians of our time.
Paul backed up most of Malaysia's greatest recording artistes including King of Entertainment Datuk Sudirman Arshad and co-produced his hit song One Thousand Million Smiles with Michael Veerapen.
He launched his album Right On Time in 2005 and collaborated with Wynton Marsalis among others.
A highly respected musician he was nicknamed PP King by fans, as he played the guitar as good as BB King.
Paul who hails from Ipoh participated in Bintang RTM (then Bakat RTM) in the 1970s and became active in the nightclub circuit.
Time magazine has described him as one of the greatest musicians of our time.
Paul backed up most of Malaysia's greatest recording artistes including King of Entertainment Datuk Sudirman Arshad and co-produced his hit song One Thousand Million Smiles with Michael Veerapen.
He launched his album Right On Time in 2005 and collaborated with Wynton Marsalis among others.
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Andy Griffith - Iconic TV Sheriff
Iconic TV Dad Andy Griffith passed away on July 3, 2012. He was 86.
From Wikipedia.
Andrew Samuel Griffith (June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012) was an American actor, television producer, Grammy Award-winning Gospel singer and writer.
A Tony Award nominee for two roles, he gained prominence in director Elia Kazan's film A Face In The Crowd (1957) before he became known for his television roles.
He played the lead characters in the 1960–1968 situation comedy The Andy Griffith Show and the 1986–1995 legal drama Matlock.
Griffith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina.
He was born on the same day and year as Marilyn Monroe.
Griffith grew up listening to music. His father instilled a sense of humour from old family stories.
As a student at Mount Airy High School, Griffith cultivated an interest in the arts, and he participated in the school's drama programme.
A growing love of music, particularly swing, would change his life.
Griffith looked up to Ed Mickey, a minister at Grace Moravian Church, who led the brass band and taught him to sing and play the trombone.
Mickey nurtured Griffith's talent throughout high school until graduation in 1944.
Griffith was delighted when he was offered a role in The Lost Colony by Paul Green, a play still performed today on Roanoke Island.
He performed as a cast member of the play for several years, playing a variety of roles, until he finally landed the role of Sir Walter Raleigh, the namesake of North Carolina's capital.
He began college studying to be a Moravian preacher, but he changed his major to music and became a part of the school's Carolina Play Makers.
He attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and graduated with a bachelor of music in 1949.
After graduation, he taught Music and Drama for a few years at Goldsboro High School in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Griffith's early career was as a monologist, delivering long stories such as What it Was, Was Football, which is told from the point of view of a rural backwoodsman trying to figure out what was going on in a football game.
Released as a single in 1953, the monologue was a hit for Griffith, reaching number nine on the charts in 1954.
Griffith starred in a one-hour teleplay version of No Time For Sergeants (1955).
The role earned him a Distinguished Supporting or Featured Dramatic Actor nomination at the 1956 Tony Awards.
Griffith later reprised his role for the film version (1958) of No Time For Sergeants.
The film also featured Don Knotts, marking the beginning of a life-long association between Griffith and Knotts.
No Time For Sergeants is considered the direct inspiration for the later television situation comedy Gomer Pyle USMC.
In 1957, Griffith made his film debut, A Face In The Crowd.
The film also starred Walter Matthau and Lee Remick (in her film debut).
It was directed by Elia Kazan.
In 1960, Griffith appeared as a county sheriff in Make Room For Daddy, starring Danny Thomas.
This served as a backdoor pilot for The Andy Griffith Show. Both shows were produced by Sheldon Leonard.
Beginning in 1960, Griffith starred as Sheriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show for the CBS television network.
The show took place in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, where Taylor, a widower, was the sheriff and town sage.
The show co-starred Knotts in the role of Deputy Barney Fife, Taylor's cousin.
The show also starred child actor Ron Howard (then known as Ronny Howard), who played Taylor's only child, Opie Taylor.
In 1986, Griffith played Ben Matlock in the legal drama Matlock.
Matlock was a country lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, who was known for his Southern drawl and for always winning his cases.
Griffith also made character appearances on Playhouse 90, Gomer Pyle, The Mod Squad, Hawaii Five-O, The Doris Day Show, Here's Lucy, The Bionic Woman, Fantasy Island and Dawson's Creek.
For most of the 1970s, Griffith starred in many television films including Pray For The Wildcats (1974) which marked his first villainous role.
Griffith appeared again as a villain in Savages (1974), a television film based on the novel Deathwatch (1972) by Robb White.
He won further acclaim for his role as a homicidal villain in the television film Murder In Coweta County (1983), co-starring music legend Johnny Cash as the sheriff.
He also proved to be a good character actor in television mini-series as Roots: The Next Generations (1979), Centennial (1978) and the Watergate scandal-inspired Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977).
Griffith sang as part of some of his acting roles, most notably in A Face In The Crowd and in many episodes of The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock.
Griffith made a surprise appearance as the ghost of Andy Taylor when Howard hosted Saturday Night Live in 1982.
Howard did not make any cameo appearances on Matlock, but his mother, Jean Speegle Howard, had a small role in one episode.
Howard attended the People's Choice Awards in 1987, where Griffith was honoured with a lifetime acheivement award.
Howard and Griffith kept in contact sharing news about family and personal activities, and Griffith still called Howard by his childhood nickname, Ronny.
In 2008, Griffith appeared with Howard in a video endorsement for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Griffith married Barbara Bay Edwards in 1949. They split in 1972.
From 1973-1981 he was married to Greek actress Solica Cassuto.
In 1983 he married Cindi Knight.
Griffith received a Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album for I Love To Tell The Story — 25 Timeless Hymns in 1997.
In 1999, Griffith was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall Of Fame.
In 2002, an 18km stretch of US Highway 52 that passes through Mount Airy was dedicated as the Andy Griffith Parkway.
He was awarded the Presidential Medal Of Freedom by President George W. Bush on November 9, 2005.
In 2007, he was inducted into the Christian Music Hall Of Fame And Museum.
From Wikipedia.
Andrew Samuel Griffith (June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012) was an American actor, television producer, Grammy Award-winning Gospel singer and writer.
A Tony Award nominee for two roles, he gained prominence in director Elia Kazan's film A Face In The Crowd (1957) before he became known for his television roles.
He played the lead characters in the 1960–1968 situation comedy The Andy Griffith Show and the 1986–1995 legal drama Matlock.
Griffith was born in Mount Airy, North Carolina.
He was born on the same day and year as Marilyn Monroe.
Griffith grew up listening to music. His father instilled a sense of humour from old family stories.
As a student at Mount Airy High School, Griffith cultivated an interest in the arts, and he participated in the school's drama programme.
A growing love of music, particularly swing, would change his life.
Griffith looked up to Ed Mickey, a minister at Grace Moravian Church, who led the brass band and taught him to sing and play the trombone.
Mickey nurtured Griffith's talent throughout high school until graduation in 1944.
Griffith was delighted when he was offered a role in The Lost Colony by Paul Green, a play still performed today on Roanoke Island.
He performed as a cast member of the play for several years, playing a variety of roles, until he finally landed the role of Sir Walter Raleigh, the namesake of North Carolina's capital.
He began college studying to be a Moravian preacher, but he changed his major to music and became a part of the school's Carolina Play Makers.
He attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and graduated with a bachelor of music in 1949.
After graduation, he taught Music and Drama for a few years at Goldsboro High School in Goldsboro, North Carolina.
Griffith's early career was as a monologist, delivering long stories such as What it Was, Was Football, which is told from the point of view of a rural backwoodsman trying to figure out what was going on in a football game.
Released as a single in 1953, the monologue was a hit for Griffith, reaching number nine on the charts in 1954.
Griffith starred in a one-hour teleplay version of No Time For Sergeants (1955).
The role earned him a Distinguished Supporting or Featured Dramatic Actor nomination at the 1956 Tony Awards.
Griffith later reprised his role for the film version (1958) of No Time For Sergeants.
The film also featured Don Knotts, marking the beginning of a life-long association between Griffith and Knotts.
No Time For Sergeants is considered the direct inspiration for the later television situation comedy Gomer Pyle USMC.
In 1957, Griffith made his film debut, A Face In The Crowd.
The film also starred Walter Matthau and Lee Remick (in her film debut).
It was directed by Elia Kazan.
In 1960, Griffith appeared as a county sheriff in Make Room For Daddy, starring Danny Thomas.
This served as a backdoor pilot for The Andy Griffith Show. Both shows were produced by Sheldon Leonard.
Beginning in 1960, Griffith starred as Sheriff Andy Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show for the CBS television network.
The show took place in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, where Taylor, a widower, was the sheriff and town sage.
The show co-starred Knotts in the role of Deputy Barney Fife, Taylor's cousin.
The show also starred child actor Ron Howard (then known as Ronny Howard), who played Taylor's only child, Opie Taylor.
In 1986, Griffith played Ben Matlock in the legal drama Matlock.
Matlock was a country lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia, who was known for his Southern drawl and for always winning his cases.
Griffith also made character appearances on Playhouse 90, Gomer Pyle, The Mod Squad, Hawaii Five-O, The Doris Day Show, Here's Lucy, The Bionic Woman, Fantasy Island and Dawson's Creek.
For most of the 1970s, Griffith starred in many television films including Pray For The Wildcats (1974) which marked his first villainous role.
Griffith appeared again as a villain in Savages (1974), a television film based on the novel Deathwatch (1972) by Robb White.
He won further acclaim for his role as a homicidal villain in the television film Murder In Coweta County (1983), co-starring music legend Johnny Cash as the sheriff.
He also proved to be a good character actor in television mini-series as Roots: The Next Generations (1979), Centennial (1978) and the Watergate scandal-inspired Washington: Behind Closed Doors (1977).
Griffith sang as part of some of his acting roles, most notably in A Face In The Crowd and in many episodes of The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock.
Griffith made a surprise appearance as the ghost of Andy Taylor when Howard hosted Saturday Night Live in 1982.
Howard did not make any cameo appearances on Matlock, but his mother, Jean Speegle Howard, had a small role in one episode.
Howard attended the People's Choice Awards in 1987, where Griffith was honoured with a lifetime acheivement award.
Howard and Griffith kept in contact sharing news about family and personal activities, and Griffith still called Howard by his childhood nickname, Ronny.
In 2008, Griffith appeared with Howard in a video endorsement for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Griffith married Barbara Bay Edwards in 1949. They split in 1972.
From 1973-1981 he was married to Greek actress Solica Cassuto.
In 1983 he married Cindi Knight.
Griffith received a Grammy Award for Best Southern, Country or Bluegrass Gospel Album for I Love To Tell The Story — 25 Timeless Hymns in 1997.
In 1999, Griffith was inducted into the Country Gospel Music Hall Of Fame.
In 2002, an 18km stretch of US Highway 52 that passes through Mount Airy was dedicated as the Andy Griffith Parkway.
He was awarded the Presidential Medal Of Freedom by President George W. Bush on November 9, 2005.
In 2007, he was inducted into the Christian Music Hall Of Fame And Museum.
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