Before most of America knew its favorite sheriff was dead, Andy Griffith had already been buried.
Griffith, whose portrayal of Mayberry’s folksy top cop in the self-titled 1960s series “The Andy Griffith Show” turned him into a television icon, died of natural causes about 7 a.m. Tuesday at his home on Roanoake Island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
His wife, Cindi, was by his side.
“Andy was a person of incredibly strong Christian faith and was prepared for the day he would be called home to his Lord,” she said in a statement.
By 11:30 a.m., less than five hours after his death, Griffith had been laid to rest on his beloved island, a funeral spokesperson told CNN.
“It had been planned for some time,” the spokesperson said. “This was the wish of his family.”
Griffith, 86, who rocketed to fame during TV’s golden age and whose aw-shucks charm endeared him to generations of viewers, had long suffered from a painful nerve disorder and had been beset with heart problems.
President Obama, who grew up watching Griffith on TV, called him “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. “He brought us characters from Sheriff Andy Taylor to Ben Matlock, and in the process, warmed the hearts of Americans everywhere.”
Hollywood also mourned Griffith’s passing.
“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,” director Ron Howard — who played Sheriff Taylor’s freckle-faced son Opie on the show — said in a statement.
Griffith’s death was felt most keenly in his hometown of Mount Airy, N.C., the model for the mythical Mayberry.
There Sheriff Andy Taylor, with the help of bumbling deputy Barney Fife, played by Don Knotts, gently laid down the law for eight seasons. “The Andy Griffith” show ran from 1960 to 1968 — and as reruns that continue to air to this day.
The popular series opened with a catchy whistled theme — and with Griffith heading to the fishing hole with Opie. It ran on CBS and spawned spinoffs like “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” and “Mayberry R.F.D.”
Griffith later channeled his inner Taylor into the role of crafty but rumpled defense attorney Ben Matlock in the long-running “Matlock” mystery series that was launched in the 1980s and also lives on in syndication.
Born June 1, 1926, Griffith’s parents were so poor his first crib was a clothes drawer.
Griffith caught the acting bug in high school.Initially, he wanted to be a preacher, but the stage was too much of a lure. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1949 with a music degree.
After a short stint teaching English, Griffith headed for Broadway, where in 1955 he was paired with Knotts for the first time in the play “No Time for Sergeants.”
Griffith made his film debut acting against type as a power-hungry drifter turned TV host in the 1957 movie “A Face in the Crowd.”
While Griffith received critical kudos, his film career didn’t take off like he hoped it would. But in 1960, he played a bumpkin sheriff in an episode of “The Danny Thomas Show” — and the seeds of Sheriff Taylor were sewn.
“I’d struck out on Broadway, and I’d struck out in the movies, so I kinda had to go to television,” Griffith said in a 2008 interview.
Griffith was so good he was never nominated for an Emmy.
Knotts, who won five, said the nominators didn’t think Griffith was acting. He made it look that easy.
csiemaszko@nydailynews.com
