Famous actor Andy Griffith has a long-standing rift with his son Sam. Griffith’s daughter Dixie, who had always thought of Griffith as a lovely father, jumped to his defense when Sam passed away.
While attending the University of North Carolina, Andy Griffith first met Barbara Edward, who would become his wife. In 1949, the year Griffith received his music degree, they were married.
After a short while, the pair was married, and Griffith began instructing music in high schools. They moved to New York to start a career in the music industry after saving for a while.
They returned to North Carolina disappointed but determined after the auditions did not go as they had hoped and the judges advised him not to quit his day job. They developed an act that would lead to their fame as they were determined to succeed in the film industry.
The spoken word work “What It Was, Was Football” was created by Griffith. It is a monologue about a college football game as witnessed by a gullible country preacher who unintentionally attends the game and is completely perplexed by it.
Griffith’s sudden celebrity as a result of the speech will soon have a flip-side. He and Barbara had long yearned for such achievement, but Barbara’s marriage quickly turned sour.
Barbara stayed at home and took care of the family as Griffith’s comedy career took off. She grit her teeth and responded when journalist Ed Murrow inquired if she still sang and danced: “No, Ed, not just now. I suppose the family can only support one career.”
She admitted that being a comedian’s wife was challenging and that she was constantly providing for and meeting the demands of others. “Since a comic is comparable to a child. Everything is centered on him.” She revealed.
Their marriage was disintegrating by the late 1960s, and Barbara’s nephew, Mike, recalled observing a noticeable difference between them. He observed Griffith smoking more than usual and always seemed depressed, while Barbara continued to drink and sob nonstop.
Barbara decided this was enough and requested a divorce in June 1972. Sam, their 14-year-old son, was given to Griffith, while Barbara left with Dixie, their 12-year-old daughter. The kids would, however, spend the summers in Carolina with Griffith.
After their divorce, Barbara wed Michael St. Clair a few years later. Sadly, she died at the age of 53 in Beverly Hills, California, in 1980.
Griffith cherished being a parent to his two children even before he and Barbara got divorced. He always made time to play with her and her brother, Dixie said. I thought he was an incredibly terrific dad, she recalled.
The “Fantasy Island” star would spend time with his kids in North Carolina playing volleyball, water skiing, and swimming whenever he wasn’t working. When her father would pick her up and carry her, Dixie would smile the most.
However, despite Sam’s love for his father, he always felt the burden of being his son. When he started drinking, Griffith cut off all communication with him and revealed to his friends that he had emotionally abandoned his son as his alcoholism grew more pronounced.
Sam spent years in legal difficulties, and in 1992, a court in California sentenced the 32-year-old Sam to probation after finding that he had abused his wife when she was pregnant. Soon after, they quietly got divorced.
Sam, a real estate entrepreneur who had established a successful profession, sadly passed away at the age of 38 from alcoholism in 1996. Until his sad death, he and his father had stayed apart. Dixie defended her father’s honor after his passing by saying:
“My dad wasn’t to blame for my brother’s problems, but he had some,”
Due to the attention Sam’s burial received, Griffith, who was working on “Matlock,” chose not to attend. Griffith was a Hollywood celebrity, but he still valued his privacy and detested rumors about his personal life.
Griffith was deeply saddened by Sam’s passing, yet he never once spoke about it in public. Only his faith and his family were able to get him through the tragedy. Oh, and his affection for Cindi Knight, his third wife.
In 1972, after Barbara and Griffith’s divorce was officially finalized, Griffith wed Greek actress Solica Cassuto. However, they only had a brief union before divorcing in 1981.
Soon after, while performing in summer theater, he met dancer Cindi Knight. In 1983, they got married, and Griffith would later acknowledge how joyful Knight made him. “I’m not just married to her. We work together. She is a huge assistance to me.” He once acknowledged.
The “Scattering Dad” actor still had a close relationship with his daughter Dixie, but as he became busier with his life with Knight and his demanding schedule on “Matlock,” they spent less and less time together.
Griffith returned to North Carolina in 1995 as they completed the ninth season of “Matlock,” where Dixie claims he immediately felt at home. The movie legend would enter establishments with no shirt and no shoes. He was liberated there, according to Dixie.
Sadly, the Mayberry sheriff passed away on July 3, 2012, at his Roanoke Island residence, after an undisclosed illness. Many people were upset that he was buried just hours after his away.
According to observers, it was unusual for someone to be buried so soon after passing away because customary funeral arrangements called for a period of time between passing away and burial so that loved ones may pay their respects.
Griffith, who had gone away at 7 a.m., was reportedly buried around 11:30 a.m. Due to the sensitivity of the situation, he was unable to provide any other details. But he said that despite the situation, the family’s wishes had to be honored:
“This was his family’s wish,”
Fortunately, the “The Gift of Love” actor’s countless movies, TV programs, and plays have preserved his legacy. Dixie claims that despite everything, his admirers still adore him for having made millions of people happy. She felt confident that those who were influenced by her father would remember him for a very long time.
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