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Obit: George Lindsey ("Goober" on "Andy Griffith"), 83

Lindsey is the latest in the growing list of actors on the "Andy Griffith" show that have passed.

Others include: (their roles on the show)

Floyd the Barber
Barney Fife
Howard Sprague
Aunt Bee
Helen (Andy's long-time girlfriend and later wife)
Otis Campbell
Ernest T. Bass

I'm sure that I have missed a few.
 
Andy Griffith, Ron Howard, Anita Corsaut (Season 1), Jim Nabors, and Betty Lynn (Barney's girlfriend Thelma Lou) are about all the actors left from the series.
 
RIP Mr. Lindsey........"Where oh where are you tonight why'd you leave us here all alone, we searched the world over and thought we'd found true love. You've lived a rich and full life and then you were gone!" We all loved you George, you will be missed condolences and best wishes to your family and friends! Thanks for all the smiles!
 
WMC2006 said:
Andy Griffith, Ron Howard, Anita Corsaut (Season 1), Jim Nabors, and Betty Lynn (Barney's girlfriend Thelma Lou) are about all the actors left from the series.
Click to expand...

Aneta Corsaut died in 1995; I think you're thinking about Elinor Donahue, who played Andy's girlfriend Ellie Walker the first season and who is still with us.

I was really surprised that Lindsey's death wasn't WFMY's lead story this morning, considering that the station runs "The Andy Griffith Show" three times a day (10 AM, 10:30 AM, and 5:30 PM) and carried "Hee Haw" all the way through both the CBS and syndicated runs. I would be even more surprised if it wasn't the lead story on the Birmingham channels, since Lindsey was from nearby Jasper, AL.
 
I remember when Frances Bavier (who played Aunt Bea on the show) passed away in 1989, WFMY broke the news with a weather-style crawl, and of course was all over it with their 11 o'clock show. Bavier lived her last years in Siler City, NC. Griffith and Lynn are also North Carolina residents.
 
I had extended family once living in Hazel Green, Alabama, near Huntsville.

George Lindsey had once worked in Hazel Green...as a high-school science teacher!

Seems he had some sort of an advanced degree from a university in Alabama.
But found all of his success and fortune by being.....Goober!

Life is pretty wacky sometimes.
 
My favorite guest role of his was on M*A*S*H as a loud, obnoxious Arkansas surgeon who temporarily replaces Hawkeye, and annoys Winchester to such a degree that he's actually happy when Hawkeye returns!
 
The New Year's Twilight Zone marathon on SyFy showed the episode "I Am The Night, Color Me Black" where Lindsey played a redneck sheriff's deputy. One of the few things I've ever seen him in where he wasn't Goober.
 
bpatrick said:
WMC2006 said:
Andy Griffith, Ron Howard, Anita Corsaut (Season 1), Jim Nabors, and Betty Lynn (Barney's girlfriend Thelma Lou) are about all the actors left from the series.
Click to expand...

Aneta Corsaut died in 1995; I think you're thinking about Elinor Donahue, who played Andy's girlfriend Ellie Walker the first season and who is still with us.

I was really surprised that Lindsey's death wasn't WFMY's lead story this morning, considering that the station runs "The Andy Griffith Show" three times a day (10 AM, 10:30 AM, and 5:30 PM) and carried "Hee Haw" all the way through both the CBS and syndicated runs. I would be even more surprised if it wasn't the lead story on the Birmingham channels, since Lindsey was from nearby Jasper, AL.
Click to expand...

True on all counts, but Lindsey was living in Nashville at the time of his death and had been for a long time, ever since his stint on Hee Haw. He was therefore considered by the media as more part of the (traditional) country music circle than the acting community. In my market, Huntsville-Decatur, he was noted for his years at what is now the University of North Alabama (then known as Florence State College).
 
Didn't Lindsey appear on a radio talk show in Huntsville a few months back
and refused to talk about Goober?

But I still think, because of his ties to Jasper, the Birmingham stations would
have given it some amount of play this morning, just as I would expect them
to when Jim Nabors goes, since he's from Sylacauga, AL, also in range of
Birmingham.

On-topic but off: I answered WMC2006's list of the remaining Griffith cast
members by saying that it wasn't Aneta Corsaut but Elinor Donahue who's
still with us. It's my unprovable contention, based on what I've read and
what I've heard other people say, that Ellie Walker would have made the best
girlfriend for Andy Taylor, since she was not afraid to let him know it when she
thought he was wrong (remember the record-company man who was recording
the local music and Andy wrongly thought he'd take the money the townspeople
invested in the venture and never be heard from again?). But it seems Andy
didn't care too much for Elinor in real life; I don't even think she lasted the first season.


Another cast member who has passed on is Joanna Moore, who played nurse Peggy
McMillan. She had a certain Southern-belle charm (she was really from Georgia) but
Andy always seemed to be a shy schoolkid around her. (BTW, a writer once apparently
confused her with Joanna Barnes in referring to Ms. Barnes' "Southern-belle complacency";
she's actually from Boston, has written books as well as appeared in movies and television
shows, and never appeared on "The Andy Griffith Show.")
 
bpatrick said:
On-topic but off: I answered WMC2006's list of the remaining Griffith cast
members by saying that it wasn't Aneta Corsaut but Elinor Donahue who's
still with us. It's my unprovable contention, based on what I've read and
what I've heard other people say, that Ellie Walker would have made the best
girlfriend for Andy Taylor, since she was not afraid to let him know it when she
thought he was wrong (remember the record-company man who was recording
the local music and Andy wrongly thought he'd take the money the townspeople
invested in the venture and never be heard from again?). But it seems Andy
didn't care too much for Elinor in real life; I don't even think she lasted the first season.
Click to expand...
That's interesting. I agree that Ellie was the better character - I always thought Helen was a bit of a prig. As I've seen the early episodes in my adulthood, I've been impressed with how much chemistry Andy seemed to have with Elinor Donahue. So it's seems odd that he wouldn't have liked her in real life. Perhaps, though, that's the reason she left the show early on.
 
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