i look so much like my dad You know you know maybe not now but what about if I what about if I do this

if you’re a fan of classic American comedies then chances are you remember the unforgettable Don Knots You drop

that rock and you get up here He was the lovable bumbling Deputy

Sheriff Barney Fe on the iconic 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show

up A role that earned him five Emmy awards

His comic timing nervous energy and unforgettable expressions made him a

household name and a national treasure Sadly Don Knots passed away in

2006 But during his final moments something incredibly emotional and

completely unexpected happened While lying on his deathbed his daughter Karen

Knots was right by his side holding his hands and comforting him through the

ordeal She never left him standing strong even as her father the man who

made millions laugh faced his final curtain call But then in a moment that

would change her forever Don Knots whispered a few final words to her What

he said Karen kept it to herself for years until now And what she finally

revealed well it might just shock you to your bones Keep watching to find out

what she said Don Knots awful childhood

Long before Don Knots became a fivetime Emmy-winning icon known for his wideeyed

stammering nervous energy and roles that made America laugh he was Jesse Donald

Knots a boy from a broken home in Morgantown West Virginia Don was the

unexpected baby in a struggling family His mother Elsie Lusetta Knots was

already 40 when he was born the youngest by far of four boys His father William

Jesse Knots was a hard-edged farmer Once self-sufficient but slowly unraveling

under the weight of schizophrenia and alcoholism Just a month before Dawn

arrived the family had to give up their farm Times were beyond tough The Knots

household was not warm His father’s mental illness often turned violent Don

later recalled terrifying moments when his father would threaten him with a knife To cope young Don withdrew into

his imagination building a private world that was safer funnier and far more

forgiving than the one he actually lived in His older brothers Willis William and

Ralph nicknamed Sid were practically grown when Don came

along They didn’t connect easily with their much younger sibling Like their father they drank heavily And while they

often lashed out at Dawn he still saw them as larger than life Especially Sid

Sid had a natural comic spark and could make the family laugh even in the darkest moments For Dawn Sid was more

than a brother He was a personal hero Then tragedy struck Sid died suddenly

from a severe asthma attack leaving a hole in the family and in Don’s heart It

was a loss he never forgot Desperate for comfort Don turned to something

unusual A dummy named Dany Dany wasn’t just a toy He was Don’s invented partner

His imaginary friend turned comedy prop With Dany Don began to perform little

acts finding joy and confidence in making others laugh even if it was just

pretend at first At Morgantown High School Don began to come out of his

shell He was well-liked funny and even elected class president But popularity

didn’t erase his self-doubt He felt scrawny poor and out of place never

quite shaking the feeling that he didn’t belong Still his love for performing

only grew By the time he graduated Don was convinced he wanted to make it in show business So he packed his dreams

his dummy and his courage and headed for Manhattan at just 18 New York City

however didn’t roll out the red carpet His first audition was a bust and the

big city wasn’t kind to a shy kid with no connections Crest fallen but not

defeated Don returned home and soon enlisted in the United States Army during World War II Ironically it was

there while serving his country that he found an unexpected audience He performed in army variety shows using

his humor to boost morale among fellow soldiers It was his first taste of real

performance and people loved it After the war Don didn’t abandon his dream

Instead he went back to school He enrolled at West Virginia University and

earned a degree in education with a minor in speech Graduating in 1948 he joined the Fi Sigma Kappa

fraternity sharpening his public speaking skills and continuing to feed the performer inside him From there the

world began to open up Early career Don Knots spent nearly 3 years in

the US Army from June 1943 to January 1946 not as a soldier in the trenches

but as a morale booster He served in the 6,817th Special Services Battalion a

unit built not for combat but for comedy His job make the troops laugh and he did

traveling across the Pacific performing in the Army’s touring variety show Stars

and Gripes He wasn’t just a clown in uniform He was decorated By the time he

left the army Don had earned the World War II Victory Medal the Philippine Liberation Medal the Asiatic Pacific

Campaign Medal with four bronze Service Stars the American Campaign Medal the

Good Conduct Medal a marksman badge for the M1 Carbine and the Honorable Service

Lapel Pin He may have joined the army to escape small town life and a rough childhood but he left with purpose poise

and a stage presence After being discharged as a technician grade 5 equal

to a corporal knots returned to familiar ground West Virginia University This

time it was different He wasn’t just a student He was a veteran with stories to

tell timing to refine and a stage presence molded by wartime crowds On

campus he embraced the spotlight performing regularly and rebuilding his

confidence But something else happened during this second run at college Something much more personal He fell in

love Knots met and married K Mets a relationship that would shape his

postcol life With a degree in education and a minor in speech under his belt and

a wife by his side Knots packed up his hopes once again and this time headed

back to New York City determined to make it This time he wasn’t an unknown

hopeful Thanks to the military connections he made during his service doors began to open He hit the comedy

club circuit telling jokes in smoky rooms He landed a role on the radio

western Bobby Benson and the BB Barby Riders as Wendy Wales a smart-mouthed

know-it-all character with fast quips and sharper timing Then came his television debut a regular role on the

soap opera Search for Tomorrow from 1953 to

1955 It wasn’t comedy but it got him on screen and into living rooms across

America But it was in 1956 that things really took off That year Knots landed a

spot on the Steve Allen show joining a comedy ensemble that would change everything He became known for playing a

twitchy bugeyed nervous man in Allen’s mock interviews It was pure gold

Audiences loved it The character wasn’t far from knots himself Anxious wiry

unsure But he turned those traits into pure magic Offscreen his chemistry with

fellow rising star Andy Griffith was already bubbling From 1955 to 1957 the

two performed side by side on Broadway in No Time for Sergeants Knots played

two hilarious roles a wideeyed preacher and a bumbling corporal named Manuel

Dexterity When the play was adapted into a film in 1958 Knots reprised his role

stealing scenes with his twitchy charm while Griffith took the lead That role

an Air Force test administrator slowly unraveling in front of a country bumpkin

hinted at what was to come It was the beginning of one of the greatest comedy

duos in American TV history Don Knots had finally arrived

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Don Knott’s first wife When Katherine Mets met Don Knots she wasn’t just

anyone She was the daughter of a minister Smart refined and raised to do

things by the book on paper She had nothing in common with Dawn A skinny

jittery wisecracking kid from a hard life But love doesn’t care about paper

Knots didn’t back off He leaned in with charm humor and relentless wit He hit

her with his best material and before long she was hooked Catherine broke off

her engagement and started seeing Dawn Two years later they tied the knot But

love was only part of the plan Knots still wanted something bigger something he dreamed about since childhood when

imaginary friends were his only audience He wanted to make it Not just scrape by

to really make it So in 1949 with a brand new wife and just $100 in his

pocket Knots took the plunge again They left West Virginia behind and headed to

New York City a place that had already chewed him up once This time wasn’t much

different He knocked on the same kinds of doors and again the casting directors

passed Too awkward too nervous too weird He didn’t have the looks or the presence

they wanted And even his comedy polished by war stages and college shows didn’t

seem to hit the mark in the city that never sleeps Still he kept grinding

Little by little small roles trickled in mostly radio gigs One of his first

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recurring roles was on a children’s western called Bobby Benson and the BB

Riders where he played Windy Wales a fast-talking side character with a sharp

tongue It wasn’t glamorous but it paid and more importantly it kept him going

Knots may not have been an overnight sensation but he was climbing patiently

persistently one joke at a time Seven years of work flew by before Don got his

first big role in a Broadway comedy No Time for Sergeants Even with his big

moment on Broadway his biggest takeaway from the show was the co-star he met

who’d eventually change his life forever Andy Griffith Things were looking up for

Dawn But every upside has its drawbacks His role on Broadway launched Knots into

several opportunities However he appeared far different than the

traditional leading man In fact he was consistently cast in goofy sidekick

roles that made the main stars of his projects appear even more heroic Most

actors hate the idea of being tied to one type of character and Dawn was

likely no different Still his biggest role of all would tie him even tighter

to playing the role of the silly sidekick The Andy Griffith Show In 1960

Knots saw his old friend Andy Griffith on the pilot of a new show and had an idea He called Griffith up telling him

rather jokingly that he’d need a deputy on the show and that it should be him

Griffith connected knots to the show’s production and the rest as they say is history The Andy Griffith Show served as

the stage for the most recognized and awarded role of his life as Sergeant Barney The show may have been a smashing

success but things in Knots’s personal life were anything but Knots’s chemistry

with Andy Griffith was as clear as day and you can judge for yourself on a TV

land rerun of The Andy Griffith Show However his wife didn’t fit in with the

show’s crowd nearly as well Reports say she didn’t get along with Andy’s wife

and sadly it seemed she didn’t really get along with her husband either As far

as TV viewers were concerned Knots flourished as Griffith’s co-star the

pair bringing laughter and warmth to American Homes Weekly Filming the show

was hard work and Knots took his comedy seriously If the outcome of his own

relationships is any evidence though he didn’t take care of his own home nearly

as well 10-hour long days on the set of a hit show eventually started to wear on

Don Knots’s family especially his wife Catherine The more famous and busy Knots

became the more the two grew apart They divorced 13 years and two kids into

their marriage It could have been that Knots was just too busy for his family

but it seemed like more sinister factors were at work Don Knots struggled with

()

anxiety Knots struggled to cope with his life as a comic long before he hit it

big in the 1960s In fact back when he did smaller live performances he’d be

unable to get out of bed for hours and sometimes even days before a performance

He often played a nervous man on stage as a joke As it turns out his own

personal fears weren’t nearly as amusing Knots had anxiety and his

pre-performance anxiety affected him so much that doctors put him on anxiety medication in the

1950s Like many Hollywood performers it was unsurprising that Knots eventually

found himself too dependent on the pills adding addiction to his troubles Perhaps

he could have managed life with anxiety but Knots had far worse issues Knots

often felt physically ill so much so that he’d exhibit symptoms in a state of

hypochondria In short he tricked himself into thinking he was sick when he was

actually perfectly well This no doubt interfered with his personal life and he

certainly tried his best to cope Eventually though things got so bad that

he felt he had no choice but to turn to professionals for help Professionals

were able to help but ultimately Knots had already tricked his mind too far

Sure his newfound fame gave him the life of wealth women and success he dreamed

of but his past continued to haunt him Knots fought to overcome the memories of

his challenging childhood and even cursed God in a therapy session as he

tried to find a way to cure himself Sick anxious and depressed KN also struggled

with insomnia and all his mental troubles eventually led him down a rabbit hole leaving the Andy Griffith

Show In his life Don Knots won a total of five Emmy awards for his role on the

Andy Griffith Show But neither the show’s success nor his close friendship

with Andy was enough to keep him there The show would continue for several more

seasons But Knots officially left in 1965 because he believed the series

would end after five seasons He had a 5-year contract and began exploring

other opportunities including a movie contract with Universal While he was

open to returning to the show he ultimately focused on his movie career

While he left as a regular cast member Knots did return to the Andy Griffith

Show for a handful of guest appearances over the next few seasons Audiences felt

like the actor’s departure diminished the quality of the Andy Griffith Show His daughter said that Knots left due to

the daily grind of working on television Filming a television is certainly hard

work but apparently that wasn’t the only thing filling up Knots’s schedule Knots

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the ladies man Although his first marriage ended in disaster Knots

certainly didn’t let that keep him off the market He regularly played second fiddle on screen but offscreen he dated

women profusely with other celebrities considering him every bit a ladies man

He may have been hitting it out of the park in the dating world but unfortunately it all got to his

head Now 1969 Knots landed a role as the lead in the runchy comedy film The Love

God He played a magazine owner who’d revive his business by publishing much

more racy material turning him into a popular bachelor Knots jumped at the chance to

play something opposite to the beloved Sergeant Barney but he didn’t play the Bachelor in the film nearly as well as

he did in real life Some critics loved the movie but it ultimately failed and

many theaters didn’t even show it Audiences just couldn’t accept knots as a Don Juan and he’d never try a role

quite like that again He didn’t seem ready to give up on a career as a leading man But if his next steps proved

anything maybe he should have Knots turned his attention to film and even

signed a huge deal with Universal He led several comedy films in the years to

follow including The Incredible Mr limpet and the reluctant astronaut None

of these films received anywhere near the acclaim of his work on TV and knots

could feel it He went back to the drawing board but without much luck In

1970 the Don Knots show aired for the very first time Knots had signed on to

host his own variety show and the expectations for its success were through the roof However with Knots

competing with several other popular variety shows at the time it was a disastrous flop The time came to accept

that his career wasn’t going to look quite the way it did in his wildest dreams 10 years of running around with

dozens of beautiful women likely tired knots out as he found himself in love

again this time with the gorgeous Lauri Chuchna Much of their relationship remained

private but what didn’t remain private was the fact that Knots’s life continued

to spiral He just couldn’t seem to keep everything together The

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diagnosis With his career stabilized and his love life in order Knots should have

been able to celebrate But he soon realized he was struggling to do common things like read drive and even

recognize faces His eyes were blurry When he finally got checked out by

medical professionals the truth was worse than he could have imagined Doctors diagnosed Knots with macular

degeneration The comedy star was losing his eyesight and quickly getting that

kind of news could throw anyone off And unfortunately Knots was no different He

might have been thinking about the way blindness might end his career but his eyesight wasn’t the worst thing The idea

of losing his eyesight put him into a downward spiral According to his wife at

the moment Laura Lee the diagnosis pushed him to live out some sort of bucket list Whatever it was that filled

the to-do list Knots was certainly depressed and he allowed his worry and frustration to affect those he loved

most It proved all too much for Laura Lee After almost 10 years of marriage he

and Laura Lee divorced in 1983 According to her his impending

blindness and his dramatic response to it put the final nail in the coffin

Luckily for Knots he could afford the best care and had eye surgery that

ultimately restored his vision Tragically more trouble lurked around the corner We all have our vices and one

of Knots was his smoking habit The habit was definitely trendy among other

celebrities during his time in Hollywood To his credit he did eventually ditch

the habit as he got older Perhaps as the risks started to become more wellknown

but the damage was already done and his attempt at reform came too late Doctors

diagnosed Knots with lung cancer in the early 2000s even though he put the bad

habit away more than 10 years before After all he’d beaten blindness and

therefore felt hopeful about his survival Perhaps that was the reason he handled it in an unusual way Even when

it became clear that he needed chemotherapy Knots kept the seriousness of his diagnosis away from his children

He had a reputation for making everyone laugh including his children and likely

wanted to keep things light Knots was also so sure that he’d beat his cancer

He clearly held out hope So much so that he still proceeded with a major life

change The woman who got it all Back in 1987 Knots worked on a sitcom called

()

What a Country He was already older and in his 60s and production hired a young

and beautiful actress Francancy Yarborough to assist knots with committing his lines to memory Although

the show itself didn’t turn out to be anything very special his meeting with Francis must have been considering what

he did when he saw her again Despite their gaping decadesl long age difference the two fell in love Francis

said she ultimately fell for his vulnerability and the two married in

2002 Unfortunately we’ll never truly know if this was the love Not was always

searching for as they’d run out of time together far too soon In 2006 Knots’s

condition took a tragic turn Chemotherapy wasn’t enough to combat his

cancer and he developed further complications induced by his cancer diagnosis His condition progressed

beyond being able to be helped by staying in the hospital and he returned home Dying or not though Knots kept up

his antics to the very end His final wife of only four years inherited

millions in property once he passed She left her time with him richer than ever

()

What did Don Knots’s daughter say if ever there was a man who lived for laughter it was Don Knots Right up until

the very end he remained true to what defined him Not fame not awards not even

Barney Fe What truly defined Don Knots was his unwavering ability to make

people laugh even when he had every reason not to In his final days

hospitalized and weakened Don Knots didn’t let go of the role he had played his whole life the one-man show with

impeccable timing According to his daughter Karen even as he neared the end

he found ways to crack jokes and keep the room in stitches When he was dying

she recalled “He was making us laugh in hysterics He was literally dying But he

did something or said something that caused my stepmother and me to go into fits of laughter.” But in the rawness of

that moment Karen did what she now regrets She ran out of the room not

because she was sad but because she was laughing so hard she couldn’t stand the thought of doing so in front of her

dying father I thought to myself I don’t want to be standing there in front of

this man my dearly beloved father who’s dying and laughing Years later she

shared the story in an interview with Closer Weekly And a director friend Howard Storm offered a different

perspective You should have stayed and laughed out loud That’s what comedians live for Karen agreed He was right she

said I should have just stood there and burst out laughing Because that’s exactly what Don would have wanted Don

Knots wasn’t just funny on screen He was funny to his core In an interview with

the METV legends Don reflected on where his humor came from I think it was

because I grew up around comedy with my brothers especially my brother’s shadow

I think it just became a part of my whole person I don’t think I ever did consciously think about it It just

became instinctive Instinctive That’s a word that comes up a lot when people talk about Don Knots His daughter Karen

described it best when she said being funny was just something so natural It

was a gene or well I don’t know what it was except that it was just an outofcrol

natural funniness He didn’t rehearse his warmth He didn’t study his humor It just

poured out of him like breath Making others laugh wasn’t something he tried to do It was something he had to do In

the end Don Knots gave his final performance the same way he gave all the ones before it with a smile a quip and

the goal of leaving his audience a little lighter And even though his daughter stepped out during his final

punchline the laughter he left behind will echo through generations Because Don Knots didn’t

just leave us memories He left us joy and unforgettable characters reuniting

()

once again Although time and distance had caused Don Knots and Andy Griffith

to drift apart over the years the bond they built during the Andy Griffith Show

never truly faded In Knots’s final days that bond quietly reemerged just as

meaningful just as unshakable Griffith made his way to Dawn’s bedside

at UCLA Medical Center refusing to let their friendship end without a goodbye

Though Knots couldn’t speak Griffith knew his old friend could still hear him I was with him until about 6:00 or 6:30

that night Griffith said in an interview with Larry King he couldn’t respond but

I did I was able to tell him I loved him and I asked him to breathe Breathe Keep

breathing Jess The nickname Jess wasn’t public knowledge Don had once confided

in Andy that his real name was Jesse a name he never liked But Griffith being

Griffith gently reclaimed it in that private sacred moment of farewell He let

me know at one time Andy said and I always called him Jess In response Knots

moved his shoulder slightly His way of saying I hear you I’m still here It was

small but unmistakable And Griffith ever the intuitive friend understood Later in the

interview King asked if they knew it was the end I’m afraid we did Griffith

admitted somberly We didn’t I didn’t know it up until about that time We were

there and they were very nice to us at UCLA Griffith shared that while waiting near

the emergency room he and others heard the doctor tell Don’s wife Francancy

that his heart had stopped in the ambulance but had been restarted “Yes we knew,” Griffith said

it was coming Don Knots passed away on February 24th 2006 at the age of 81 dot Many

entertainers consider Don Knots an inspiration regardless of what he himself thought about his achievements

He didn’t do everything he thought he would but he did far more than many in his same position A statue in his honor

stands in his hometown of Virginia and you can still enjoy him on television and film on many stations and streaming

services What do you think about Don Knots did his character on the Andy

Griffith Show ever make you laugh drop your thoughts in the comments If you

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