Andy Griffith & Wife Barbara On The Set Of No Time For Sergeants

Star and Wife
Andy Griffith poses happily with his wife Barbara who joined him in Hollywood when he was starring in Warner Bros. film version of the Air Force comedy “No Time For Sergeants,” which Griffith also did on the stage. The Griffiths make their home on an island farm off the North Carolina coast. photo: Warner Bros. April 17, 1958

Andy Griffith as Sir Walter Raleigh with wife Barbara Griffith in The Lost Colony. photo: New York Daily News 1954

No Time For Sergeants was a huge Broadway success, running 796 performances from 1955 -1957. Griffith would leave the show after over 300 performances to begin his motion picture career.

North Carolinian, Barbara Bray Edwards was the first of Andy Griffith’s three wives. The pair met when they were both students at The University of North Carolina. Andy and Barbara married August 26,1949.

After being graduated in 1949, Andy would teach high school music in Goldsboro, N.C..

During his third year teaching Andy realized “the job didn’t fit” and that he wanted to entertain. Performing frequently alongside his wife, Andy’s success on stage and as a recording artist was swift. Feature stories in Time and Newsweek magazines led to four appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1954 establishing his stardom.

The couple would later adopt two children, and Barbara willingly gave up her acting career. Andy and Barbara divorced in 1972 due to irreconcilable differences.

In 1975 Barbara married actor Michael St. Clair. The couple remained married until Barbara’s death on July 23, 1980 at the age of 53.

Though Andy Griffith became a movie star in the 1950s with his roles in A Face In The Crowd, (1957) and No Time For Sergeants (1958), it was television that propelled him to a new stratosphere of fame.

Griffith would play Sheriff Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show from 1960-1968. The show was set in the fictional town of Mayberry, N.C. and partly based upon Griffith’s hometown of Mount Airy, N.C..

Griffith’s other TV mega-hit, Matlock would run from 1986-1995.

Andy Griffith’s second marriage was to Solica Casuto in 1975, and they were divorced in 1981.

Griffith’s third and final marriage to Cindi Knight in 1983 lasted until his death from a heart attack on July 3, 2012 at the age of 86.

One bit of trivia – Andy Griffith and Marilyn Monroe were born the same day, June 1, 1926.