Ron Howard & ‘Andy Griffith Show’ Co-star Are Distant Cousins
Ron Howard was a young boy surrounded by adults on the set of The Andy Griffith Show. Led by Andy Griffith, who played Sheriff Andy Taylor, Howard starred as his son Opie. Don Knotts was another beloved character on the show, playing the deputy and often comic relief Barney Fife. Oddly enough, Howard recently shared that he found out he has an ancestral link to Knotts … they’re distant cousins!
Howard shared a fun throwback photo from 1997 when Griffith and Knotts, who have both since passed away, visited him on the set of the film Ransom, a thriller he directed. Howard may have mixed up the years since Ransom came out in ’96, but it was a fun behind-the-scenes moment nonetheless.
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He captioned the photo, “A fun photo of the day in ‘97 when #AndyGriffith and #DonKnotts surprised me with a visit to the set of #Ransom in #Queens. It was recently confirmed that Don and I were actually distant cousins!”
The Hollywood Walk of Fame confirms in a bio about Knotts that Howard and Knotts were sixth cousins. Unsurprisingly, the trio got along quite well while working on the show and beyond. In a previous interview, Howard talked about how difficult it was when Knotts left The Andy Griffith Show in 1965.
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“I think, for Andy, the show was never the same after Don left,” he shared. “He didn’t have that partner. The absolute foundation of the show, and why it endures, is Andy-Barney. And yes, the feeling of what Mayberry was. But without the comedy that they generated, I don’t think the show ever would have endured.” Do you agree?
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