Matlock role ‘gives me everything’ — Griffith

Press, 17 May 1989, Page 15

Matlock role ‘gives me everything’ — Griffith

Andy Griffith regards criminal lawyer Benjamin L. Matlock as the best TV role he has had. “A lot of heavies I’ve played lately have been fun, but when you add humour to a cagey guy like Matlock, it gives me everything,” says Griffith. Critics and viewers alike have also warmed to the. courtroom drama and Griffith’s portrayal of the easy-going-but-shrewd Ben Matlock. In its first season in the United States “Matlock” (tonight at 7.30 on One) was the third most watched new show and a top 10 ratings winner for NBC-TV. For his portrayal of Matlock Andy Griffith won the 1986 People’s Choice Award for Best Male Performance in a New Television Programme. Before "Matlock,” Griffith was best known for his role as Sheriff Andy Taylor in the comedy series, “The Andy Griffith Show,” which

ran for eight seasons, and was rated Number One, according to the Nielsen Television Index, when it left the air. A native and resident of North Carolina who once contemplated a career in the ministry, Griffith taught high school music for three years after graduation from the University of North Carolina. He also played guitar, sang and danced for civic groups in the area. When his comedy monologue was

heard by a Capitol Records executive he was signed to a Capitol contract. In 1954 Griffith, appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” and his career was launched a couple of years later when he starred on television in “No Time for Sergeants,” and recreated the role on Boradway and in a movie. In recent years he played a psychotic juvenile-court judge in “Crime of Innocence”; an alcoholic in "Under the Influence”; a lawyer in the mini-series “Fatal Vision”; President Lyndon B. Johnson in the mini-series “Washington: Behind Closed Doors”; and more recently he took up his Sheriff Andy Taylor role in the television movie, “Return to Mayberry.” Other TV credits include the series, “The New Andy Griffith Show” and “Salvage.”