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13 familiar Mayberry faces (besides Don Knotts) that pop up in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
Look for all these Andy Griffith Show actors in the spooky comedy!
Don Knotts left the comforts of The Andy Griffith Show at his peak. It was a bold move. He had racked up three Emmy wins for his work on the sitcom. But he wanted to try his luck on the big screen.
Knotts wisely stuck to familiar territory and familiar characters in his movies. A year after his final episode as a regular in Mayberry, "Opie Flunks Arithmetic," the shaky-kneed comedian appeared in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, the first film in his multi-picture deal with Universal Studios. For fans of The Andy Griffith Show, the spooky comedy felt like home.
Luther Heggs, Knott's character, wears the same salt-and-pepper suit often seen on Barney Fife. The plot itself is essentially a remake of the Andy Griffith Show episode "The Haunted House." The small town of Rachel City, Kansas, looks and feels a lot like Mayberry. (Hollywood backlots have a way of doing that.)
And the quirky citizens of Rachel City seemed right out of Mayberry — because many of them were!
Here are just some of the familiar Andy Griffith Show actors you can spot in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.
1. Hal Smith
Even with a bushy mustache, it's easy to spot the man who played Mayberry town drunk Otis Campbell. Smith was not credited in his role as Calver Weems. Perhaps because he hardly needed the credit — he was playing a town drunk once again.
2. Hope Summers
The opening scene sees Luther dealing with an unnerved Susanna Blush, played by Hope Summers. Like Smith, she went uncredited, as a sort of surprise for Mayberry fans, who knew her best as Clara Edwards, frenemy of Aunt Bee.
3. Burt Mustin
Luther lives in a boarding house with senior citizens, one of whom, Mr. Deligondo, is played by familiar Mayberry fellow Burt Mustin. He popped in several Andy episodes as Jud Fletcher (sometimes "Judd" or "Jubal").
4. Reta Shaw
Shaw and Knotts had worked together before, notably in "The Song Festers." She was Barney Fife's vocal coach, Eleanora Poultice.
5. Cliff Norton
Goober Pyle worked at Wally's Filling Station. Do you remember Wally himself? He appeared in just one episode, "Goober's Replacement," played by Cliff Norton. Here, he plays the baliff in the courtroom.
6. Ellen Corby
Ellen Corby is best known to TV fans as Grandma Walton. Mayberry fanatics will remember her as Myrt "Hubcaps" Lesh, who sells Barney his first car. Look for her on the witness stand in the film.
7. Robert Cornthwaite
Luther's lawyer, Springer, had his moment in Mayberry. He was Mr. Somerset, the state investigator, in "Dogs, Dogs, Dogs."
8. Jesslyn Fax
She later played Mrs. Le Grande in "Andy's Investment," which aired a year after the movie hit theaters.
9. Lurene Tuttle
Way back in early season one, she was Annabelle Silby in "Opie's Charity." She later appeared in "The Shoplifters," too.
10. Maxine Semon
She played Tillie Kincaid twice in Mayberry, seen here. She's a little harder to spot in Mr. Chicken, as she is uncredited as "Occult Clubwoman." Look for her wearing a lavender dress and holding the banner.
11. Charles Lane
Lane portrayed the other lawyer in the courtroom scene, Whitlow. In "Aunt Bee the Crusader," he had played Mr. Frisby, an old farmer in a straw hat, making the characters a little harder to match!
12. James Millhollin
Look for him as Mr. Milo Maxwell in the flick. In Mayberry, he shows up in the color episodes as Arnold Finch, seen here.
13. Jim Begg
The bespectacled Deputy Herkie is another fellow found in Sheriff Andy's domain. He's in four episodes of The Andy Griffith Show! He was both, blandly, "Young Man" and "Man." He meatiest Mayberry role was as Charles Keyes in "Aunt Bee, the Juror."
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As an expert of The Andy Griffith Show, I would recognize all actors from the show. Please visit my Facebook group, ‘Town of Mayberry.’
On Andy Griffith "Clara" was a progressive hip woman really into music and helped someone out in that regard.
She was the only one able to cross a social boundry with Aunt Bea and give her personal opinion and advice.
She was in Rosemary's Baby too as a naked chanting Satanist.
I really don't go on about actor's but she was a great asset to anything she did.
Funny Man?? Cliff Norton Appeared in Who's the Funny
Man?? And he narrated old silent movie shorts about his
Uncle's and Mickey McGuire
Played by Mickey Rooney .
Who's the Funny Man with Cliff
Norton was very similar to the TV show called Fractured Flickers with host Hans Conreid .Does anyone remember
Fractured Flickers and
Who's the Funny Man?
For Charles Lane . I saw Charles
Lane play a doctor in the 1937
EDDIE CANTOR movie Ali Baba Goes
To Town and on Bewitched he played
A character similar to Ebenezer
Scrooge . On The Lucy Show he
Played Mr. Barnddahl the bank president before Mr Mooney (Gale
Gordon). On The Beverly Hillbillies
He played a role similar to Homer
Bedloe. Charles Lane did an excellent job of playing the lawyer in The Ghost And Mr Chicken.
Jim Begg appeared on GOMER PYLE USMC two times .
Ellen Corby(The Waltons) played a
Crook twice on GOMER PYLE USMC
In a black and white Episode of
GP USMC she and her daughter
(Kathie Brown)had GP(Jim Manors)
Take robbery notes to liquor stores.
In a color Episode of GP USMC
GOMER PYLE was on a.bus and
Ellen Corby and her son (Jim Begg)
Tried to steal Pyle's money .
In the Don Knotts movie The Love
God Roy Stuart (CPL Boyle on GOMER PYLE USMC) played Joe Merkel and
Maggie Peterson (Charlene Darling
On TAGS played Rose Ellen in The
Love God . Maggie Peterson also played Edna a waitress on Mayberry
RFD .
An IRS agent on GOMER PYLE USMC
When PYLE won a boat in a jingle
Contest . Jesselyn Fax was the
Landlord of an apartment building
When Sgt Carter Frank Sutton tried
To get GP to leave the marines.
Hope Summers also played Clarice
The instructor in Pyles rug hooking
Class when two guys put GOMERs
Photos in a magazine with beach
Girls .Hal Smith played Mr Colby
On Green Acres and a man who
Sold zPyle a rabbit on GP USMC.
Burt Muston Appeared in the GP
Episode where GOMER PYLE returns
To Mayberry on the bus.
Wally, owner of the Mayberry filling station, was played by two other actors before Cliff Norton played the role.
And in the second place, Griffith had said he intended to do only 5 seasons, so Knotts figured it was time to look elsewhere. Then Griffith changed his mind. Knotts said in his autobiography that at that point the 5-picture deal with Universal hadn’t been officially signed, but in his mind he had committed to taking the opportunity that had presented itself.
"Attaboy, Luther!"
Those immortal words were spoken - several times - by Everett Greenbaum, who co-wrote the movie with longtime partner Jim Fritzell, after following Don Knotts from TAGS, where they'd written many scripts over the years.
OK, it's a voiceover, but it counts (to me, anyway ...).