Wallace Ford

Bolton, Lancashire, England, UK

Biography

Wallace Ford (12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English-born naturalized American stage and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-faced demeanor with a small but powerful, stocky physique. Born Samuel Jones Grundy in Bolton, Lancashire, England, he spent his childhood in a Dr. Barnardo's home. At an early age he was adopted by a farmer from Manitoba, Canada, where he was ill treated. About age eleven, Ford ran away and did odd jobs, later becoming an usher in a theatre. Following his discharge from the Army after WWI, he became a vaudeville actor in a stock company before performing on Broadway. He started on a film career when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave him a part in the film Possessed (1931) and went on to appear in over 200 films, including 13 directed by John Ford. Wallace Ford is buried in an unmarked grave in Culver City, California's Holy Cross Cemetery. From Wikipedia.

Movies

The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised on CBS between October 3, 1960 and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays the widowed sheriff of the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina. His life is complicated by an inept, but well-meaning deputy, Barney Fife, a spinster aunt and housekeeper, Aunt Bee, and a precocious young son, Opie. Local ne'er-do-wells, bumbling pals, and temperamental girlfriends further complicate his life. Andy Griffith stated in a Today Show interview, with respect to the time period of the show: "Well, though we never said it, and though it was shot in the '60s, it had a feeling of the '30s. It was when we were doing it, of a time gone by." The series never placed lower than seventh in the Nielsen ratings and ended its final season at number one. It has been ranked by TV Guide as the 9th-best show in American television history. Though neither Griffith nor the show won awards during its eight-season run, series co-stars Knotts and Bavier accumulated a combined total of six Emmy Awards. The show, a semi-spin-off from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show titled "Danny Meets Andy Griffith", spawned its own spin-off series, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., a sequel series, Mayberry R.F.D., and a reunion telemovie, Return to Mayberry. The show's enduring popularity has generated a good deal of show-related merchandise. Reruns currently air on TV Land, and the complete series is available on DVD. All eight seasons are also now available by streaming video services such as Netflix.

More info
The Andy Griffith Show
1960