Tied Up in Knott’s: A Daughter’s Remembrance of her Father Don Knotts

Actress Karen Knotts, who was born in 1954, is the daughter of Don Knotts best known as Deputy Barney Fife on the Andy Griffith Show. It was one of my favorite shows as a kid as it was with many Baby Boomers.

She wrote a book called Tied Up in Knotts which is available on Amazon as an audiobook. She also regularly performs it live as a one-woman show. I saw it at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.

Karen aspired to become an actress, but her father discouraged it telling her it was a rough business. He thought she should work at a library which she did for a while, but she also appeared in several TV shows with him as well as in featured roles in other projects.

She grew up in his shadow, but he also was under the shadow of his hilarious character from Mayberry.

Don Knotts’ early life

Don Knotts was born in 1924 on a farm in West Virginia and grew up in extreme poverty. It was one of the hardest-hit states during the Great Depression. His father was schizophrenic and an alcoholic who terrorized Don as a child. He died when Don was 13. His mother, who was 40 when Don was born, ran a boarding house after her husband’s death to support Don and his brothers.

He started his career as a ventriloquist performing at churches, in people’s parlors, and in bars.

Don made his way to New York after high school to try to make it as a comedian without much luck. He moved back to West Virginia to attend college but joined the Army to fight WWII during his freshman year. His talent as a ventriloquist and comedian allowed him to spend most of his service entertaining the troops and made him valuable connections that he used after the war.

He returned to college after he was discharged, graduated, and married his first wife, Kay Metz, who was Karen’s mother. They moved back to New York where he landed gigs as a standup comic. His first break into television was when he was cast on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow (1953- 1955) and rose to fame as a repertory player on the Steve Allen Show (1956 – 1960).  He also appeared in the Broadway production of No Time For Sergeants starring Andy Griffith from 1955-1957 and was featured in the film version in 1958.

When he heard that his friend Andy Griffith was going to star in his own sitcom about a sheriff in North Carolina, he asked him if his character needed a deputy. Griffith loved the idea and Don Knotts’ role as Barney Fife made him a huge television star.  In my opinion, his hilarious portrayal of the hapless and explosive Barney was responsible for making the show the success it was.

Karen’s memories of her father

Karen grew up happy as a child in Glendale, California. She often visited the film set of the Andy Griffith Show and related several funny stories about the cast and crew in her one-woman show. She told us that Francis Bavier, who played Aunt Bee was a bit of a diva who smoked. When she first met her, she was flabbergasted to see her so out of character. Bavier apologized to Andy Griffith years later for being difficult.

Karen also made friends with Ron Howard, who played Opie on the show. He was the same age as her and went on to become an award-winning director/producer. Karen always wondered what she could have been if her father hadn’t discouraged her interest in acting as a child.

When Karen was 11 her parents got divorced. Her brother went to live with her mother, and she stayed with her father. They moved to Beverly Hills where she attended Beverly Hills High School, but she never felt she fit in as the daughter of the actor who played Barney Fife.

Karen and her father had a close and loving relationship even though Don Knotts married two other women and was known as a lady’s man. She graduated from USC Film School and directed a short film in which she starred along with him.

Her book and one-woman show also describe his life after Mayberry in which he starred in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, his role replacing Norman Fell on Three’s Company and so many others as well as his career’s ups and downs.

Despite his larger-than-life and wacky characters, Don Knotts was a sweet man who was shy and a hypochondriac.

In his later years, he developed severe macular degeneration in both eyes and died of lung cancer in 2006 at the age of 81. Karen related how he made her leave the room laughing on his deathbed.

Listen to “Tied Up in Knott’s” on audiobook, here.