Though she only appeared in one season of The Andy Griffith Show, many fans of the series still treasure Elinor Donahue‘s performance as Ellie Walker, the pharmacist who won Sheriff Andy Taylor’s heart for a time. In a new interview with Woman’s World, Donahue, now 88, reveals why her tenure on the show was so brief — and weighs on on rumors of bad blood between herself and Griffith.
To Donahue, making the transition from child actor on Father Knows Best to adult love interest on Andy Griffith was difficult: “To be honest, I felt like a bird out of a nest,” the actress revealed. “I didn’t feel like I had all my feathers yet and I didn’t feel capable. It was the strangest feeling.”
Though rumors have long suggested that Griffith had Donahue fired due to their lack of chemistry, she confirmed that it was she who decided to leave the series: “I had a three-year contract for that show, but at the end of the first year, I asked to be let out of my contract, because I didn’t feel that I was playing the role properly. I just didn’t feel right about it. In retrospect, and from things that people have said to me—very lovely things—I was doing okay. I was just not a happy camper and there was no point in my trying
As for Griffith’s role in her exit, Donahue says that after she left, “I saw him at a party and I went up to him and he was very gracious to me. His manager, Dick Lank, was with him. He said, ‘We just didn’t know how to write for you.’ That could be part of it, but I didn’t think there was any real chemistry there and, fortunately, they would sporadically try other women. When Aneta Corsaut came in, I have since read they had a hot and heavy thing going. He was able to relate to her.”
Donohue’s memories of the series weren’t just about feeling like a mismatch; she also shared a sweet recollection of working with Griffith on the show’s Christmas episode. “I was very nervous about singing, I didn’t sing anymore and I avoided it like the plague,” recalled Donohue. “They wanted me to sing ‘Away in a Manger’ with Andy [on the Christmas episode]. I tried to get out of it. My mother said, ‘Oh for heaven’s sake, you sing that in church all the time, you can certainly sing that.’ But I was very nervous about it.
“So at the end of filming one day, we met at a recording studio and we got a key to get in. He could tell I was nervous and said, ‘Just sit down here on the floor and I’ll noodle around with the guitar and you come in when you feel comfortable and we’ll start. Just a rehearsal.’ We started and sang through the whole thing. He said, ‘Oh that was very nice, very good, okay, that’s it.’ I said, ‘What?’ So he faked me out, ’cause he knew how nervous I was. That was what they used. He was a very, very kind and nice man. Very sweet.”
After Andy Griffith, Donohue went on to appear on the original Star Trek, as well as a recurring role on The Odd Couple, where she played Miriam Welby, Felix’s girlfriend, in 17 episodes. She had a small but memorable role in 1990’s Pretty Woman, and kept working on TV through the 2010s, in roles as varied as the mother on Chris Elliott‘s cult sitcom Get a Life, Rebecca Quinn on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and a 1994 appearance on Friends. She most recently appeared in a 2011 episode of The Young and the Restless, but is currently retired.
