Though widely known for his role as the bumbling deputy police officer Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, the real Don Knotts was the complete opposite of that goofy image. According to his daughter, Karen Knotts — who recently published a moving memoir about her father, Tied Up in Knotts: My Dad and Me — Don Knotts was a man who was so attractive to women that she admitted, “Women always loved my dad.” In an interview with Page Six, Karen added that even as a teenager, she found her father to be strange and attractive. “My father had a very unique quality to him that was hard to describe. You would just be talking to him, but you would be drawn to his eyes, as if you were trying to read what he was hiding. He had a strange magnetism and women definitely sensed it,” she says.
Karen had a very close relationship with her father. When she was in high school, she lived with Don Knotts, then a single father after his first marriage to Kathryn Metz had broken down. It was this time that gave Karen the opportunity to witness her father’s rich but civilized love life. “No woman was ever angry with my father,” she says. “No one ever said he broke his word or hurt them. When a relationship ended, they stayed in touch and became friends. He always left a good impression.”
Karen spent much of her childhood growing up on the Mayberry set, not only observing her father but also interacting with big stars, especially Andy Griffith. Andy was a “complex” character, she said, not quite the friendly image he portrayed on screen. “He fascinated me,” Karen recalled. “Andy had mood swings. You could tell by the look on his face when he was not to be around. But he was always gentle with me, like a second father. He was someone you could talk to.”
After leaving The Andy Griffith Show in 1965, Don Knotts continued to make a name for himself on the big screen in popular comedies such as The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Shakiest Gun in the West, and The Apple Dumpling Gang. He then made a name for himself once again as Ralph Furley — the philandering but lovable landlord on the hit sitcom Three’s Company. With his flamboyant costumes and exaggerated acting style, the Furley character quickly became an icon in the LGBTQ+ community, especially among gay audiences. However, this was difficult for some loyal fans of the Andy Griffith Show to accept, believing that the image was too far removed from the traditional values they once loved.
However, Karen insists that her father appreciated all of his fans, regardless of who they were. “He loved his gay audience,” she says. “But what saddens me the most is that people only see him as the character he was on screen. They think he was Barney Fife or Ralph Furley. When the truth is that my father was much more interesting. He was a much more multi-dimensional, sensitive, and intelligent person than the comedic roles he played.”
Don Knotts died in 2006 at the age of 81, but in the memories of his daughter and millions of viewers, he was more than just a comedian. He was a richly spiritual artist, a man beloved for his kindness and his unique sense of humor – not just on screen, but in real life as well.
