Unless it came out of her mouth, I don't believe she did not get along with Andy. The comments she made about Andy seemed pretty affectionate. This must be a very old tape cuz she's been dead for many years, but first time I ever say her interviewed, interesting. Thanks.
To find out that she and Andy didn't get along...that has to very a shocking revelation. But, she will always be Aunt Bee. Always. Its also terrible that she never had any children.
It kinda hurt my feeling in a way to find out that she didnt like Andy Griffith ! Kinda burst that "sweet bubble" we all lived in while we watched the show...
She will be Aunt Bee to all of us who watched the show many years ago. Back then, no one knew what was really going on. I'm just glad she made up with Andy before she passed away.
Good interview. She seems very nice. Interesting to hear which episode was her favorite. I like that one quite a bit as well. LOVED the Aunt Bee character!
She wanted to do porn? Just think, if the producers had been more open minded, "Deep Throat" might have starred Francis & we would never have heard of Linda Lovelace! Francis & John Holmes would have really burned up the screen!
Loved her on the show but she was a wack job. She moved to North Carolina after Mayberry was over? She's not from there? She didn't like being recognised as Aunt Bea but she picks up and moves to North Carolina and lives like Aunt Bea. Raised in NYC and a grad of Ivy League Columbia in NYC. Some say she was angry at Andy Griffith for leaving the show and also for the cast not all settling down in North Carolina. She refused to do the Reunion show while every other living charactor did.
@OsbornTramain I thought the same thing-why in the world did she move to NC if she didn't really want to be associated with that role? Weird-she probably wanted some attention better than none!
@andrethered1 yeah, I know, but as I understand it from and Interview with Ron Howard, he begged her (in person) to be part of it, not as an actress in scenes but providing voice overs. The introduction primarily. He had even offered to fly a crew into North Carolina to tape the intro in her home. But she refuse. If you watch the reunion show, they do have a Aunt Bea narration at the bigging of the movie but it's some other actresses voice.
@OsbornTramain I think she simply looked too old to do the reunion movie (like Sean Connery today retiring from movies) and they didn't want to frighten younger viewers so they made her character be already dead. She was the last original cast member to leave the series, ratings fell after her departure, and she was steeped in and brainwashed by that whole NC ethos by that time and decided to move there.
@OsbornTramain She could buy a mansion in North Carolina for the price of a closet in Manhattan (I'll take the closet!--I'm from Virginia so I know that region) and NCers worship the series like no place else so she'd automatically be held in an exalted regard that could never exist in Los Angeles. Moving there was a way of holding on to some of her career heyday and a reverberation of that fictional NC she'd inhabited on the Desilu lot. That's my speculation, anyway.
Well.if she didnt want to be associated with Aunt Bee...when then does she dress and have the same hairdo as Aunt Bee did.????? She should be GRATEFUL to the show that she is even remembered at all...Quick..name one movie she did? i rest my case!
@MPL029 Francis Bavier did a movie before The Andy Griffith Show, but I cannot remember the name of it. It was a small part, seems it might have been in something like 'the grapes of wrath' or something like that. It is sad but true that if she had not taken this part as Aunt Bea she probably would never have been heard of. I agree she should have been more gracious and grateful. Most middle aged actresses would have loved to have been offered the part.
@loki1397 She did do alot of movies but had very small minor roles in them, None come to mind./ Tina Louise was the same way about playing Ginger on Gilligans Island. Said it ruined her career...WHAT CAREER??? She had some parts in some movies in the 1950s..thats it. I dont get it. as an actor myself I would be glad to be forever associated with a part....and thats something most of us never get!
@MPL029 I have a theory: Francis Bavier and Andy Griffith were both unhappy at the time because Don Knotts was stepping out of the tv show from time to time in order to star in other movies. He was actually becoming a movie star doing movies like "The Shakiest Gun in the West, and "The Ghost and Mr.Chicken" etc. I think the other more "seasoned" actors may have felt their parts were holding them back from having the same movie success as Don Knotts was enjoying at the time.
@loki1397 That really would be something however the timing is all off. The show started in @1961/2..those movies tyou mentioned werent until the mid to late 60's. I think the animosity, from what Ive heard, was from day one. Besides..Knotts left the show to make those movies....
@MPL029 Tina Louise, despite doing mostly TV until then (her main movie was "God's Little Acre," was attracting a lot of attention by dint of her incredible beauty, and was on magazine covers everywhere. Everyone assumed that a major movie career was around the corner for her until she was tricked into "Gilligan's Island" by being promised that she would be the series lead and she came out so typecast (and labeled uncooperative because of her anger) that her career never got back on track.
Francis was in many movies & TV shows before becoming a regular on "The Andy Griffith Show". She was a longtime show biz veteran, including stage & radio.
@MPL029 She always wore her hair that way for the usual reason: she thought that's how it looked best on her. She appeared in many TV shows and several movies before Andy Griffith, including a 1954 sitcom called "It's a Great Life" about 2 soldiers staying in her boarding house where she "doted" on them; a strikingly similar role to Aunt Bea. She was in "The Stooge" w/ Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis and played a housekeeper on Eve Arden's sitcom in 1957. And of course "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
Love this video. although, I wonder if this is all of it. I could have asked a ton more questions then this, not unless the interview had a time limit. Either way, it's GREAT! Thank you!
I love Frances and despite the fact that she was difficult to work with and didn't get along with or even like her castmates. I still adore her. But I always find it rather funny that she and others like her who come from dramatic backgrounds agree to take roles in these lightweight tv comedies. Then complain that their dramatic abilities are being ignored. I can't honestly believe they took on these roles thinking they were going to be performing any really serious dramatic acting.
He filmed a really funny commercial for Obama back during the campaign with Ron Howard in which they played their old parts, then Howard became Richie Cunningham and visited Henry Winkler as Fonzie. I'm sure it's on youtube somewhere. Besides, I don't think the Obama health care program is at all liberal, it's backloaded to the nines with goodies for the insurance companies. Americans are doomed to forever lay awake at night wondering what will happen if they get sick or injured, like always.
@majorl311 He had weird taste in movies ("Angel in My Pocket," anyone?), had debuted with the best acting I've ever seen in any sound movie (the brilliant "A Face in the Crowd"), but when "Onionhead" flopped he oddly assumed that he was finished in features and went into TV! He was famously religious but I can't recall him ever embracing either side until the devastation of the last Bush administration. Apparently, however, he more or less wasted his time in retrospect, unfortunately.
@jamieA1A I guess she was steeped in how nice the region was after being on the show so long, although of course "The Andy Griffith Show" was set in a weird alternate reality mixed between the 1930s and 1960s that would do something like Terry Gilliam's movie "Brazil" proud. Candlestick phones everywhere, lots of 1930s vintage cars parked on the streets, etc. And the buildings were actually all tall, they just positioned the cameras low. You can see "Floyd's Barbershop" in a Star Trek ep.
You can see many Mayberry buildings in many other shows that were filmed there on the Desilu lot (such as the "Star Trek" that you mentioned). Later, Lucille Ball sold Desilu (the former home of RKO studios) to Paramount Studios, which was right next door. They simply tore down walls & made one big studio out of it. Lucille had bought her ex-husband Desi out after their divorce so she was the controlling stockholder in Desilu.
@JubalCalif There's a Mayberry site online that reveals something that knocks me out every time I think about it. Gomer Pyle's Marine base was only separated from his Mayberry gas station by a thin strand of trees. They could've followed him with a camera walking around those trees for ten seconds and shocked home viewers as he abruptly arrived in Mayberry and began pumping gas again.
@JubalCalif When I was a kid watching a bunch of sitcoms like "Leave It to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best," I pictured them all in the same neighborhood. When I finally took the Universal tour in Los Angeles as an adult, I was amazed to see that they all WERE in the same neighborhood, more or less exactly as I'd envisioned as a child.
I've gone on the Universal tour twice (once in the 70's as a teen & then later in the 80's). I too was quite surprised to see so many familiar looking houses on their backlot "residential" street (from "Marcus Welby", "The Alfred Hitchock Hour", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", the 60's version of "Dragnet", those shows you mentioned & SO many other programs that were filmed on the Universal lot). Oh, and the house from "Psycho" too! :-)
@JubalCalif When I first saw the "Floyd's Barber Shop" sign in that Star Trek episode as a child, I couldn't figure out what I was looking at because it was plainly a one-level building in the series. I had no idea that they fooled us throughout "Mayberry" by keeping the cameras low, or even that it was technically possible to convince audiences of such a thing. I vividly remember scratching my head at the "mystery."
@JubalCalif Along with Gomer's ten-second stroll from the Marine barracks to his Mayberry gas station in my previous post, they could've pointed the camera up and shocked audiences with the unexpected height of the Mayberry buildings as well.
@JubalCalif It's also funny that they didn't have candlestick phones everywhere and '30s vintage cars in Gomer's Marine base the way they did in Mayberry. I once heard writer Wm. Gibson mention that the South in the 1960s looked like the 1930s. It's true, I grew up in Dark Backward, Virginia, and our downtown was right out of the '30s. I think Griffith was emphasizing that with the shorthand of those anachronistic props and it worked splendidly and seemed perfectly sensible to viewers.
@jamieA1A "The Andy Griffith Show" was practically a forerunner of steampunk! It's one of those wonderful aspects of the series that make people love it so. Griffith actually did one piece of work even better, delivering the best performance by an actor in the sound film era in "A Face in the Crowd."
@jamieA1A And she also realized how much North Carolinians worship "The Andy Griffith Show" and that she'd maintain a modicum of celebrity in retirement impossible in Los Angeles.
@amy1227 I believe she died in 1988 but I do know she's been dead quite a while. There's a recent video on youtube of a woman who resembles her being interviewed with a title claiming she's "Aunt Bee" but the responses have been disabled. She's someone else. I loved how intelligently she came across in this video. You know, eventually, w/ computers getting stronger, video dossiers with eventually exist with every moment of film ever shot of anyone, especially w/ face recognition technology.
@amy1227 Unfortunately, they will be able to manipulate everything, obviously. We saw the crude beginnings of it with words put into the mouths of John Lennon and Lyndon Johnson in "Forrest Gump." That'll eventually be perfected. I guess a good resource for what's been happening for the past decade or so would be Orwell's "1984."
Unless this crafty old broad faked her death, she is indeed dead. According to imdb.com she died in 1989 at the age of '87. She had never married or had kids. She died with a houseful of cats who reportedly use the shower as a litterbox. The smell was said to be horrific. A talented actress but complex human being...aren't we all to one extent or another?
She felt TYPECAST....yet she dresses EXACTLY like "Aunt Bee". Same type dress, large Pearls, same hair style, pin on the dress. You would think she would NOT dress that way to distance herself from the ROLE.
@Nashcountryboy That is a very astute observation on your part. I don't thnk, for a minute, Frances Bavier didn't relish the fame having played "Aunt Bee" brought her.
The very fact she retired to a small North Carolina town showed how much Miss Bavier identified with her most famous acting role, a role which, by the way, she should have been deservedly proud to have played.
@Nashcountryboy That said, it is a shame Miss Bavier didn't try to obtain other roles in films, on stage, and in other television series' after leaving "Mayberry," as her acting ability certainly could have garnered her more work.
Even sadder is Miss Bavier, apparently, had no family left in her later years, never having married, nor had any children. Bavier became almost a textbook case of the solitary spinster, died alone with a clutter of cats and the stench of their urine in her home.
That happens on the set sometime. On "I Love Lucy", Vivian Vance did not get along well with William Frawley at all. You'd never know that from watching them play the old married couple Fred & Ethel Mertz on the show
@all66books Actually, I thought Vance and Frawley's mutual hatred was very evident and made their relationship seem very realistic. I noticed that as a child and enjoyed it back then. It was starkly different from anything else on the air at that time.
@all66books They're both superb actors, especially the great Frawley (check him out with George Raft and Carole Lombard in "Bolero" (1934). But the look of sheer hatred on their faces, barely visible in scenes where they had to appear affectionate, was something to behold. Arnaz offered them a "Fred and Ethel" series when "I Love Lucy" folded but Vance hated Frawley so much she refused to act that many scenes with him. I once asked Lucie Arnaz about it and she agreed about their mutual hatred.
@all66books It's legendary. Vance would count her scenes with Frawley each week when she got the script and practically weep when there were very many of them. Vance was actually younger than Lucy, I think, and resented being "married" to someone almost old enough to be her grandfather. They were great together, though, despite the pain. Frawley later went on to "My 3 Sons" with Fred MacMurray but was replaced by Wm. Demarest when he became uninsurable. He'd visit the set until barred.
@all66books Unlike Vance, Frawley had a big film career as a supporting actor until alcohol derailed it. He's in some 1940s movies with John Wayne and you can imagine what a superb team those two were.
@Onlymusical Thanks for filling in the gaps for me, musical. I do recall seeing Frawley in the movies you mentioned; I know he was described as a somewhat coarse, almost rascally kinda guy. I didn't know about his drinking issues. I always figured he was replaced on My Three Sons due to his age. Could you elaborate on what made WF "uninsurable"? Was it the drinking or something else?
@all66books Just saw Frawley playing the second lead in "Bolero," the great dance film with George Raft and Carol Lombard. He played Raft's brother (with a full head of hair, real or not) and had exactly the same incredible voice despite being 20 yrs younger. It was health after-effects from all the drinking that made him uninsurable. He always said Wm. Demarest stole his part. I think Frawley, Arnaz, and cinemaphotographer Karl Freund were even more important to that show than Lucy herself.
@Onlymusical I forgot to mention that "Bolero" was made all the way back in 1934. I mentioned his importance to "I Love Lucy." Her later shows, without Arnaz, Frawley, or Freund, are practically unwatchable today while "I Love Lucy" can be seen an unlimited # of times and always entertain. There's color film online someone shot of the show being filmed that's fascinating. And Freund made the series beautiful, almost shimmering with a lustre that stops channel changers in their tracks today.
@Onlymusical Also, someone recently made a cartoon using Lucy's radio sitcom (I think it was called "My Favorite Husband," with Evelyn Ankers' favorite husband) as the soundtrack. Eventually we'll see a virtual Lucy for all the radio shows, I guess.
Its just plain silly that fans expect these people to be just like the caracters they portray ,they are actors and lead completely different lives than what we see them as on television ,for example Carroll O'connor was the flip side of Archie Bunker and Jean Stapelton is nothing like Edith.
@Mr1963chevy dont judge her. some people do not feel the need to get married or have kids for their lives to be complete. society's laws are not for everyone ya know.
I too recall hearing Andy Griffith say that in a 90's TV interview. You'd never know there was any friction by watching the show...that's because they were all real pros who put aside their personal differences when it came time to play their parts. The sign of a trouper who's dedicated to their craft!
@Onlymusical boy you said a mouthful here! my mom used to say the exact same thing to me when i was young and i never understood why she would say something like that, but now that i am older, i clearly understand. and here is another she used to tell me. You have no obligation to anyone but yourself in life. again it took me 40 yrs to figrue that one out, but i have.
@Manongjojo i would not be surprised to learn that many many elderly people have the same way as they die. the kids dont give a shit anymore, and no one repsects elders. too bad. for me, i would rather do myself in early on, let leave them all wondering.
@amy1227 The problem with doing yourself in early is that people briefly feel bad then gradually forget you, and you become nothing more than fodder for jokes simply because you're dead. And killing yourself gives too many people too much satisfaction. Worst of all, if you do it early, you miss decades of life that you can enjoy. But if you're talking about while you're elderly, you'll hopefully have accumulated some interests that offer things to enjoy, but I don't know, I'm not quite there.
@Onlymusical welll....she might have felt badly been in physicial pain, had no one else around, many people have that same situation you can not decide when you get born but if you are smart enough, you can decide when to die with dignity. there is this old myth, golden years, well my friend there is NOTHING golden about becoming elder who is sickly and going without people who care. i would nt want to be the last to go in my family. all alone sucks like that
@amy1227 There are all kinds of variables and excruciating pain is no way to live; the only problem is, sometimes it heals despite what doctors think so suicide is seldom a good solution although obviously there are situations where it's preferable to riding it out until matters improve but that's probably rare. The likelihood of having anyone left who cares about you becomes increasingly remote the longer you live. I've had no family for more than 15 yrs but I have had some great friends.
@amy1227 Eventually, though, nine times out of ten, you have only yourself and you do indeed die alone provided you live long enough. This is just one of the facts of life and the earlier one makes peace with it, the better, Most families are so utterly dysfunctional that no one wants to have anything to do with anyone else (we can't choose our families) so I haven't given any thought to family as a concept for many, many years.
@Onlymusical sadly you are right about all you wrote. we all die alone in the end anyhow, oh sure you can have someone at your side as you die but this is an individual experience. but you are born alone and you die alone. and frankly some of the people who i have known in my family, well lets say i would rather be alone when i get ready to meet my maker. but at age 56, i am not so sure i want to live to be 86 and infirmed i would just rather leave when i can pick. no drooling here
@amy1227 That's so tricky because physical setbacks can occur then heal, or not. And the mind is often impaired as well, of course. I think it's our fate to hang on as long as we can and hope we don't wind up tortured with neurotoxins (aides giving us the wrong medicine through carelessness) in some unspeakable nursing home. Best route is to stay positive about yourself, respect yourself and your efforts, and try to stay as healthy as you can by exerting some discipline there (easier said...).
@amy1227 Even if I remarry, divorce is always the likelihood eventually or I may not die first (probably won't, given my genes) so I've long since gotten comfortable with the inevitable. The Irish put great stock by not "dying alone" but the truth is, this side of suicide pacts, everybody dies alone, they just don't realize it. I'm part Irish and believe me, they don't get it.
@amy1227 The lucky thing with Bavier is that she at least presumably had plenty of money (although hardly any residuals from most of her working life, thanks to former SAG president Reagan). It's generally exponentially worse when you starve in the streets, which I predict will be the fate of most baby boomers, and I'm a baby boomer myself.
@amy1227 And also don't forget that you won't necessarily be sickly as you age. Some people are more or less healthy throughout and then just die in their sleep or standing up in their boots (to quote something I read recently) without having to deal with some terrible illness eating them alive. You have better odds of dying relatively healthy than of dying with another human being around who even knows you're alive. Forget about family. It's a myth. We'll probably die alone in any case.
@amy1227 No, there would only be laughter from that quarter. Even my worst enemies aren't quite stupid enough to believe in ghosts or life after death.
I wonder why there were no later pictures of her from 1974 up until her death? I guess the answer to that may be due to her reclusive lifestyle once she retired.
I second that emotion! From what I've read she did indeed become QUITE reclusive during her long retirment in North Carolina..often refusing to even answer the door.
Who cares if she was rude or didn't like some of her coworkers. Do you like everyone you work with? She was an integral part of the show and it wouldn't have been the same without her. Creative people can be difficult sometimes. As the main female actress on the show what did they expect her to do? The coffee and doughnut routine? Still the same old same old. The male strives for excellence and in doing the same thing the woman is a mean bitch. Long live Aunt Bee.
@zamusicza She was actually the last member of the original cast to leave the show and, intriguingly enough, her departure immediately led to a sharp downturn in the ratings, perhaps because everyone realized that the old "Andy Griffith Show" now no longer existed and had been entirely replaced by a wholly new entity.
To say Francis Bavier didn't like Andy Griffith is more than a bit dramatic and exaggerated. I think after hearing all other castmates perception of Francis, she was a serious woman in real life/very proper who did her lines and then preferred her privacy on set, however, was always professional.I don't think Andy would speak so highly of her if there was such dislike on her part.
@Jennafu832 Strange that they would mention Francis's alleged "dislike" for Andy Griffith without any mention of it in the interview. Was that just journalistic hyperbole??
@MrRedneckcracker Francis Bavier's history of an actress began long before TAGS. Fifty years as an actress, 10 years on TAGS. Hard for me to imagine "Aunt Bea" would be so difficult to get along with; even harder to believe that Sheldon Leonard would put up with it, but that's how it goes sometimes.
She was born in late 1902, so this was filmed in 1972 or 1973 (says she is 70 in this interview). My great-great grandmother was born in 1899 and great grandpa in 1900 - they died in 1989 and 1987.
Just like Jay Edgar Hoover. He wore her house dresses to pay homage to Mayberry and to the Conservative Party of Islams/Amishes. As God is my Witness, an Amish movie.
She and my Aunt Evelyn - so much alike, as persons and as family. It has always been confusing how over the decade the show was on there was not one word or show that mentioned "Andy's" wife. How is it she was not there - and the missed opportunities to bring that compassion and wisdom to all of us kids who grew up "living" Mayberry and whistling the opening song.
This, folks, is a treasure. I've NEVER seen her do an interview period - let alone in her later years. Thanks for sharing, and I'm sure I speak for all us fans of TAGS.
Bavier was really a terrific actress. She could say more using only facial expressions than some actors/actresses could convey with a thousand words. Just marvelous.
@Velvet4U , she's not contradicting herself at ALL. At 1:07 she's saying Siler City is a lot like Mayberry. At 3:20, she's saying the lifestyle in Siler City is very different from what she was used to, personally, which was New York and Hollywood. Maybe it didn't occur to you that she never actually lived in Mayberry because Mayberry was a fictional place that existed only on a lot in Burbank, California.
Hair Pie? I don't think hers ever took home the blue ribbon at the Mayberry County Fair. But I do know she wowed the judges with her Bearded Clam! And her Fur Burgers were to DIE for! Now there's some down home vittles!
When I was senior in high school,we drove by her house...never could figure why a lady of her stature could live in Siler City...the smell was terrible,I believe Purina dog food was made there...thanks for the memories !
Unless it came out of her mouth, I don't believe she did not get along with Andy. The comments she made about Andy seemed pretty affectionate. This must be a very old tape cuz she's been dead for many years, but first time I ever say her interviewed, interesting. Thanks.
irvinemuscle 4 days ago
To find out that she and Andy didn't get along...that has to very a shocking revelation. But, she will always be Aunt Bee. Always. Its also terrible that she never had any children.
EssenceOfTruth 1 week ago
It kinda hurt my feeling in a way to find out that she didnt like Andy Griffith ! Kinda burst that "sweet bubble" we all lived in while we watched the show...
MrRoxxstar 2 weeks ago
Television's premier annoying old biddy.
Styxhexenhammer666 2 weeks ago
She is still Aunt Bee
ladycharsw 3 weeks ago
She will be Aunt Bee to all of us who watched the show many years ago. Back then, no one knew what was really going on. I'm just glad she made up with Andy before she passed away.
TampaParrot 3 weeks ago
I don't care what they say or, even what this woman said, she will always be "Aunt Bea"♥ to me.
cadrolls 3 weeks ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Good interview. She seems very nice. Interesting to hear which episode was her favorite. I like that one quite a bit as well. LOVED the Aunt Bee character!
rem2267 3 weeks ago
Comment removed
rem2267 3 weeks ago
francis actually wanted to get away from the show and do porn but the producers would not let her. According to Don Knotts.
RJiminez51 1 month ago
@RJiminez51
She wanted to do porn? Just think, if the producers had been more open minded, "Deep Throat" might have starred Francis & we would never have heard of Linda Lovelace! Francis & John Holmes would have really burned up the screen!
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
One of the movies she was in "The Day The Earth Stood Still" is a sci-fi classic.
TheHondo52 1 month ago
Loved her on the show but she was a wack job. She moved to North Carolina after Mayberry was over? She's not from there? She didn't like being recognised as Aunt Bea but she picks up and moves to North Carolina and lives like Aunt Bea. Raised in NYC and a grad of Ivy League Columbia in NYC. Some say she was angry at Andy Griffith for leaving the show and also for the cast not all settling down in North Carolina. She refused to do the Reunion show while every other living charactor did.
OsbornTramain 1 month ago
@OsbornTramain I thought the same thing-why in the world did she move to NC if she didn't really want to be associated with that role? Weird-she probably wanted some attention better than none!
chattingwithu 1 month ago
@OsbornTramain Check out her history in Wikipedia, it says she was too ill to take part in the reunion.
andrethered1 1 month ago
@andrethered1 yeah, I know, but as I understand it from and Interview with Ron Howard, he begged her (in person) to be part of it, not as an actress in scenes but providing voice overs. The introduction primarily. He had even offered to fly a crew into North Carolina to tape the intro in her home. But she refuse. If you watch the reunion show, they do have a Aunt Bea narration at the bigging of the movie but it's some other actresses voice.
OsbornTramain 1 month ago
@OsbornTramain I think she simply looked too old to do the reunion movie (like Sean Connery today retiring from movies) and they didn't want to frighten younger viewers so they made her character be already dead. She was the last original cast member to leave the series, ratings fell after her departure, and she was steeped in and brainwashed by that whole NC ethos by that time and decided to move there.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@OsbornTramain She could buy a mansion in North Carolina for the price of a closet in Manhattan (I'll take the closet!--I'm from Virginia so I know that region) and NCers worship the series like no place else so she'd automatically be held in an exalted regard that could never exist in Los Angeles. Moving there was a way of holding on to some of her career heyday and a reverberation of that fictional NC she'd inhabited on the Desilu lot. That's my speculation, anyway.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
Well.if she didnt want to be associated with Aunt Bee...when then does she dress and have the same hairdo as Aunt Bee did.????? She should be GRATEFUL to the show that she is even remembered at all...Quick..name one movie she did? i rest my case!
MPL029 1 month ago
@MPL029 Francis Bavier did a movie before The Andy Griffith Show, but I cannot remember the name of it. It was a small part, seems it might have been in something like 'the grapes of wrath' or something like that. It is sad but true that if she had not taken this part as Aunt Bea she probably would never have been heard of. I agree she should have been more gracious and grateful. Most middle aged actresses would have loved to have been offered the part.
loki1397 1 month ago
@loki1397 She did do alot of movies but had very small minor roles in them, None come to mind./ Tina Louise was the same way about playing Ginger on Gilligans Island. Said it ruined her career...WHAT CAREER??? She had some parts in some movies in the 1950s..thats it. I dont get it. as an actor myself I would be glad to be forever associated with a part....and thats something most of us never get!
MPL029 1 month ago
@MPL029 I have a theory: Francis Bavier and Andy Griffith were both unhappy at the time because Don Knotts was stepping out of the tv show from time to time in order to star in other movies. He was actually becoming a movie star doing movies like "The Shakiest Gun in the West, and "The Ghost and Mr.Chicken" etc. I think the other more "seasoned" actors may have felt their parts were holding them back from having the same movie success as Don Knotts was enjoying at the time.
loki1397 1 month ago
@loki1397 That really would be something however the timing is all off. The show started in @1961/2..those movies tyou mentioned werent until the mid to late 60's. I think the animosity, from what Ive heard, was from day one. Besides..Knotts left the show to make those movies....
MPL029 1 month ago
@MPL029 Tina Louise, despite doing mostly TV until then (her main movie was "God's Little Acre," was attracting a lot of attention by dint of her incredible beauty, and was on magazine covers everywhere. Everyone assumed that a major movie career was around the corner for her until she was tricked into "Gilligan's Island" by being promised that she would be the series lead and she came out so typecast (and labeled uncooperative because of her anger) that her career never got back on track.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@loki1397
Francis was in many movies & TV shows before becoming a regular on "The Andy Griffith Show". She was a longtime show biz veteran, including stage & radio.
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
@MPL029 She always wore her hair that way for the usual reason: she thought that's how it looked best on her. She appeared in many TV shows and several movies before Andy Griffith, including a 1954 sitcom called "It's a Great Life" about 2 soldiers staying in her boarding house where she "doted" on them; a strikingly similar role to Aunt Bea. She was in "The Stooge" w/ Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis and played a housekeeper on Eve Arden's sitcom in 1957. And of course "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
Love this video. although, I wonder if this is all of it. I could have asked a ton more questions then this, not unless the interview had a time limit. Either way, it's GREAT! Thank you!
FireGearRecycling 1 month ago
I love Frances and despite the fact that she was difficult to work with and didn't get along with or even like her castmates. I still adore her. But I always find it rather funny that she and others like her who come from dramatic backgrounds agree to take roles in these lightweight tv comedies. Then complain that their dramatic abilities are being ignored. I can't honestly believe they took on these roles thinking they were going to be performing any really serious dramatic acting.
PatrickLHawkins 1 month ago
I've been to Siler City.
TheOrderoftheOwl 1 month ago
Great actress with natural beauty.
boomerlady 1 month ago
I had heard that Francis Bavier and Andy Griffith didn't like each other, but they made up and buried the hatchet before her death.
clockguy2 1 month ago
He filmed a really funny commercial for Obama back during the campaign with Ron Howard in which they played their old parts, then Howard became Richie Cunningham and visited Henry Winkler as Fonzie. I'm sure it's on youtube somewhere. Besides, I don't think the Obama health care program is at all liberal, it's backloaded to the nines with goodies for the insurance companies. Americans are doomed to forever lay awake at night wondering what will happen if they get sick or injured, like always.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
amazingly Andy supports the liberal Obama now
majorl311 1 month ago
@majorl311 He had weird taste in movies ("Angel in My Pocket," anyone?), had debuted with the best acting I've ever seen in any sound movie (the brilliant "A Face in the Crowd"), but when "Onionhead" flopped he oddly assumed that he was finished in features and went into TV! He was famously religious but I can't recall him ever embracing either side until the devastation of the last Bush administration. Apparently, however, he more or less wasted his time in retrospect, unfortunately.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@Onlymusical Yes he came out supporting the Obama health care,you think that he is conservative then he surprises us with liberal views
majorl311 1 month ago
Kind of strange she would move there if she did not want to be identified with the role she played.
jamieA1A 1 month ago
@jamieA1A I guess she was steeped in how nice the region was after being on the show so long, although of course "The Andy Griffith Show" was set in a weird alternate reality mixed between the 1930s and 1960s that would do something like Terry Gilliam's movie "Brazil" proud. Candlestick phones everywhere, lots of 1930s vintage cars parked on the streets, etc. And the buildings were actually all tall, they just positioned the cameras low. You can see "Floyd's Barbershop" in a Star Trek ep.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@Onlymusical
You can see many Mayberry buildings in many other shows that were filmed there on the Desilu lot (such as the "Star Trek" that you mentioned). Later, Lucille Ball sold Desilu (the former home of RKO studios) to Paramount Studios, which was right next door. They simply tore down walls & made one big studio out of it. Lucille had bought her ex-husband Desi out after their divorce so she was the controlling stockholder in Desilu.
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
@JubalCalif There's a Mayberry site online that reveals something that knocks me out every time I think about it. Gomer Pyle's Marine base was only separated from his Mayberry gas station by a thin strand of trees. They could've followed him with a camera walking around those trees for ten seconds and shocked home viewers as he abruptly arrived in Mayberry and began pumping gas again.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@JubalCalif When I was a kid watching a bunch of sitcoms like "Leave It to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best," I pictured them all in the same neighborhood. When I finally took the Universal tour in Los Angeles as an adult, I was amazed to see that they all WERE in the same neighborhood, more or less exactly as I'd envisioned as a child.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@Onlymusical
I've gone on the Universal tour twice (once in the 70's as a teen & then later in the 80's). I too was quite surprised to see so many familiar looking houses on their backlot "residential" street (from "Marcus Welby", "The Alfred Hitchock Hour", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", the 60's version of "Dragnet", those shows you mentioned & SO many other programs that were filmed on the Universal lot). Oh, and the house from "Psycho" too! :-)
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
@JubalCalif When I first saw the "Floyd's Barber Shop" sign in that Star Trek episode as a child, I couldn't figure out what I was looking at because it was plainly a one-level building in the series. I had no idea that they fooled us throughout "Mayberry" by keeping the cameras low, or even that it was technically possible to convince audiences of such a thing. I vividly remember scratching my head at the "mystery."
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@JubalCalif Along with Gomer's ten-second stroll from the Marine barracks to his Mayberry gas station in my previous post, they could've pointed the camera up and shocked audiences with the unexpected height of the Mayberry buildings as well.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@JubalCalif It's also funny that they didn't have candlestick phones everywhere and '30s vintage cars in Gomer's Marine base the way they did in Mayberry. I once heard writer Wm. Gibson mention that the South in the 1960s looked like the 1930s. It's true, I grew up in Dark Backward, Virginia, and our downtown was right out of the '30s. I think Griffith was emphasizing that with the shorthand of those anachronistic props and it worked splendidly and seemed perfectly sensible to viewers.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@Onlymusical
Well said & well put! I greatly enjoy reading your thoughtful, sensitive, intelligent & articulate comments! CHEERS! :-)
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
@JubalCalif Thanks! I'm glad somebody enjoys something that I do.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@jamieA1A "The Andy Griffith Show" was practically a forerunner of steampunk! It's one of those wonderful aspects of the series that make people love it so. Griffith actually did one piece of work even better, delivering the best performance by an actor in the sound film era in "A Face in the Crowd."
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@jamieA1A And she also realized how much North Carolinians worship "The Andy Griffith Show" and that she'd maintain a modicum of celebrity in retirement impossible in Los Angeles.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
is she still alive today? who knows when this interview was taken? it is not mentioned anywhere
amy1227 1 month ago
@amy1227 I believe she died in 1988 but I do know she's been dead quite a while. There's a recent video on youtube of a woman who resembles her being interviewed with a title claiming she's "Aunt Bee" but the responses have been disabled. She's someone else. I loved how intelligently she came across in this video. You know, eventually, w/ computers getting stronger, video dossiers with eventually exist with every moment of film ever shot of anyone, especially w/ face recognition technology.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@Onlymusical thank you that is true so long as others do not erase the original ones and keep it honest!
amy1227 1 month ago
@amy1227 Unfortunately, they will be able to manipulate everything, obviously. We saw the crude beginnings of it with words put into the mouths of John Lennon and Lyndon Johnson in "Forrest Gump." That'll eventually be perfected. I guess a good resource for what's been happening for the past decade or so would be Orwell's "1984."
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@Onlymusical you know, you are quite right about that.
amy1227 1 month ago
@amy1227
Unless this crafty old broad faked her death, she is indeed dead. According to imdb.com she died in 1989 at the age of '87. She had never married or had kids. She died with a houseful of cats who reportedly use the shower as a litterbox. The smell was said to be horrific. A talented actress but complex human being...aren't we all to one extent or another?
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
She felt TYPECAST....yet she dresses EXACTLY like "Aunt Bee". Same type dress, large Pearls, same hair style, pin on the dress. You would think she would NOT dress that way to distance herself from the ROLE.
Nashcountryboy 1 month ago
@Nashcountryboy That is a very astute observation on your part. I don't thnk, for a minute, Frances Bavier didn't relish the fame having played "Aunt Bee" brought her.
The very fact she retired to a small North Carolina town showed how much Miss Bavier identified with her most famous acting role, a role which, by the way, she should have been deservedly proud to have played.
gymnastix 1 day ago
@Nashcountryboy That said, it is a shame Miss Bavier didn't try to obtain other roles in films, on stage, and in other television series' after leaving "Mayberry," as her acting ability certainly could have garnered her more work.
Even sadder is Miss Bavier, apparently, had no family left in her later years, never having married, nor had any children. Bavier became almost a textbook case of the solitary spinster, died alone with a clutter of cats and the stench of their urine in her home.
gymnastix 1 day ago
Aunt Bee.......I'd like some more pickles! cough, cough
stevations 1 month ago
@stevations
It was the kerosene that gave her pickles that little "something extra" !
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
lol i drive by her house everyday on my way to work
ihatelilwayne144 1 month ago
That happens on the set sometime. On "I Love Lucy", Vivian Vance did not get along well with William Frawley at all. You'd never know that from watching them play the old married couple Fred & Ethel Mertz on the show
all66books 2 months ago
@all66books Actually, I thought Vance and Frawley's mutual hatred was very evident and made their relationship seem very realistic. I noticed that as a child and enjoyed it back then. It was starkly different from anything else on the air at that time.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@Onlymusical You're pretty good if you picked up on that. I figured they were just acting.
all66books 1 month ago
@all66books They're both superb actors, especially the great Frawley (check him out with George Raft and Carole Lombard in "Bolero" (1934). But the look of sheer hatred on their faces, barely visible in scenes where they had to appear affectionate, was something to behold. Arnaz offered them a "Fred and Ethel" series when "I Love Lucy" folded but Vance hated Frawley so much she refused to act that many scenes with him. I once asked Lucie Arnaz about it and she agreed about their mutual hatred.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@all66books It's legendary. Vance would count her scenes with Frawley each week when she got the script and practically weep when there were very many of them. Vance was actually younger than Lucy, I think, and resented being "married" to someone almost old enough to be her grandfather. They were great together, though, despite the pain. Frawley later went on to "My 3 Sons" with Fred MacMurray but was replaced by Wm. Demarest when he became uninsurable. He'd visit the set until barred.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@all66books Unlike Vance, Frawley had a big film career as a supporting actor until alcohol derailed it. He's in some 1940s movies with John Wayne and you can imagine what a superb team those two were.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@Onlymusical Thanks for filling in the gaps for me, musical. I do recall seeing Frawley in the movies you mentioned; I know he was described as a somewhat coarse, almost rascally kinda guy. I didn't know about his drinking issues. I always figured he was replaced on My Three Sons due to his age. Could you elaborate on what made WF "uninsurable"? Was it the drinking or something else?
all66books 1 month ago
@all66books Just saw Frawley playing the second lead in "Bolero," the great dance film with George Raft and Carol Lombard. He played Raft's brother (with a full head of hair, real or not) and had exactly the same incredible voice despite being 20 yrs younger. It was health after-effects from all the drinking that made him uninsurable. He always said Wm. Demarest stole his part. I think Frawley, Arnaz, and cinemaphotographer Karl Freund were even more important to that show than Lucy herself.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@Onlymusical I forgot to mention that "Bolero" was made all the way back in 1934. I mentioned his importance to "I Love Lucy." Her later shows, without Arnaz, Frawley, or Freund, are practically unwatchable today while "I Love Lucy" can be seen an unlimited # of times and always entertain. There's color film online someone shot of the show being filmed that's fascinating. And Freund made the series beautiful, almost shimmering with a lustre that stops channel changers in their tracks today.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@Onlymusical Also, someone recently made a cartoon using Lucy's radio sitcom (I think it was called "My Favorite Husband," with Evelyn Ankers' favorite husband) as the soundtrack. Eventually we'll see a virtual Lucy for all the radio shows, I guess.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
Whoa. At the beginning of the clip they announce that she and Andy Griffith didn't get along. And then...they abandon the topic. WTH???
bhickman6 2 months ago
Seems we never knew much about "Aunt Bea" I hardly knew her real name. Seems like a lovely person however.
mettta88 2 months ago
@mettta88 gOD SHE WAS SEXY!
Lindawatcher 2 months ago
Wow! Very articulate and compelling to listen to. This is a wonderful interview that I'll remember.
Onlymusical 2 months ago
@Onlymusical
I heartily concur. She comes across as quite an intelligent, refined & articulate lady.
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
Its just plain silly that fans expect these people to be just like the caracters they portray ,they are actors and lead completely different lives than what we see them as on television ,for example Carroll O'connor was the flip side of Archie Bunker and Jean Stapelton is nothing like Edith.
TheMarkster1957 2 months ago
I PROMISE THAT SHE WAS A REAL ,...BITCH.THATS WHY SHE NEVER MARRIED
Mr1963chevy 2 months ago
@Mr1963chevy dont judge her. some people do not feel the need to get married or have kids for their lives to be complete. society's laws are not for everyone ya know.
amy1227 1 month ago
She looks exactly like Eleanor Roosevelt!!!!!!!!!
pnull 2 months ago 2
I understand before she died, she rang up Andy and told him that she was sorry for the way she treated him and the others.
TampaParrot 2 months ago
@TampaParrot I read that in an interview with Andy Griffith also.
litehouse6 2 months ago
@TampaParrot
I too recall hearing Andy Griffith say that in a 90's TV interview. You'd never know there was any friction by watching the show...that's because they were all real pros who put aside their personal differences when it came time to play their parts. The sign of a trouper who's dedicated to their craft!
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
This lady had no friends or family at the time of her death. She was found dead in her ran down house.
Manongjojo 2 months ago
@Manongjojo If you have one real friend in later adulthood, you're lucky.
Onlymusical 2 months ago
@Onlymusical boy you said a mouthful here! my mom used to say the exact same thing to me when i was young and i never understood why she would say something like that, but now that i am older, i clearly understand. and here is another she used to tell me. You have no obligation to anyone but yourself in life. again it took me 40 yrs to figrue that one out, but i have.
amy1227 1 month ago
@Onlymusical very true indeed. some die off, some betray you. i can see why.
amy1227 1 month ago
@Manongjojo i would not be surprised to learn that many many elderly people have the same way as they die. the kids dont give a shit anymore, and no one repsects elders. too bad. for me, i would rather do myself in early on, let leave them all wondering.
amy1227 1 month ago
@amy1227 The problem with doing yourself in early is that people briefly feel bad then gradually forget you, and you become nothing more than fodder for jokes simply because you're dead. And killing yourself gives too many people too much satisfaction. Worst of all, if you do it early, you miss decades of life that you can enjoy. But if you're talking about while you're elderly, you'll hopefully have accumulated some interests that offer things to enjoy, but I don't know, I'm not quite there.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
@Onlymusical welll....she might have felt badly been in physicial pain, had no one else around, many people have that same situation you can not decide when you get born but if you are smart enough, you can decide when to die with dignity. there is this old myth, golden years, well my friend there is NOTHING golden about becoming elder who is sickly and going without people who care. i would nt want to be the last to go in my family. all alone sucks like that
amy1227 4 weeks ago
@amy1227 There are all kinds of variables and excruciating pain is no way to live; the only problem is, sometimes it heals despite what doctors think so suicide is seldom a good solution although obviously there are situations where it's preferable to riding it out until matters improve but that's probably rare. The likelihood of having anyone left who cares about you becomes increasingly remote the longer you live. I've had no family for more than 15 yrs but I have had some great friends.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@amy1227 Eventually, though, nine times out of ten, you have only yourself and you do indeed die alone provided you live long enough. This is just one of the facts of life and the earlier one makes peace with it, the better, Most families are so utterly dysfunctional that no one wants to have anything to do with anyone else (we can't choose our families) so I haven't given any thought to family as a concept for many, many years.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@Onlymusical sadly you are right about all you wrote. we all die alone in the end anyhow, oh sure you can have someone at your side as you die but this is an individual experience. but you are born alone and you die alone. and frankly some of the people who i have known in my family, well lets say i would rather be alone when i get ready to meet my maker. but at age 56, i am not so sure i want to live to be 86 and infirmed i would just rather leave when i can pick. no drooling here
amy1227 3 weeks ago
@amy1227 That's so tricky because physical setbacks can occur then heal, or not. And the mind is often impaired as well, of course. I think it's our fate to hang on as long as we can and hope we don't wind up tortured with neurotoxins (aides giving us the wrong medicine through carelessness) in some unspeakable nursing home. Best route is to stay positive about yourself, respect yourself and your efforts, and try to stay as healthy as you can by exerting some discipline there (easier said...).
Onlymusical 3 weeks ago
@amy1227 Even if I remarry, divorce is always the likelihood eventually or I may not die first (probably won't, given my genes) so I've long since gotten comfortable with the inevitable. The Irish put great stock by not "dying alone" but the truth is, this side of suicide pacts, everybody dies alone, they just don't realize it. I'm part Irish and believe me, they don't get it.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@amy1227 The lucky thing with Bavier is that she at least presumably had plenty of money (although hardly any residuals from most of her working life, thanks to former SAG president Reagan). It's generally exponentially worse when you starve in the streets, which I predict will be the fate of most baby boomers, and I'm a baby boomer myself.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@amy1227 And also don't forget that you won't necessarily be sickly as you age. Some people are more or less healthy throughout and then just die in their sleep or standing up in their boots (to quote something I read recently) without having to deal with some terrible illness eating them alive. You have better odds of dying relatively healthy than of dying with another human being around who even knows you're alive. Forget about family. It's a myth. We'll probably die alone in any case.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
@Onlymusical and your enemies....well they will have to worry about being haunted then!! lol
amy1227 4 weeks ago
@amy1227 No, there would only be laughter from that quarter. Even my worst enemies aren't quite stupid enough to believe in ghosts or life after death.
Onlymusical 4 weeks ago
I wonder why there were no later pictures of her from 1974 up until her death? I guess the answer to that may be due to her reclusive lifestyle once she retired.
benschlechter 2 months ago
@benschlechter
I second that emotion! From what I've read she did indeed become QUITE reclusive during her long retirment in North Carolina..often refusing to even answer the door.
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
Who cares if she was rude or didn't like some of her coworkers. Do you like everyone you work with? She was an integral part of the show and it wouldn't have been the same without her. Creative people can be difficult sometimes. As the main female actress on the show what did they expect her to do? The coffee and doughnut routine? Still the same old same old. The male strives for excellence and in doing the same thing the woman is a mean bitch. Long live Aunt Bee.
zamusicza 2 months ago
@zamusicza She was actually the last member of the original cast to leave the show and, intriguingly enough, her departure immediately led to a sharp downturn in the ratings, perhaps because everyone realized that the old "Andy Griffith Show" now no longer existed and had been entirely replaced by a wholly new entity.
Onlymusical 1 month ago
Did a search. this is on her head stone.
"To live in the hearts of those left behind is not to die."
How fitting.
racefan32 2 months ago
Aunt Bea was (SMOKIN HOT!)
walleyrt69 2 months ago
This is a wonderful piece. Thank you for sharing.
denisespurlock 2 months ago 2
To say Francis Bavier didn't like Andy Griffith is more than a bit dramatic and exaggerated. I think after hearing all other castmates perception of Francis, she was a serious woman in real life/very proper who did her lines and then preferred her privacy on set, however, was always professional.I don't think Andy would speak so highly of her if there was such dislike on her part.
tarnsand 2 months ago 2
Amazing find. I have always wondered how Frances sounded and carried herself off-camera. Thanks so much for sharing this.
Aeolis7 3 months ago
So, Aunt Bea didn't like Andy Griffith?? Hard to imagine.
CounterCultureLives 3 months ago 2
@CounterCultureLives Knowing that, I'm astonished that she could give him a compliment here. She was a classy lady. :)
Jennafu832 3 months ago
@Jennafu832 Strange that they would mention Francis's alleged "dislike" for Andy Griffith without any mention of it in the interview. Was that just journalistic hyperbole??
CounterCultureLives 2 months ago
@CounterCultureLives .......... No it's true - people even quit because she was so difficult to work with ! He made her ! Old mean hag
MrRedneckcracker 2 months ago
@MrRedneckcracker Francis Bavier's history of an actress began long before TAGS. Fifty years as an actress, 10 years on TAGS. Hard for me to imagine "Aunt Bea" would be so difficult to get along with; even harder to believe that Sheldon Leonard would put up with it, but that's how it goes sometimes.
CounterCultureLives 2 months ago
Comment removed
CounterCultureLives 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
she was a fucken cunt on the set of the andy griffith show. glad the fat "dike' is dead.
fran9860 4 months ago
@fran9860 WOW you really hate Aunt Bee!
seka1986 4 months ago
She was born in late 1902, so this was filmed in 1972 or 1973 (says she is 70 in this interview). My great-great grandmother was born in 1899 and great grandpa in 1900 - they died in 1989 and 1987.
Toni7859 4 months ago
@pb59531 - cool... is he still living? Looks fairly young here.
Toni7859 4 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
she was such a bitch to work with.
fran9860 4 months ago
Just like Jay Edgar Hoover. He wore her house dresses to pay homage to Mayberry and to the Conservative Party of Islams/Amishes. As God is my Witness, an Amish movie.
redfordforpresident 5 months ago
She and my Aunt Evelyn - so much alike, as persons and as family. It has always been confusing how over the decade the show was on there was not one word or show that mentioned "Andy's" wife. How is it she was not there - and the missed opportunities to bring that compassion and wisdom to all of us kids who grew up "living" Mayberry and whistling the opening song.
fishcrickn 7 months ago
This, folks, is a treasure. I've NEVER seen her do an interview period - let alone in her later years. Thanks for sharing, and I'm sure I speak for all us fans of TAGS.
clapolla 7 months ago 10
@clapolla Me either
ukamerica8 1 month ago
Bavier was really a terrific actress. She could say more using only facial expressions than some actors/actresses could convey with a thousand words. Just marvelous.
Ray3645 10 months ago 7
I miss you
originalmatchgame 10 months ago
Aunt Bea is being phoney. She completely contradicts herself
Look at 1:07 thru 1:16
Then compare this with 3:20 thru 3:31
Siler City a completely DIFFERENT way of life OR Siler City is very much the SAME
Velvet4U 1 year ago
@Velvet4U , she's not contradicting herself at ALL. At 1:07 she's saying Siler City is a lot like Mayberry. At 3:20, she's saying the lifestyle in Siler City is very different from what she was used to, personally, which was New York and Hollywood. Maybe it didn't occur to you that she never actually lived in Mayberry because Mayberry was a fictional place that existed only on a lot in Burbank, California.
rachelazw 8 months ago
She did try to make amends w/ Griffith and the others before she died.
springb 1 year ago
Did Aunt Bea like hair-pie?
mrspatrickcampbell 1 year ago
@mrspatrickcampbell
Hair Pie? I don't think hers ever took home the blue ribbon at the Mayberry County Fair. But I do know she wowed the judges with her Bearded Clam! And her Fur Burgers were to DIE for! Now there's some down home vittles!
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
Also, did she make up w/Andy Griffith before she died?
benschlechter 1 year ago
@benschlechter
Andy said she did in various TV interviews after her death.
JubalCalif 4 weeks ago
What year was this done?
benschlechter 1 year ago
When I was senior in high school,we drove by her house...never could figure why a lady of her stature could live in Siler City...the smell was terrible,I believe Purina dog food was made there...thanks for the memories !
^ l l { l\l
allengoodman69 1 year ago