Post by dividavi on Sept 14, 2018 1:49:50 GMT
I just had a great idea, it might even be called an epiphany, about the ideal choice for the role of Aunt Bee on the Andy Griffith show. It's Estelle Winwood, the genius British born actress. She spent most of her long career (1903-1976) as a stage performer but she also played a prominent role in movies and later television. For instance she was in Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), Alive and Kicking (1959) and The Producers (1968). She later denigrated the last film, saying she could not imagine why she had done it except for the money.
Television viewers recall her brilliant work on Dennis the Menace, The Twilight Zone, Thriller, Dr. Kildare, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Name of the Game, Bewitched, Batman, Love, American Style, Cannon, Police Story, The FBI, and the last episode of Perry Mason, entitled "The Case of the Final Fade-Out", in which she plays an aging actress who ends up as a second defendant. An entrancing performer, Estelle Winwood kept working until 1979, when she was 96 years old. She would have made a wonderful Aunt Bee, or rather Granny Bee, to Andy Griffith and Opie.
Besides Estelle Winwood as Aunt (Granny) Bee, I'd make some other cast changes. I still feel that Nick Adams would have been the best actor to play Barney Fife (Don Knotts) but James Best (Sheriff on Dukes of Hazzard) would be great as well. Perhaps Anne Francis (Honey West, Twilight Zone) could be Thelma Lou, Barney's girlfriend.
L-R: James Best, Laura Devon, and
Anne Francis in "Jess-Belle", an episode of The Twilight Zone (1963)
Maybe Kevin McCarthy could have been Otis, the town drunk, or Floyd the barber?
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Television viewers recall her brilliant work on Dennis the Menace, The Twilight Zone, Thriller, Dr. Kildare, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Name of the Game, Bewitched, Batman, Love, American Style, Cannon, Police Story, The FBI, and the last episode of Perry Mason, entitled "The Case of the Final Fade-Out", in which she plays an aging actress who ends up as a second defendant. An entrancing performer, Estelle Winwood kept working until 1979, when she was 96 years old. She would have made a wonderful Aunt Bee, or rather Granny Bee, to Andy Griffith and Opie.
Besides Estelle Winwood as Aunt (Granny) Bee, I'd make some other cast changes. I still feel that Nick Adams would have been the best actor to play Barney Fife (Don Knotts) but James Best (Sheriff on Dukes of Hazzard) would be great as well. Perhaps Anne Francis (Honey West, Twilight Zone) could be Thelma Lou, Barney's girlfriend.
L-R: James Best, Laura Devon, and
Anne Francis in "Jess-Belle", an episode of The Twilight Zone (1963)
Maybe Kevin McCarthy could have been Otis, the town drunk, or Floyd the barber?