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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJim Nabors Dies: Gomer Pyle Star Was 87
http://deadline.com/2017/11/jim-nabors-dies-gomer-pyle-obituary-1202217487/Jim Nabors, who gave popular culture its most enduring image of a wide-eyed, good-natured if none too bright hayseed in a character whose very name Gomer Pyle would become synonymous with lovable rube, died Thursday in Hawaii. He was 87.
With catchphrases Shazam! and Golly (the latter drawn out to four or five lilting syllables), Nabors debuted his downhome, gas station attendant character in 1962 on The Andy Griffith Show, where the slow-going, dim-witted Gomer was a constant irritation to Don Knotts officious, high-strung Deputy Barney Fife.
spanone
(135,873 posts)Gomer Says Hey!
marybourg
(12,634 posts)LeftInTX
(25,551 posts)It was, "Oh My Papa". My jaw just about dropped. I was only about 10. I remember that more than his goofy character.
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,592 posts)We'll miss you, Jim.
Elwood P Dowd
(11,443 posts)with Mary Grace.
oswaldactedalone
(3,491 posts)and Skinny Griffin said: "That muskrat's gone bite ya, that muskrat's gone bite ya."
underpants
(182,877 posts)imanamerican63
(13,812 posts)R.I.P . Mr. Nabors.
ismnotwasm
(42,008 posts)One of the reasons my husband will stay cute to me forever is his love of corny old TV shows, including Goner Pyle USMC
RIP to a great comedian and an incredible singer
nolabear
(41,991 posts)He and my mother were contemporaries though they went to different schools. He was the high school star and beloved home town boy whose clear gayness was carefully overlooked.
My grandparents lived across the street from his mother. I never met him but cousins did. I did play with his dog, which he left with his mom.
The fact that he came out didnt seem to inibit anyones pride in him, though I wasnt involved with the area at all by then. His Gomer persona made me uncomfortable because it took the dumb Southerner stereotype so far, but I give him huge props for his success and eventual freedom.
A HERETIC I AM
(24,376 posts)As he was there to sing "Back Home in Indiana" on race day, like he did every year for quite a long time.
He was riding on a golf cart on a year after the Speedway had done some remodeling, and because the layout of the grounds had changed, he stopped to ask me directions, even though he had been going to the Speedway for years longer than I.
He could not have been more kind and polite, not at all rude or entitled as many celebrities can be.
Rest in Peace, Jim.
B2G
(9,766 posts)Loved his rendition of that song. The crowd went wild every year.
RIP Mr. Nabors. You'll be missed.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)and had found happiness with for decades, Stan Cadwallader: