Background and career
George Smith Lindsey (December 17, 1928 – May 6, 2012) was an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his role as Goober Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D. and his subsequent tenure on Hee-Haw.
George Lindsey was born in Fairfield, Alabama, to George Ross Lindsey, a butcher, and the former Alice Smith. He was raised by his grandparents in the small town of Jasper, where he graduated from Walker County High School in 1946. He attended Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri, and Florence State Teacher's College (Florence, Alabama) (now the University of North Alabama), where he majored in physical education and biology. He was a quarterback on the football team, and acted in college plays. He earned a Bachelor of Science in 1952. After graduating from college, he enlisted in the United States Air Force and was stationed at Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico. After his discharge, he taught for a year at Hazel Green High School in Hazel Green, Alabama, while waiting to be accepted by the American Theater Wing in New York City in 1956. On March 24, 1960, he appeared on the To Tell the Truth television quiz show, posing as a Florida spear fisherman and ultimately revealing himself as a "nightclub comic.” After graduating from the Wing and performing in two Broadway plays, "Wonderful Town" and "All American", he moved to Los Angeles in 1962. He appeared in several TV series, including: Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, The Real McCoys, The Twilight Zone, Daniel Boone, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour before landing the role he would become famous for: "Goober" on The Andy Griffith Show.
In 1964, Lindsey joined The Andy Griffith Show as the slow-witted, but kindly Goober Beasley. His character was later renamed Goober Pyle to tie him to his cousin, Gomer Pyle, another slow-witted country boy, played by Jim Nabors, an actor who was also from Alabama. Goober's antics frequently included his exaggerated Goober Dance and his comically bad Cary Grant impression. As Lindsey started his portrayal as Goober, he also had a minor role in the Walter Brennan series The Tycoon on ABC. Lindsey played: a sailor in the 1964 film Ensign Pulver, the sequel to Mister Roberts, a role in a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode entitled "Submarine Sunk Here," in six episodes of the television series Gunsmoke, and a blackmailing taxicab driver in the "Bed of Roses" episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
During an interview segment of TV Land's 40th Anniversary Star Trek Marathon on November 12, 2006, Leonard Nimoy stated that Gene Roddenberry's first choice to play Spock was George Lindsey. Because of the flippant way Nimoy made the comment, it has been suggested that he was joking. The claim that Lindsey was offered the role is given more credibility when Lindsey's close friend, Ernest Borgnine, wrote in his autobiography,, "my hand to God – he turned down the part of Mr. Spock on TV's Star Trek, the role that made Leonard Nimoy famous."
After Andy Griffith left his television show, CBS retooled it as Mayberry R.F.D. and Lindsey continued to play Goober Pyle until CBS cancelled the program in 1971. In 1972, Lindsey portrayed Charlie, one of a pair of highwaymen in the Gunsmoke episode "Blind Man's Bluff", and an escaped convict, "The Dove", in an episode of The Rifleman. Disney used his talents in a few projects, both as comedy support in features (Snowball Express, Treasure of Matecumbe) and voiceovers for a few of their animated characters. Three Disney animated features that presented the voice of Lindsey were The Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973) and The Rescuers (1977). Lindsey appeared in the 1967 Gunsmoke episode "Mad Dog" as one of the Watson Brothers. In 1978, Lindsey was a stand-out guest star on M*A*S*H as Roy Dupree, a wildly obnoxious, but capable Southern surgeon. In 1997 Lindsey played himself in an episode of NewsRadio.
Lindsey portrayed Goober for the third and last time on the syndicated country music variety show Hee Haw, playing a more rustic and somewhat smarter version of the character. He appeared on that show from 1972 to 1992.
