![]() ![]() And he would do that – just suddenly do or say something at a quiet moment to make you laugh. Then all of a sudden he just started doing something so funny that just gave us the giggles. We were sitting with him because we knew it was very close to the end of his illness. Knotts: He wasn’t there trying to make anybody laugh – he was naturally funny! And at times, he would be funny when he didn’t mean to be. But he was very friendly and it meant a lot to me.įox News: It was reported that when your father was on his deathbed, you ran out of the room to laugh. I guess it was kind of a foreshadowing of his interest to direct. He would show it to me and he was so involved in the technical aspects of it. He always had this little tiny transistor radio. ![]() We’re the same age and I thought he was just so mature. He was just so different from any other kid I knew. Knotts: That was probably my favorite memory from the set. He took his craft very seriously and it was important for him that audiences got a laugh out of it.įox News: What was it like meeting Ron Howard? But he was very technical when it came to delivering his lines. He would say, "Say this line a certain way" or "Take a pause here with this certain word." Of course, when he did it, it was so natural and real. The thing that I learned from him is that you always have to look for ways to get that big laugh. And he would put me in these small parts. Whenever he wasn’t working in TV, he was doing theater, usually in the Midwest. He would perform all across the country all the time. Knotts: I went on the road with him quite a few times. ![]() So he eventually came around, but it certainly didn’t happen right away.įox News: What was the biggest lesson you learned from him as a performer? He would sing to me and it was just wonderful. But I remember he had a variety show when I was 16 and he would put me on the show. It was an actual fear for him… He just didn’t want me to go through that struggle in Hollywood. And he didn’t want to see that happen to me. He knew a lot of people that were trying to make it in the business and just failed. When we dropped dad off at his condo, he said, "Thanks a lot! We’ll do this again next week." It was just something so simple yet so witty at that moment.įox News: You wanted to pursue show business, but your father wasn’t thrilled about it. So it was the three of us that took my dad out for this beautiful dinner with all sorts of gifts. I remember I had this boyfriend and I told him my dad’s birthday was coming up. (Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images) From left, daughter Karen, son Tom, Knotts, and wife Kay. It would be a line that would just make you fall out laughing.Īmerican television actor Don Knotts (right) stands his family on the porch of their home, March 2, 1961. And then he would lay this whopper on you. He would just lean into you as if he was going to tell you this big secret in great confidence. Knotts: He would always make these little side comments that were hysterically funny. But he did it.įox News: What’s one memory of your dad that makes you smile? It took a while for him to break through all of his trauma from childhood. And when they moved out to California, they found a much better psychiatrist that he stuck with his whole life. And this was in the ‘50s when people didn’t believe in it that much. He couldn’t even watch his shows so he never got the satisfaction of seeing these great performances that he was doing.īut my mother got him to go to a psychiatrist in New York. Live television was excruciatingly difficult for him because he was a perfectionist when it came to his comedy. Knotts: He started getting therapy when he was in New York. (Author's Collection)įox News: How did therapy play a role in his life? Don Knotts had two children with his first wife Kathryn Metz. ![]()
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