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George Lindsey, better known as the grinning (beanie-wearing Goober from the classic rural comedy ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ and ‘Hee Haw’) has died on Sunday at age 83.
According to a press release from Marshall-Donnelly-Combs Funeral Home in Nashville, Tennessee, the actor passed away after an extended hospitalization.
Lindsey is best remembered as Goober Pyle, who was featured on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ from 1964 to 1968 and on ‘Mayberry RFD,’ which succeeded it from 1968 to 1971.
The actor reprised his jovial character (a service station attendant) on the show ‘Hee Haw’ from 1971 until it went out of production in 1993.
‘Goober is every man; everyone finds something to like about ol’ Goober’ – Lindsey said in an Associated Press interview in 1985.
Goober was added to the cast of characters on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ when actor Jim Nabors, portraying Gomer Pyle, left. Goober Pyle, who had been mentioned on the show as Gomer’s cousin, replaced him.

George Lindsey.

George Lindsey (who made a TV career as a grinning service-station attendant named Goober on “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Hee Haw”) has died. He was 83.
The Marshall-Donnelly-Combs Funeral Home in Nashville said Lindsay died early Sunday after a brief illness.
Lindsey was the beanie-wearing Goober on “The Andy Griffith Show” from 1964-68 and its successor, “Mayberry RFD,” from 1968-71. He played the same jovial character on “Hee Haw” from 1971 until it went out of production in 1993.
“America has grown up with me” – Lindsey said in an Associated Press interview in 1985. “Goober is every man; everyone finds something to like about ol’ Goober.”
He joined “The Andy Griffith Show” in 1964 when Jim Nabors, portraying Gomer Pyle, left the program. Goober Pyle, who had been mentioned on the show as Gomer’s cousin, replaced him.
“At that time, we were the best acting ensemble on TV” – Lindsey once told an interviewer. “The scripts were terrific. Andy is the best script constructionist I’ve ever been involved with. And you have to lift your acting level up to his; he’s awfully good.”
In a statement released through the funeral home, Griffith said, “George Lindsey was my friend. I had great respect for his talent and his human spirit. In recent years, we spoke often by telephone. Our last conversation was a few days ago. … I am happy to say that as we found ourselves in our 80′s, we were not afraid to say: ‘I love you.’ That was the last thing George and I had to say to each other. ‘I love you.’ ”
Although he was best known as Goober, Lindsey had other roles during a long TV career. Earlier, he often played a heavy and once shot Marshal Matt Dillon on “Gunsmoke.”

George Lindsey, the Southern-born character actor who played dim hayseed Goober Pyle, the genial gas station auto mechanic on “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Mayberry R.F.D.,” died early Sunday morning. He was 83.
Lindsey, who later was a regular on the long-running country music comedy show “Hee Haw,” died at a healthcare center in Nashville after a brief illness – said his manager and booking agent, Carrie Moore-Reed.
“George Lindsey was my friend” – Andy Griffith said in a statement. “I had great respect for his talent and his human spirit.”
Noting that he had his last conversation with Lindsey a few days ago, Griffith said: “I am happy to say that as we found ourselves in our 80s, we were not afraid to say: ‘I love you.’ That was the last thing George and I had to say to each other. ‘I love you.’ ”
“The Andy Griffith Show,” the classic 1960′s situation comedy starring Griffith as the kindly sheriff of Mayberry, N.C., was in its fourth season in 1964 when Lindsey first appeared as the cousin of naive gas station attendant Gomer Pyle, played by Jim Nabors.
Lindsey’s character became more prominent after Nabors left the show to star in the spin-off series “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” in 1964.
As Goober, Lindsey wore a brown felt beanie with turned-up scalloped edges and had a tire gauge, pens and pencils stuffed into the pocket of his work shirt and a rag hanging out of the back pocket of his high-wasted pants.
“I had a lot of trouble with that part” – he said in a 2005 interview with Alabama’s Montgomery Advertiser newspaper. “I’d been playing a lot of heavy character roles. I’d done them on ‘Alfred Hitchcock,’ and ‘Twilight Zone’ and some others, and at first I found myself just doing an impersonation of Jim Nabors doing Gomer. I finally said, ‘Look, tell me about this guy and who he is.’ ”
Lindsey often recalled that Griffith told him, “Goober’s the kind of guy that would go into a restaurant and say: ‘This is great salt.’ ”
“Andy Griffith turned out to be the greatest teacher I’ve ever had,” Lindsey, an Alabama native, told The Times in 1968. “He kept tellin’ me to play myself, to let it happen to me, instead of trying to be funny.”