He is widely known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife on the 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show, for which he earned five Emmy Awards.

After enlisting in the United States Army and serving in World War II,[4] he earned a bachelor's degree in education with a minor in speech from West Virginia University in Morgantown, graduating in 1948.

[1]: 5  After high school, he traveled to New York City to try to make his way as a comedian, but when his career failed to take off, he returned home to attend West Virginia University.

[7] His ventriloquist act included a dummy named Danny that Knotts grew to hate and eventually threw overboard, according to friend and castmate Al Checco.

He married Kay Metz and moved back to New York, where connections that he had made in the Special Services Branch helped him to break into show business.

From October 20, 1955, through September 14, 1957, he appeared with Andy Griffith in the Broadway stage version of No Time for Sergeants, in which he played two roles, listed in the Playbill as a Corporal Manual Dexterity and a Preacher.

[10] In 1958, he made his movie debut with Griffith in the film version of No Time for Sergeants, in which he reprised his Broadway role, playing a high-strung Air Force test administrator whose routine is disrupted by the hijinks of a provincial new recruit.

Knotts's portrayal of the deputy on the popular show earned for him five Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Comedy.

Don Knotts played the comic and pathetic sides of the character with equal aplomb and he received three Emmy Awards during the show's first five seasons.

[13]When the show first aired, Griffith was intended to be the comedic lead with Knotts as his straight man, similar to their roles in No Time for Sergeants.

In his autobiography, Knotts admitted that he had not yet signed the contract when Griffith announced his decision to continue the series; but he had made up his mind to move on, believing that he would not get the chance again.

His character's absence on the show was explained by Deputy Fife having finally made the "big time", joining the Raleigh, North Carolina, police force.

Knotts began his Universal five-film contract with The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), followed by The Reluctant Astronaut (1967), The Shakiest Gun in the West (1968), The Love God?

[16] He continued to work steadily, although he did not appear as a regular on any successful television series until 1979, when he took the part of landlord Ralph Furley on Three's Company.

[17] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Knotts served as the spokesman for Dodge trucks and was featured prominently in a series of print ads and dealer brochures.

Knotts co-starred in several other Disney films, including Gus (1976), No Deposit, No Return (1976), Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977), and Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978).

[citation needed] In 1986, Knotts reunited with Andy Griffith in the made-for-television film Return to Mayberry, reprising his Barney Fife role.

[1]: 161  In early 1987, he joined the cast of the first-run syndicated comedy What a Country!, as Principal Bud McPherson, for its remaining 13 episodes.

[citation needed] From 1988 until 1992, Knotts joined Andy Griffith on Matlock in the recurring role of pesky neighbor Les Calhoun.

In 2003, he teamed up again with Tim Conway to provide voices for the direct-to-video children's series Hermie and Friends, which continued until his death.

On September 12, 2003, he was in Kansas City, in a stage version of On Golden Pond, when he received a call from John Ritter's family telling him that his former Three's Company co-star had died that day of an aortic dissection.

Knotts had appeared with Ritter for the last time in 2003 in a cameo on 8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter, in an episode that paid homage to their previous television series.

[citation needed] During this period of time, macular degeneration in both eyes caused the otherwise robust Knotts to become virtually blind.

In 2005, he parodied his Ralph Furley character while playing a Paul Young variation in a Desperate Housewives sketch on The 3rd Annual TV Land Awards.

[20] Knotts died at age 81 on February 24, 2006, at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from pulmonary and respiratory complications of pneumonia related to lung cancer.

A statue honoring him, created by Jamie Lester, was unveiled on July 23, 2016, in front of The Metropolitan Theatre on High Street in his hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia.