CNN.com - Actor Don Knotts dies at 81 - Feb 25, 2006

CNN.com - Actor Don Knotts dies at 81 - Feb 25, 2006: "Don Knotts, who kept generations of TV audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on 'The Andy Griffith Show' and would-be swinger landlord Ralph Furley on 'Three's Company,' has died. He was 81.

Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at a Los Angeles hospital, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs his two signature shows.

Griffith, who remained close friends with Knotts, said he had a brilliant comedic mind and wrote some of the show's best scenes.

'Don was a small man ... but everything else about him was large: his mind, his expressions,' Griffith said Saturday. 'Don was special. There's nobody like him.

'I loved him very much,' Griffith added. 'We had a long and wonderful life together.'"