A photo of James "Jim" Thurston Nabors, as Gomer Pyle on the Andy Griffith Show. His character was so popular that he went on to have his own show, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.
He was also a wonderful singer and, in addition to recording and appearing in specials on tv, he sang the song "Back Home Again in Indiana" before the Indy 500 almost every year from 1972 through 2014.
Nabors was able to legally marry his partner of 38 years, Stan Cadwallader, in 2013. He died from natural causes at home on November 30, 2017 - Cadwallader survives him.
Jim Nabors, a comic actor who found fame in the role of the amiable bumpkin Gomer Pyle in two hit television shows of the 1960s while pursuing a second career as a popular singer with a booming baritone voice, died on Thursday at his home in Honolulu. He was 87.
His husband, Stan Cadwallader, confirmed the death. He said that Mr. Nabors’s health had been declining for a year and that his immune system had been suppressed since he underwent a liver transplant in 1994.
At the time, Mr. Nabors announced that he had contracted hepatitis B in India several years earlier when he cut himself shaving with a contaminated straight razor, which he had bought there.
Gomer Pyle, the character that so indelibly stamped Mr. Nabors’s career, originated in 1962 as a supporting role on “The Andy Griffith Show,” a bucolic CBS comedy that had been running since 1960. Gomer was a guileless, sweet-natured gas-station attendant in Mayberry, N.C., a sleepy fictional town where Mr. Griffith played the widower sheriff, Don Knotts his deputy, Ron Howard his son and Frances Bavier his matronly Aunt Bee.
Mr. Nabors’s character, a village innocent who tended to make a mess of things, became a favorite, and his sheepish “gawwwleee” and wide-eyed “shazam!” became popular catchphrases.
The 1960's were years of great change: Protests (Vietnam War, Free Speech, Civil Rights), assassinations (JFK, Martin Luther King Jr, Bobby Kennedy), conflict (the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Cold War, ...
Discover the lives and legacies of notable celebrities from the past, like Bette Davis and John Wayne, by browsing photographs of them in their prime.
The lasting impact of celebrities from the past cannot be denied; they continue to be an essential part of our cultural history. Through their talent, charisma, and unique personalities, they entertai...
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I am 2nd generation San Jose and have seen a lot of changes in the area while growing up. We used to be known as the "Valley of Heart's Delight" (because the Valley was covered with orchards and there were many canneries to process the food grown here, which shipped all over the US) - now we have adopted the nickname "Capital of Silicon Valley" and Apple, Ebay, Adobe, Netflix, Facebook, and many more tech companies are within a few miles of my current home in San Jose (including AncientFaces). From a small town of 25,000, we have grown to 1 million plus. And when you add in all of the communities surrounding us (for instance, Saratoga, where I attended high school, living a block from our previous Mayor), we are truly one of the big cities in the US. I am so very proud of my hometown. For more information see Kathy - Founder & Content and Community Director My family began AncientFaces because we believe that unique photos and stories that show who people are/were should be shared with the world.