

By 1967 he was earning $500,000 annually.Īlthough it was too late to ever completely dissociate himself from Gomer Pyle, Nabors decided to end the series in 1969, while it was still rated in the top five. He entertained onstage in Vegas, Reno and Tahoe, and his first album, “Jim Nabors Sings,” sold a million copies. The program shot into the top 10 in the Nielsen ratings, where it stayed for its entire four seasons.ĭuring that time, Jim Nabors starred in a number of variety specials for CBS including “Friends and Nabors,” which attracted an audience of 33.9 million, and guested on shows for Danny Thomas and the Smothers Brothers. Nabors conveys a particular mood of attractive awkwardness, and naivete, a contagious quality of special poignancy rooted in laughter.” Nabors was discovered singing at the Horn cabaret in Santa Monica by writer-comedian Bill Dana, who booked Nabors for occasional stints on “The Steve Allen Show.” The Andy Griffin Show as the ingenuous gas station attendant Gomer Pyle, which led to his own CBS series, produced by Griffith, about Pyle’s misadventures after joining the Marines, about which the New York Times wrote, “Mr.
JIM NABORS GOLLY TV
Later attempts at a variety show did not last long, however, either on network TV or in firstrun syndication, though Nabors was a popular headliner on the Vegas-Reno nightclub circuit. The series ran for four seasons, and Nabors’ 20% cut of the syndication revenue for the popular series made him financially secure thereafter and able to pursue broader interests as a singer and comic raconteur. He was 87.His husband, Stan Cadwallader, told the AP that Nabors died on Thursday at their home in Hawaii.He brought the words “golly” and “shazam” into the vernacular as the naive, well-intentioned Pyle, a regular character on “The Andy Griffin Show” that was later the focus of spinoff “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.” Pyle was a loving caricature of a Southern rube, completely out of step with the ’60s and all the more lovable for it. Rest in peace, Jim Nabors.Jim Nabors Jim Nabors, whose name is synonymous with the genial bumpkin Gomer Pyle, whom he played on TV, has died. There was an untrue rumor that Jim married Rock Hudson in the 1970s.

Contrary to that rumor your grandma probably helped spread, Stan was Jim’s first and only husband. That’s when Jim married Stan, who was his partner of 38 years at the time. Jim came out as gay in 2013 when Washington passed their marriage equality law. His variety show, The Jim Nabors Hour, ran from 1969-1971. Jim played Gomer Pyle again in 1986’s Return to Mayberry and on an episode of the 90s sitcom Hi Honey, I’m Home!īeyond Gomer Pyle, Jim was also in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Carol Burnett Show, Knight Rider, The Love Boat and The Sonny & Cher Show. That led to his own spin-off show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., which ran from 1964 to 1969. Jim was supposed to play the ditzy gas station attendant for just one episode, but he was so popular that he became a regular and gaw-leeeee’d on for 23 episodes. Your auntie, second cousin thrice removed, hairdresser, favorite In-N-Out employee (we all have one) and everyone else knows Jim best as Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show. Stan says that Jim died of natural causes. Jim spent some time at the hospital, but they ultimately decided to bring him home. Jim’s husband, Stan Cadwallader, says that after Thanksgiving, his health went downhill. And may that gorgeous beaded jacket go to the afterworld with Jim, because it deserves a prime spot in heaven’s Museum of Glamour.ĬBS News says that Jim died this morning at his home in Hawaii.

Jim Nabors is trending on Twitter, because he has sadly gone on to the great beyond. He was 87. But you won’t see any “ Groper Pyle” headlines from The New York Post today. Jim Nabors’ name is trending on Twitter today, and whenever a man in Hollywood makes the news in these times, people probably automatically think that he’s been accused of doing illegal acts of wrong sexual shit.
