Don Knotts

In a typical Hollywood paradox, Don Knotts proved quite adept at securing steady work playing the frantically nervous and incompetent. After great success in the 1960s as a TV second banana, Knotts spent much of the second half of that decade as a feature comedy star. Nevertheless, the small screen proved the more hospitable home. His Deputy Barney Fife, a bumbling but benign braggart, provided many of the laughs on the hugely successful rustic sitcom "The Andy Griffith Show" (CBS, 1960-68). Knotts' high-pitched whine provided comic counterpart to the soothing cracker-barrel homilies delivered by Griffith's Sheriff Andy Taylor for five seasons. Revealingly, Andy never let his deputy carry more than one bullet--and in his shirt pocket at that! Nonetheless, Knotts racked up an impressive winning streak of Emmys for "Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Comedy," taking home the statuette for 1960/61, 1961/62, 1962/63, 1965/66 and 1966/67. Griffth would also credit his co-star for writing many of Barney Fife's most inspired comic scenes.