![]() ![]() Sometimes it gets me down to think I’ve lost my own identity as an actress. I was really vicious in a Lone Ranger episode, but so many people wrote in outraged at what I was doing, I guess it was a mistake. She told The Charlotte News that “Once in a while I get a hankering to play a really bad woman. To live in the hearts of those left behind is not to die.”įrances mentioned in several interviews that she loved the character of Bee, but it was hard to be stereotyped in one role. She was buried in her adopted hometown, and her tombstone reads “Aunt Bee. Most of her $700,000 estate was left to the hospital foundation. When she passed away in 1989, she left a trust fund of $100,000 to the police department in Siler City that would provide an annual bonus to all police personnel. Why in the world would you make what is already a stressful situation more stressful?” How dare you try to tell me when to walk and where?’ It’s like yes, you are an actress, but an actress takes direction from the director. It was, like, ‘I’m an actress and I know what I’m doing. If you would ask her to move three inches to the right to get in the proper frame, or, ‘Could you stand up when you say that line?’, she’d blow a fuse and refuse. Bass on the show and directed episodes of it, said that directing Frances was like stepping on a landmine. I can only repeat what I was told, but on The Andy Griffith Show, Howard Morris, who played Ernest T. That’s the earliest I can point to where Frances was already getting to be persnickety. Eve Arden had trouble with her on The Eve Arden Show. Pop culture historian Geoffrey Mark, wrote, “She was a very talented lady, but she was very difficult to work with, and nobody could really figure it out. She was the only person in the whole company whose feelings you had to be careful not to hurt.” Once in a while, she would get mad at someone. Frances was temperamental and moody, but she kept 99 percent of that to herself. Since I had fewer scenes to do with her, I had fewer opportunities to swear in front of her, which is why we never had any difficulties. “I’m not, really, not any more so than anybody else. “I think Frances thought I was a gentleman,” mused actor Jack Dodson, who played Howard Sprague on the show. I think Andy offended her a few times, but they became very close friends.” Producer Richard Linke commented that “She was very touchy and moody due to her age, and you had to be very careful how you treated her and what you said around her. ![]() She was rather self-contained and was not part of the general hi-jinks that centered upon Andy on the set.” Highly professional and a fine comedienne, fine actress with very individual character. Ron Howard, always tactful, was pressed on his relationship with her and just replied that “I just don’t think she enjoyed being around children that much.” Producer Sheldon Leonard commented, “ was a rather remote lady. The entire staff was cautious in their approach when working with her because she was easily offended. The belongings will be auctioned this spring, said Bob Royster, production director for the public television center.An early season with Ellie Walker Photo: įans loved the relationship Andy and Aunt Bee had, although in real life Andy and Frances were not close. The walls were mostly bare except for a few ordinary electric wall clocks.Īnd while Aunt Bee was known around the fictitious Mayberry, N.C., courthouse for her tasty box lunches, there was only one cookbook in Miss Bavier’s yellow and green 1950s kitchen. But what she made with the material was not evident in the house, which had no curtains at the windows. Just as the neat, matronly Aunt Bee would have done, Miss Bavier saved sewing fabric in labeled boxes in a bedroom closet. There also was a blue satin gown she may have worn when she won her Emmy Award, said Hatch. The few mementos of the actress’ television days were the dress and hats she wore in the show and a few publicity pictures. Miss Bavier’s few costly possessions consisted primarily of some rare leather-bound books, a lace collection and a considerable quantity of table linens, said Hatch. Two trunks held her fan mail, letters in one and studio portraits of her “to be signed” in another. could have had non-stop fans if she had opened her doors,” said Hatch. “I think she was a person who obviously valued her privacy. Her cats apparently used a basement room and a shower stall as a litter box.Įvidently, the reclusive actress spent most of her time in a large back room plainly furnished with a bed, a desk, a television and an end table, where she kept her reading and opera glasses, black licorice and a bell. The stench from the actress’ 14 cats coupled with peeling plaster, frayed carpets and worn upholstery indicate Miss Bavier either was unable or unwilling to spend much time keeping up the home.
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