Howard McNear (Floyd): on “The Andy Griffith Show,”

 

In Richard Kelly's book, “The Andy Griffith Show,” Andy Griffith had the following to say about actor Howard McNear (Floyd):

     "Howard, first of all, was a leading man in the San Diego theatre years ago. He never was in New York in his life. He developed this comic character, I believe, on The Jack Benny Show. Howard was a nervous man and he became that man, Floyd.

     “Then Howard had a stroke and was bad off for a long time. He was out of our show for about a year and three-quarters. We did a lot of soft shows, that is, those that were not hard on comedy -- stories about the boy or the aunt. But we needed comedy scenes to break up things.
    

      “We were working on a script one day, and Aaron [Ruben] said, `Boy do I wish we had Howard.' And one of us said, `Why don't we see if we can get him.' So right then we called up Howard's house and we got his wife, Helen. `Oh,' she said, `it would be a godsend.'

     “Well, we wrote him a little scene. He was paralyzed all down his left side and so we couldn't show him walking. We had him sitting or we built a stand that supported him. He could then stand behind the barber chair and use one hand. Most of the time, however, we had him sitting. His mind was not affected at all. He was with us about two years after that before he died. Finally poor Howard died. I'm sorry because there was never anyone like him. Kind, kind man."
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