"All he has to do is walk on the stage and look the audience straight in the face. Griffith does not have to condescend to Will Stockdale" (his role in the play), wrote Brooks Atkinson in The New York Times. He did win the 1956 Theatre World Award, however, a prize given for debut roles on Broadway. The role earned him a "Distinguished Supporting or Featured Dramatic Actor" nomination at the 1956 Tony Awards, losing to Ed Begley.
He expanded that role in Ira Levin's full-length theatrical version of the same name (October 1955) on Broadway in New York City. Griffith starred in Ira Levin's one-hour teleplay, No Time for Sergeants (March 1955) - a story about a country boy in the United States Air Force - on The United States Steel Hour, a television anthology series. The monologue was released as a single in 1953 on the Colonial Records label, and was a hit for Griffith, reaching number nine on the charts in 1954. Griffith's early career was as a monologist, delivering long stories such as What It Was, Was Football, which is told from the point of view of a naïve country preacher trying to figure out what was going on in a football game. He also began to write.Ĭareer From rising comedian to film star After graduation, he taught music and drama for a few years at Goldsboro High School in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where he taught, among others, Carl Kasell. He also played roles in several student operettas, including The Chimes of Normandy (1946), and Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers (1945), The Mikado (1948) and H.M.S. At UNC, he was president of the UNC chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, America's oldest fraternity for men in music. He began college studying to be a Moravian preacher, but he changed his major to music and became a part of the school's Carolina Playmakers. He attended the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1949. He performed as a cast member of the play for several years, playing a variety of roles until he finally landed the role of Sir Walter Raleigh, for whom North Carolina's capital is named.
Griffith was delighted when he was offered a role in The Lost Colony by Paul Green, a play about Roanoke Island still performed today. Mickey nurtured Griffith's talent throughout high school until graduation in 1944. Griffith was raised Baptist and looked up to Ed Mickey, a minister at Grace Moravian Church, who led the brass band and taught him to sing and play the trombone. A growing love of music, particularly swing, would change his life. He was a shy student, but once he found a way to make his peers laugh, he began to come out of his shell and come into his own.Īs a student at Mount Airy High School, Griffith cultivated an interest in the arts, and he participated in the school's drama program. By the time he entered school, he was well aware that he was from what many considered the "wrong side of the tracks". In 1929, when Griffith was three, his father began working as a helper or carpenter and purchased a home in Mount Airy's " blue-collar" south side. With neither a crib nor a bed, he slept in dresser drawers for several months. As a baby, Griffith lived with relatives until his parents could afford to buy a home. Griffith was born on June 1, 1926, in Mount Airy, North Carolina, the only child of Carl Lee Griffith and his wife, Geneva (née Nunn).
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