From BBC News:
US comedy star Knotts dies at 81
US actor Don Knotts, who won five Emmys for playing a bumbling deputy sheriff in comedy The Andy Griffith Show, has died in a Los Angeles hospital aged 81.
Knotts won over millions of fans as Deputy Barney Fife in the hugely popular 1960s series.
He also played landlord Ralph Furley in 1980s sitcom Three’s Company.
Knott died of pulmonary and respiratory complications. Co-star Griffith said: “Don was a small man, but everything else about him was large.”