“Golllll-ly!” Nobody who grew up in the 1960s needs that word explained. Jim Nabors first said it as a gas station attendant in Mayberry, and when the Marine Corps got hold of Gomer Pyle in a backdoor pilot that aired as the Andy Griffith Show season finale in May 1964, CBS had a hit on its hands before the first episode of the new series even aired.
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. premiered on September 25, 1964, and ran for five seasons and 150 episodes, the first season in black-and-white and the rest in color. It never finished lower than 10th in the ratings, and in its final season it was the No. 2 show in America, behind only Laugh-In. Then Nabors walked away. Here is what became of the platoon at Camp Henderson, in the order we lost them, ending with the last cast member to go, who died earlier this year on a date that seemed chosen with love.
Is Frank Sutton Still Alive?
Every Gomer needed a Sergeant Carter, and Frank Sutton played the red-faced, vein-popping Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter for all five seasons. “Pyle!” was practically his catchphrase, and the comedy came from a hard-shelled drill instructor who could never quite stay angry at the kindest private on the base. The partnership did not end when the show did. Sutton turned up as Nabors’ brother-in-law in sketches on The Jim Nabors Hour.
His death came far too soon. Sutton suffered a heart attack while preparing to go on stage in the comedy Luv at a dinner theater in Shreveport, Louisiana, and died on June 28, 1974, according to an Associated Press report at the time. He was 50. His last role, in the TV movie Hurricane, aired after he was gone.
Is Ted Bessell Still Alive?
Ted Bessell spent the 1965-66 season as Frankie Lombardi, one of Gomer’s barracks buddies, and he was only a year away from the role that made him famous. In 1966 he became Donald Hollinger, the patient boyfriend of Marlo Thomas on That Girl, and he stayed with her for five seasons. Later he moved behind the camera and shared a 1989 Emmy as a producer of The Tracey Ullman Show.
Bessell died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm in Los Angeles on October 6, 1996. He was 61, although the New York Times headline at the time listed him as 57.
Is Roy Stuart Still Alive?
Roy Stuart played Corporal Chuck Boyle, Carter’s dependable right hand, from the second season through the fourth. The New York native never stopped working after the show ended. He appeared in more than 100 television commercials in the 1970s and guest-starred on CHiPs, Mama’s Family and The Golden Girls.
Stuart died of cancer at the Motion Picture and Television hospital in Woodland Hills, California, on Christmas Day 2005. He was 78.
Is Allan Melvin Still Alive?
If Allan Melvin’s face looks familiar from almost every sitcom of your childhood, there is a good reason. On Gomer Pyle he was Staff Sergeant Charley Hacker, Carter’s scheming rival from the next platoon. He then became Sam the Butcher, Alice’s sweetheart on The Brady Bunch, and Barney Hefner, Archie’s barstool buddy on All in the Family and Archie Bunker’s Place.
Melvin died of cancer at his home in Brentwood on January 17, 2008, a month short of his 85th birthday, as the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 84.
Is Barbara Stuart Still Alive?
Sergeant Carter was not all bark. His soft spot was Miss Bunny, his girlfriend, played by Barbara Stuart, and their scenes gave the gruff sergeant a chance to look a little foolish in love. Stuart kept working steadily for decades afterward, with parts in Airplane! and Bachelor Party and a turn as Mrs. Medford on Three’s Company.
She died at a nursing home in St. George, Utah, on May 15, 2011, at 81, according to the New York Times.
Is William Christopher Still Alive?
Long before he was Father Mulcahy, William Christopher wore a different uniform. He played Private Lester Hummel, mostly in the third and fourth seasons, and he was just a few years away from the gentle chaplain he would play for 11 seasons on M*A*S*H and again on AfterMASH.
Christopher died of lung cancer at his home in Pasadena on December 31, 2016, at 84, as Variety reported. Less than a year later, the private who started it all was gone too.
Is Jim Nabors Still Alive?
Jim Nabors was born in Sylacauga, Alabama, on June 12, 1930, and the voice that came out of Gomer surprised everybody. When he sang on the show in a rich baritone, audiences could hardly believe it was the same man. He recorded 28 albums for Columbia and sang “Back Home Again in Indiana” before the Indianapolis 500 from 1972 to 2014.
He also understood Gomer better than critics did. “Everybody thought (Gomer) was stupid; he really wasn’t,” Nabors said in 2008, in a remark the Associated Press quoted in his obituary. The show aired at the height of the Vietnam War, yet it never touched it. “War wasn’t mentioned,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. And he was famously modest about all of it. “I never thought much of my acting ability,” he said in 1995.
When the show was still near the top of the ratings in 1969, Nabors chose to leave, and he was widely quoted as saying he wanted to “reach for another rung on the ladder, either up or down.” CBS gave him The Jim Nabors Hour instead, and we have told the story of how Jim Nabors stayed loyal to a friend even when it cost him his TV show. In 2013 he married Stan Cadwallader, his partner of 38 years, in Seattle. “I just wanted it legal,” he said.
Nabors died at his home in Honolulu on November 30, 2017, at 87. He had received a liver transplant in 1994, and his husband said his death appeared to be from natural causes.
Is Forrest Compton Still Alive?
Forrest Compton played Lieutenant Colonel Edward Gray, the base commander who had to sort out whatever mess Gomer and Carter made that week. Daytime viewers knew him even better. From 1970 to 1984 he was attorney Mike Karr on the soap The Edge of Night.
Compton died of COVID-19 on Shelter Island, New York, on April 4, 2020, at 94, as Deadline reported.
Is Elizabeth MacRae Still Alive?
Gomer finally got a sweetheart in 1966. Elizabeth MacRae played Lou-Ann Poovie, the sweet-voiced singer from back home, in 15 episodes through 1969, and she never stopped being proud of it. “I loved playing Lou-Ann Poovie,” she said, in words quoted widely after her death.
MacRae died in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on May 27, 2024, at 88, according to ET. That left one main cast member from Camp Henderson, and he lasted almost exactly two more years.
Is Ronnie Schell Still Alive?
Ronnie Schell was Duke Slater, Gomer’s wisecracking best friend in the barracks, and he played him for most of the show’s run, with a break to star as a disc jockey in Good Morning, World. He came back to Camp Henderson when that show ended after 26 episodes. Later generations knew his voice without knowing his face, because he was Peter Puck in the cartoons shown during NHL broadcasts in the 1970s.
The Associated Press called him show business’s “slowest-rising comedian,” and he made peace with it. “I didn’t get the big break, but I got many little breaks,” he said. He died of natural causes after a fall at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on June 12, 2026, at 94, according to the Associated Press.
June 12 was Jim Nabors’ birthday, and his family noticed. “Ronnie chose to leave us on the birthday of his dear friend, Jim Nabors,” they said. The platoon is gone now, but one famous guest is still with us. Carol Burnett, who joined the Marines for two episodes as Corporal Carol Barnes and was Nabors’ lifelong friend, turned 93 in April. Nabors was the first guest on The Carol Burnett Show season after season, and she called him her good luck charm, as MeTV recounted and as we explored in our look at their friendship.
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