In a typical Hollywood paradox, Don Knotts proved quite adept at securing steady work playing the frantically nervous and incompetent. With his ungainly, frail-looking physique, bulging eyes, weak chin and prominent Adam's apple, he confounded traditional notions of what a screen star should be, but that's exactly what he was for the better part of three decades. After great success in the 1960s as a TV second banana, Knotts spent much of the second half of that decade as a feature comedy star. Nevertheless, the small screen proved the more hospitable home. His Deputy Barney Fife, a bumbling
