ANDY GRIFFITH DEAD AT AGE 86

Actor Andy Griffith died at about 7 a.m. this morning at his home on Roanoke Island, according to Dare County, North Carolina, Sheriff J.D. "Doug" Doughtie. He passed away after an unspecified illness and "has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoake Island," the family said in a statement.

"Andy was a person of incredibly strong Christian faith and was prepared for the day he would be called Home to his Lord," his wife, Cindi Griffith, said in the statement issued through the Andy Griffith Museum in Mount Airy, North Carolina.

Best known for his role on "The Andy Griffith Show," the University of North Carolina music graduate also starred as a murder-solving Southern attorney in the television series "Matlock" during the 1980s and 1990s. He was also known for his roles in movies and on the stage, as a producer and as a Grammy Award-winning gospel singer Andy Griffith was 86 years old.