Don Knotts developed lung cancer in the early 2000s. By then, he and longtime friend Andy Griffith had drifted apart, but Griffith came to his aid and fought it with him.
Unfortunately, Knotts died of cancer. His daughter Karen expressed some regrets 14 years after his death.
“Here’s the thing about my dad,” she said. “He had this funniness that was just completely, insanely natural. When he was dying, he was making us laugh in hysterics. He was literally dying, but he did something or said something that caused my stepmother and I to go into fits of laughter, which is why I ran out.”
Leaving her dad’s side to laugh was something Karen Knotts later regretted.
She went on to say that she had told the story to director Howard Storm, who told her she should have stayed, laughed loudly, and let him hear her.
“He was right; I should have just stood there and blasted out laughing,” Karen thought.
