Ron Howard reveals he was related to ‘Andy Griffith Show’ costar Don Knotts

By CNN Newsource

Published February 20, 2025 8:41 am

By Lisa Respers France, CNN

(CNN) — Turns out Mayberry was smaller than we knew.

Ron Howard, who found fame as a child star on the hit 1960s series “The Andy Griffith Show,” recently shared a photo on social media that showed him with his costars Andy Griffith and Don Knotts.

“A fun photo of the day in ‘97 when #AndyGriffith and #DonKnotts surprised me with a visit to the set of #Ransom in #Queens,” the now-famed director wrote in the caption. “It was recently confirmed that Don and I were actually distant cousins!”

Howard was cast when he was five years old in the sitcom, which ran on CBS from 1960 to 1968. He played the son of Griffith, who played a widowed sheriff in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina.

Knotts played his bumbling deputy, Barney Fife.

Griffith died at the age of 86 following a heart attack in 2012. Knotts died in 2006 at the age of 81 of complications from lung cancer.

Howard went on to star in the 197s television comedy “Happy Days” before going behind the camera to direct multiple films over the years including “Splash,” “Apollo 13,” “The Da Vinci Code” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”