Biography

Frances Bavier

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Born
December 14, 1902 · New York City, New York, USA
Died
December 6, 1989 · Siler City, North Carolina, USA (congestive heart failure due to heart attack)
Birth name
Frances Elizabeth Bavier

Frances Bavier was born in New York City on December 14, 1902. Her first Broadway appearance was in April 1925 in "The Poor Nut," the start of a successful Broadway career. She traveled with the USO to entertain the U.S. troops in the Pacific during World War II. Her last appearance on Broadway was in the 1951 play, "Point of No Return" starring Henry Fonda. It ran for 356 performances.

Her first movie was the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), which was also the first time Frances appeared with Olan Soule. He later went on to play Mayberry's choir director, John Masters, on the The Andy Griffith Show (1960). In the movie, they were both boarders in the rooming house where the alien stayed. She made many movies during the 50s and appeared on TV as featured characters on shows like It's a Great Life (1954) and The Eve Arden Show (1957) before what would become her most famous role, that of Aunt Bee to Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) and Opie Taylor (Ron Howard) on The Andy Griffith Show (1960).
- IMDb mini biography by: Allan Newsome <anewsome@aol.com>

Despite her good-hearted image on screen, cast members of The Andy Griffith Show (1960) often remember her as difficult, temperamental and somewhat cold. Griffith himself said "There was just something about me she did not like.".
She bought her Siler City home sight unseen after falling in love with the beauty of North Carolina. "I, like a child, came here looking for a fairyland" she once said.
Sadly, when Bavier retired in 1972, she quickly became a recluse in her two-story Siler City, North Carolina home. She rarely left the house. She left most of her $700,000 estate to a hospital foundation. The home in which she lived for 17 years was found to be poorly maintained upon her death, nearly irreparable from the damage caused by her 14 house cats.
In an interview, when director Ron Howard was pressed as to the stories of discord with her on the set of The Andy Griffith Show (1960), all he would say was, "I just don't think she enjoyed being around children that much.".
Her ex-husband, Russell Carpenter, was in the military. They divorced after five years due to conflicting career ambitions.

[speaking in the 1970s] I had played Aunt Bee for ten years and it's very, very difficult for an actress or actor to create a role and be so identified that you as a person no longer exist and all the recognition you get is for a part that's created on screen.

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