If Andy Griffith had done nothing but Elia Kazan's "A Face in the Crowd'' (1957) he would be remembered for one of the most indelible and fearless screen performances of the last 60 years. In a truly remarkable feature debut, he burns up the screen as Lonesome Rhodes, a deeply corrupt hick from Arkansas who becomes a folksy television personality in a scalding film that predicted where TV was headed with a prescience rivaled only by Sidney Lumet's "Network.'' The film's box-office failure is the only possible explanation why he wasn't Oscar nominated.

A standup comic and folk singer who performed in the 1950s in Greenwich Village, Griffith shot to stardom on Steve Allen's TV show, a gig that led to his first acting role, hilariously playing a hayseed army draftee in a live TV production of "No Time For Sargents'' -- a role he reprised to acclaim on Broadway and in Mervyn LeRoy's 1958 big-screen version (which was vastly more successful than "A Face in the Crowd.'')

After another, less inspired service comedy, "Onionhead'' (1958) and the Broadway musical "Destry Rides Again'' (which brought a second Tony nomination), Griffith returned to television. Of course, he became an icon playing widowed North Carolina Sheriff Andy Taylor in "The Andy Griffith Show,'' an enormously popular off from an episode of "The Danny Thomas Show.'' Sheriff Andy's warm relationship with his son Opie (Ronny Howard, as he was then known) resonated deeply with us young Boomers who lived in far less idyllic homes.

A TV staple for years after the series began never-ending reruns (it holds up extremely well), Griffith appeared in only a dozen feature films over 52 years. He was especially good as a veteran B-western actor who befriends Jeff Bridges in Howard Zieff's "Hearts of the West'' (1975) and as an effete cattle baron in Hugh Wilson's western spoof "Rustler's Rhapsody'' (1985).

In his relatively small part in Adrienne Shelley's "Waitress'' (2007), Griffith -- his impeccable comic timing unslowed at age 80 -- showed his gift for making everyone who was lucky enough to act with him look good. His final screen appearance was a co-starring role in the little-seen "Playing the Game'' (2009), in which Griffith had his first (discreet) sex scene as an elderly widower who gets romantic advice from his grandson.

Any discussion of Griffith inevitably comes back to Sheriff Andy -- a part he briefly but memorably reprised one last time in a 2008 Obama campaign video directed by his TV son, Ron Howard. Somehow, it seems incredibly fitting to learn that Griffith passed away this morning in Manteo, North Carolina, around 300 miles from his North Carolina birthplace, Mount Airy, that inspired the fictional Mayberry. Rest in peace.

Update: Spike Lee and Robert Osborne will be introducing a previously-scheduled showing of "A Face in the Crowd'' this Thursday night/Friday morning at 1:45 a.m. on Turner Classic Movies. It will also be shown at 8 p.m. on July 18 as part of a TCM salute to Griffith that also includes "No Time for Sergeants,'' "Hearts of the West'' and "Onionhead.'' I have also linked to a bunch of clips from Twitter (twitter.com/loulumenick) including several from "A Face in The Crowd,'' his Obama campaign video, Griffith in a PBS presentation of "Six Characters in Search of a Character'' and a 1959 appearance on "What's My Line.''