TLDR: Jim Nabors was born on June 12, 1930, in Sylacauga, Alabama, played Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show from 1962 to 1964, and starred in the spin-off Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. from 1964 to 1969.
He was simultaneously a successful recording artist with an operatic baritone voice and over 30 albums. He sang “(Back Home Again in) Indiana” at the Indianapolis 500 nearly every year from 1972 to 2014.
He had been in a relationship with Stan Cadwallader since 1975 and married him in Seattle in January 2013 at age 82, when same-sex marriage became legal in Washington State.
He died on November 30, 2017, at age 87, in Honolulu.
Gomer Pyle spoke in a high-pitched, slow Southern drawl that was immediately recognizable to anyone who watched television in the 1960s. Simple, earnest, occasionally baffling. The voice of an innocent man who didn’t quite understand the world he was living in.
Then Jim Nabors would open his mouth to sing and the room would change.
The voice that came out was a rich, resonant operatic baritone that seemed to belong to a completely different person. Concert audiences who had come expecting Gomer Pyle would sit in stunned silence for a moment before the applause started.
He made more than 30 albums. He sang at the Indianapolis 500 for 42 years.
Carol Burnett considered him her personal good-luck charm and featured him on every season premiere of her show because she believed his presence guaranteed the season would go well.
The voice was real. So was everything else he kept quiet for most of his life.
He Grew Up in Alabama With Severe Asthma and Found His Way to Comedy
James Thurston Nabors was born on June 12, 1930, in Sylacauga, Alabama, the youngest of three children. His father was a local police officer. His childhood was shaped substantially by severe, chronic asthma that prevented him from participating in school sports and largely confined him to rest during flare-ups.
In the absence of athletic competition, he developed a repertoire of vocal impressions and comedic bits to entertain his classmates. The physical limitation became the foundation of the career.
He studied business administration at the University of Alabama and graduated with no particular expectation of entering entertainment. He worked as a typist at the United Nations in New York, as a film cutter at an NBC affiliate in Chattanooga, and eventually moved to Los Angeles in the late 1950s, partly because the dry California climate was better for his lungs.
He continued cutting film at NBC by day and performing at a small cabaret theater in Santa Monica called The Horn by night.
The Horn act was the one that changed everything. He would come out speaking in the slow Southern drawl, playing the simple country character, and then he would sing.
The contrast between the two voices was so startling it was genuinely funny and genuinely impressive simultaneously. Comedian Bill Dana caught the act and booked him on The Steve Allen Show. Andy Griffith caught it next.
Andy Griffith Went to a Cabaret and Discovered Gomer Pyle
Griffith was looking for a new character to add to Mayberry when he visited The Horn and watched Nabors perform. He was immediately taken by the contrast between the character voice and the singing voice and championed Nabors to producer Aaron Ruben over the initial favorite for the role, George Lindsey.
Nabors made his first appearance on The Andy Griffith Show in 1962 as Gomer Pyle, a gas pumper at Wally’s Filling Station. The character was an immediate audience favorite.
Gomer’s signature exclamations, “Shazam!” and “Golll-ly!”, became cultural touchstones not because they were written to be catchphrases but because of the specific rhythmic delivery Nabors gave them.
He appeared in 23 episodes of the show between 1962 and 1964 before the character’s popularity earned him his own series.
Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. Was the Second Most Watched Show in America
Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. ran from 1964 to 1969 and ended its five-season run as the second-highest-rated series in the United States, behind only Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. The premise dropped Gomer into the Marine Corps at Camp Henderson, where Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter, played by Frank Sutton, spent five seasons trying to make sense of him.
The show aired through the peak years of the Vietnam War and was deliberately set in a peacetime context. Real Marines were fighting and dying in Southeast Asia while the Marines of Camp Henderson dealt with comedic misunderstandings.
Nabors later described the show as a cultural antidepressant, something that sat deliberately outside the political discourse of the era.
The Marine Corps cooperated fully with the production, providing technical advisors and allowing the opening credits to be filmed at the Marine base in San Diego.
Despite the show’s extraordinary success, Nabors remained professionally insecure throughout its run. For eight months a year he was on set at 5 AM. Weekends and vacations he filled with nightclub and concert performances.
He lived with a constant belief that his luck would run out and refused to stop working long enough to find out if he was right.
He Made More Than 30 Albums and Sang at the Indianapolis 500 for 42 Years
Nabors signed with Columbia Records in 1965 and built a recording career that extended well beyond novelty material.
His most enduring work was in romantic ballads and religious hymns that showcased the baritone voice without any trace of the Gomer Pyle character. He released more than 30 albums across two decades. His Christmas album became a perennial.
In 1972 he attended the Indianapolis 500 as a spectator. The morning of the race, track owner Tony Hulman approached him and asked if he would sing “(Back Home Again in) Indiana” before the start.
Nabors had no rehearsal and wasn’t certain of all the lyrics. He wrote the words on the palm of his hand and sang. The performance was powerful enough that it sparked a tradition lasting 42 years.
He sang the anthem nearly every year from 1972 to 2014, retiring at age 83. His baritone at the Speedway became as associated with the Indianapolis 500 as the sound of the engines.
A Rumor About Rock Hudson Destroyed a Friendship
In the early 1970s, a rumor spread nationally claiming that Nabors and Rock Hudson had held a secret wedding ceremony, with Hudson supposedly taking the name “Rock Pyle.”
The rumor originated as an in-joke among a group of gay party-throwers in Huntington Beach who sent out satirical invitations to their annual party.
The joke was picked up by fan magazines and gossip columnists who presented it as fact.
The fallout was severe. Hudson was in the middle of establishing himself in a new television series and was terrified the story would end his career. The two men, who had been genuine close friends, were forced to stop seeing each other publicly to avoid lending any credibility to the story.
The friendship was effectively destroyed. Nabors described the situation as a nightmare. His manager advised against a lawsuit, fearing more publicity would make things worse.
He Moved to Hawaii and Grew Macadamia Nuts on 500 Acres
In 1976, Nabors moved permanently to Hawaii, seeking distance from the Hollywood spotlight and a climate that suited his health. He bought a 500-acre macadamia nut ranch on Maui and managed more than 20,000 trees.
He had been in a relationship with Stan Cadwallader, a firefighter he met in Honolulu in 1975, from the beginning of his time in Hawaii. The relationship was known within his close professional circle, including Carol Burnett and Burt Reynolds, but kept private from the public for decades.
Carol Burnett Helped Save His Life
In 1994, while traveling in India, Nabors contracted hepatitis B through a cut he sustained while shaving with a straight razor. The virus caused rapid liver failure. On February 7, 1994, he underwent a seven-hour liver transplant at the UCLA Medical Center.
Carol Burnett contacted the head of the transplant division at UCLA to ensure her friend received the best possible care.
He recovered and became an advocate for the American Liver Foundation. The transplant’s permanent suppression of his immune system would be a factor in his health for the rest of his life.
He Married Stan Cadwallader at Age 82 in a Seattle Hotel Room
On January 15, 2013, Nabors and Cadwallader traveled to Seattle, Washington, where same-sex marriage had become legal the previous month. They married in their hotel room at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, officiated by a judge who drove up from Olympia. The ceremony was private. Cadwallader was 64. Nabors was 82.
Nabors said afterward that he was not an activist and had never made a huge secret of his life, but that at his age it was important to solidify something and ensure their rights as a couple were legally recognized. They had been together for 38 years before the law caught up with them.
Where Jim Nabors Was in the End
Nabors sang at the Indianapolis 500 for the last time in 2014, at age 83. His health declined significantly in late 2016. He died peacefully at his home in Honolulu on November 30, 2017, at age 87, with Stan Cadwallader beside him.
Ron Howard remembered him as talented, intelligent, and worldly in a way the public never fully recognized behind the Gomer Pyle character. Burt Reynolds said he had a bigger zest for life than anyone Reynolds had ever known.
The Marine Corps, which had been his professional home for five seasons of television, had promoted him through honorary ranks to Honorary Sergeant in 2013.
The man who played America’s most lovably simple character had been one of its more quietly complicated people the whole time.
He knew it. The people close to him knew it.
The 38-year relationship conducted in private, the marriage at 82, the operatic voice behind the country drawl, the ranch on Maui, the liver transplant, the ruined friendship over a rumor that started as a joke at a party in Huntington Beach.
Golll-ly doesn’t quite cover it.
