US TV legend Andy Griffith dies aged 86

President George W Bush presents his Presidential Medal of Freedom to actor Andy Griffith at a ceremony in the White House in this November 9, 2005 file photograph.

DPA/Los AngelesTelevision legend Andy Griffith, who dominated US sitcoms throughout the 1960’s as a consensus-building sheriff on The Andy Griffith show, died yesterday at the age of 86.Griffith was born in North Carolina in 1926 and it was the tensions in the southern US in the civil rights era that formed the backdrop to his top-rated comedy in which he earned the nickname “America’s favourite sheriff.”Griffith also starred as a cantankerous lawyer in the TV legal drama Matlock which ran from 1986 to 1995.He was married three times and is survived by his third wife, Cindi and two daughters.