Actor Andy Griffith, whose portrayal of a small-town sheriff made The Andy Griffith Show was one of American television’s most enduring shows, has died aged 86.

Television station WITN quoted a longtime friend as saying that Andy Griffith died at his home on Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

The Dare County Sheriff’s dispatcher would say only that an ambulance was called to Andy Griffith’s residence but would not comment further.

Actor Andy Griffith has died aged 86

Andy Griffith created another memorable character, the folksy defense lawyer in Matlock in the 1980s and ’90s, but it was his portrayal of Sheriff Andy Taylor on the The Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s that gave him a place in U.S. television history.

The show portrayed life in the friendly, slow-moving fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina, which was widely believed to have been based on Andy Griffith’s own hometown, Mount Airy, North Carolina.