Jim Nabors

Jim Nabors (b. Sylacauga, Alabama, June 12, 1930 - d. Honolulu, November 30, 2017) – Actor, singer and comedian. A graduate of the University of Alabama, Jim Nabors is best known for his role as Gomer Pyle, a charmingly incompetent southerner on the Andy Griffith Show and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964-69). His start on television was doing hillbilly skits and singing on the Steve Allen Show, on which he was a regular in its last season (1961). Other credits include roles on a number of movies with Burt Reynolds, such as Stroker Ace, the Best Little Whore House in Texas and Cannonball Run II (all in the 1980s). He also made frequent appearances on the Carol Burnet Show. Using an operatic baritone voice, Nabors has recorded twenty-eight albums and numerous other singles ranging from Christmas music and Broadway to religious songs and country. Although never an Indiana resident, Jim Nabors has sung “Back Home Again in Indiana” twenty-nine times for the annual Indianapolis 500 since 1972. Although he missed the 2007 race for health reasons and skipped various other years, he sang every year from 1987 to 2006. Currently a resident of Hawaii, Nabors now operates a macadamia nut plantation and grows tropical flowers.