George Lindsey was born in Fairfield, Alabama to George Ross Lindsey (a butcher) and wife, Alice Smith. He was raised by his grandparents in the small town of Jasper, where he graduated from Walker County High School in 1946. He attended Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri, and Florence State Teacher’s College (Florence, Alabama) (now the University of North Alabama), where he majored in physical education and biology. He was a quarterback on the football team, and acted in college plays. He received a Bachelor of Science in 1952.

After graduating from college he enlisted in the United States Air Force and was stationed at Ramey Air Force Base in Puerto Rico. After his discharge, he taught for a year at Hazel Green High School in Hazel Green, Alabama, while waiting to be accepted by the American Theater Wing in New York City in 1956. On March 24, 1960, he appeared on the To Tell the Truth television quiz show, posing as a Florida spear fisherman and ultimately revealing himself as a “nightclub comic.” After graduating from the Wing and performing in two Broadway plays, “Wonderful Town” and “All American”, he moved to Los Angeles in 1962. He got parts in TV series of the day including Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, The Real McCoys, The Twilight Zone, Daniel Boone, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, before he got the role he would become famous for as “Goober” on The Andy Griffith Show.

In 1964, Lindsey was cast as the slow-witted but kindly “Goober Beasley” on The Andy Griffith Show. His character was later renamed “Goober Pyle” to tie him to his cousin Gomer Pyle, slow-witted country boy played by Jim Nabors, also from Alabama. Goober’s antics frequently included his exaggerated “Goober Dance” and his comically bad Cary Grant impression.

As Lindsey started his portrayal as Goober, he also had a minor role in the Walter Brennan series The Tycoon on ABC. Lindsey played a sailor in the 1964 film Ensign Pulver, the sequel to Mister Roberts. He also had a role in a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode entitled “Submarine Sunk Here”. He appeared in six episodes of the television series Gunsmoke. He played a blackmailing taxicab driver in the “Bed of Roses” episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

After Griffith left his television show, CBS retooled it as Mayberry R.F.D. and Lindsey played the same character, until CBS cancelled the program in 1971. In his autobiography, Lindsey said though Mayberry R.F.D. gave his character more to do, he never felt the show’s writing was up to the standards of The Andy Griffith Show.

In 1972, Lindsey portrayed Charlie, one of a pair of highwaymen in the Gunsmoke episode “Blind Man’s Bluff,” and an escaped convict, “The Dove,” in an episode of The Rifleman. Disney used his talents in a few projects, both as comedy support in features (Snowball Express) and voiceovers for a few of their animated characters. Three Disney animated features that presented the voice of Lindsey were The Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973) and The Rescuers (1977). He appeared in the 1967 Gunsmoke episode “Mad Dog” as one of the Watson Brothers.

In 1978, Lindsey guest starred on M*A*S*H as Roy Dupree, a wild but capable Southern surgeon. In 1997 Lindsey played himself in an episode of NewsRadio.

He established and perpetuated the George Lindsey Academic Scholarships at University of North Alabama. In 1992, the university gave him an honorary doctorate.

Lindsey was the 1995 recipient of the Governor’s Achievement Award — Alabama Music Hall of Fame. The State of Alabama named the “George Lindsey Highway” in Jasper, Alabama after the actor. In 1998, he established the George Lindsey/UNA Film Festival that takes place at the University of North Alabama annually in the spring.

During an interview segment of TV Land’s 40th Anniversary Star Trek Marathon on November 12, 2006 Leonard Nimoy stated that Gene Roddenberry’s first choice to play Spock was George Lindsey. Because of the flippant way Nimoy makes the comment it has been suggested that he was joking. The claim Lindsey was offered the role is given more credibility when Lindsey’s close friend Ernest Borgnine wrote in his autobiography, “my hand to God – he turned down the part of Mr. Spock on TV’s Star Trek, the role that made Leonard Nimoy famous.”

His last guest appearance was on Larry the Cable Guy’s Hula Palooza Christmas Luau in 2009.

Lindsey died on May 6, 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee from heart failure. He was 83. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in his hometown of Jasper, Alabama.