The Andy Griffith Show star Jim Nabors has pa s sed away at 87 on Wednesday at his home in Hawaii, Stan Cadwallader, his husband of four years, confirmed his death to the Associated Press.
The Alabama-native, who had undergone a liver transplant in 1994, died peacefully at his home following his poor health condition for the past few years.
The grieved husband of Nabors, Cadwallader said,
Everybody knows he was a wonderful man. And that's all we can say about him. He's going to be dearly missed
In 1994, Nabors announced that he had contracted hepatitis B in India after he cut himself with the contaminated razor while shaving.
Nabor debuted in the early '60s with some television works. However, his breakout role came when he was cast as a dim-witted mechanic Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show for two seasons. Later he performed the same role on his series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., which ran for five seasons.
Jim married to his long-time partner Stan Cadwallader in 2013 in Washington, a month after the same-sex marriage was legalized in the state. At the time, Nabors told the Hawaii News Now,
It's pretty obvious that we had no rights as a couple, yet when you've been together 38 years, I think something's got to happen there, you've got to solidify something. And at my age, it's probably the thing to do.
Jim had already come out of the closet at the time he got married. In addition to his husband Cadwallader, he was survived by two sisters, Freddie and Ruth.
