Jim Nabors, TV's Gomer Pyle, Married Stan Cadwallader In Seattle

by UInterviewJanuary 31, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Jim Nabors, who played Gomer Pyle in The Andy Griffith Show, has married longtime partner Stan Cadwallader.

Nabors, 82, and Cadwallader, 64, made the trip to Seattle, Wash., from their home in Honolulu on Jan. 15 to legalize their 38-year-long relationship. Washington state just legalized same-sex marriage at the end of December.

The pair met in Honolulu in 1975 where Cadwallader was working as a firefighter. Although Nabors had been living happily and openly with partner Cadwallader, he had never publicly acknowledged the relationship or his homosexuality.

"I'm 82 and he's in his 60s and so we've been together for 38 years and I'm not ashamed of people knowing, it's just that it was such a personal thing, I didn't tell anybody," Nabors said. "I'm very happy that I've had a partner of 38 years and I feel very blessed. And, what can I tell you, I'm just very happy."

While he's glad he was finally able to marry his partner, Nabors has no inclination to become politically involved in issues pertaining to gay rights – including petitioning for legalizing gay marriage in the states that have yet to do so. "I'm not a debater. And everybody has their own opinion about this and actually I'm not an activist, so I've never gotten involved in any of this," Nabors told Hawaii News Now.

Nabors' role as Gomer Pyle in the The Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s made him a household name. The loveable character was a hapless gas station attendant whose trademark was exclaiming "Golllll-ly!" Nabors' soaring popularity as Gomer Pyle caused CBS to offer Nabor his own show, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., which lasted for five seasons. — Chelsea Regan

Check out a clip of Nabors playing the marine Gomer Pyle below: