Solica Cassuto

Solica Cassuto is a former Greek actress who is very popular as the second wife of the late actor and comedian Andy Griffith. Her late ex-husband was a renowned face in Hollywood having worked for around seven decades in music and television. Andy rose to prominence after playing a lead role in 1957’s A Face in The Crowd.

Cassuto and Griffith started their romance in the early 1970s and remained together for around a decade before parting ways. Following her divorce, Solica has maintained a low-profile lifestyle, due to which there are curiosities regarding her life.

So, what is she doing nowadays? Where is she? Did she remarry after her first divorce? Find all the answers here in this article.

Solica Cassuto Parents and Early Life – How Old is She?

She was born in 1950 in Greece and she is aged 73 years old as of 2023. Regarding her parents, unfortunately, there’s no information about them at present. Cassuto holds Greek and American nationality and she is of Caucasian White ethnicity.

Solica was a Greek Actress

Cassuto was an actress before she married Andy Griffith. Even though she continued pursuing her acting career after her marriage, she couldn’t reach her husband’s popularity and success in her career. Due to this, she later moved away from acting.

Unfortunately, we have no clue what she does now. Besides, there’s scarce information about what she started doing after quitting acting.

Solica Cassuto Married Life with Andy Griffith – Why Did They Divorce?

Solica Cassuto married actor Andy Griffith in 1973 as the actor’s second wife. It was the first marriage for Cassuto. The couple reportedly met on the set of a movie they were working on together in the early 1970s.

 According to Me TV, The former husband and wife tied the knot in a small wedding in the backyard of Griffith’s home in Toluca Lake, California.

The site mentioned that actor Ken Berry talked about Andy and Cassuto’s marriage in his book Andy and Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show.  Berry revealed the wedding featured a large harp in the middle of the backyard while the bride “looked like a flower child.”

Berry added,

“I don’t mean that in a bad way. But the image that Andy has – you would just never pick them as a couple.”

Apparently, the house where Griffith and Cassuto tied the knot became their first home together. The house was previously owned by Bing Crosby.

Cassuto and Griffith had a good honeymoon after their marriage, however, the latter once gushed that the most important journey they made together happened a couple of years later. It was the time when the actor took his then-wife to his hometown, Mt. Airy, North Carolina where Solica Cassuto met Andy’s kinfolk and saw the family farm with all the livestock.

A couple of years after their marriage, Cassuto’s then-husband Griffith told Detroit Free Press that Solica made a fine wife who took good care of him and his two children with his first wife.

They Divorced in the Early ’80s

Married in 1973, Solica Cassuto and Andy Griffith lived a happily married life for a little over seven years before they called it quits in the early 1980s. As per the record, the former husband and wife divorced in 1981. The reason for their divorce wasn’t disclosed, but it is believed to be the irreconcilable differences between the two.

Following their divorce, Andy moved on swiftly with his third wife Cindi. However, Solica Cassuto’s love life after her divorce is a complete mystery to this date. She has never made her love life public after the divorce and it is not known if Solica Cassuto remarried after her divorce from Andy Griffith.

Ex-Husband Andy Griffith was Married Two More Times

Late actor Griffth was married three times during his lifetime. He first got married to Barbara Bray Edwards. They were college sweethearts who started dating in the late ’40s and got married in 1949, following their graduation.

Griffith and Barbara were married for over two decades, however, they didn’t have any children together during their marriage. Instead, they adopted two children, a son, Andy (died 1996), and a daughter, Dixie Griffith. They were divorced in 1972.

Andy Griffith’s second marriage was to Solica Cassuto. After his marriage with her ended in 1981, he married his third wife, Cindi Knight who remained with him until his death in 2012. Andy had fallen for the Florida-born while he was still married to his second wife and right after his second divorce, they started dating. After dating for around two years, Griffith and Cindi tied the knot in 1983.

Cassuto’s Ex-Husband Died in 2012

Solica Cassuto’s ex-husband Andy died of a heart attack on July 3, 2012, at the age of 86 at his home in Manteo, North Carolina. Besides, his death certificate revealed hypertension, coronary artery disease, and hyperlipidemia as underlying health conditions.

Before his death, Griffith had been suffering from severe health issues for a long time. He was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome in April 1983, due to which he was left paralyzed from the knees down and couldn’t walk for seven months.

Later, in 2000, Andy underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery at Sentara Norfolk Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. Around seven years later, Griffith suffered a hip injury after a fall, and on September 5, 2007, he underwent hip surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA.

Who is Solica Cassuto Late Ex-Husband Andy Griffith?

Cassuto’s former husband Andy Griffith was a multi-faceted personality. He was active as an actor, gospel singer, writer, comedian, and television producer.  Andy, who worked for over seven decades rose to prominence after working in the 1957 film A Face in the Crowd and 1958’s No Time for Sergeants.

Afterward, Griffith played the lead role of Andy Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show and Ben Matlock in the legal drama series Matlock.

Talking about his awards, Andy received his only Primetime Emmy nomination for the television movie Murder in Texas in the category “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie”  in 1981. Later, in 1987, Griffith earned a People’s Choice Award for his portrayal of Ben Matlock in Matlock.

Similarly, in 2005, at the age of 79, Andy was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

How Rich was Andy Griffith at His Death? Did Solica Cassuto Inherit His Fortune?

According to Celebrity Net Worth, the late actor and comedian had a staggering net worth of $25 million at the time of his death.  In fact, after adjusting for inflation, his net worth is the same around $65 million at present.

As long as we are concerned if Solica Cassuto received something from Andy Griffith’s property following his death, the answer would be NO. Since she was divorced from him more than thirty years before his death, there was no possibility for her to receive any amount.

According to Cheat Sheet, Andy’s third wife Cindi, who was still married to him at his death, received around half of his net worth. Moreover, Cindi received the permit to demolish Andy’s home in North Carolina less than one year after his death. It also raised anger among his fans and the locals. Ira David Smith, Griffith’s long-time friend told USA Today,

“I always assumed the property would be eventually preserved and opened to the public. It’s a beautiful bit of property with a lot of memories attached to it.”

Besides Cindi, Andy’s daughter Dixie Nann Griffith also got benefits from her dad’s property. His son, on the other hand, preceded him in death, who died from liver cirrhosis in 1996.