The level of care he gets also depends on where he lives (because local authorities decide how much of their budgets to spend on the aged), and on whether he has children or good-hearted neighbours to help him.

ECONOMIST: A political row overshadows the interests of the elderly

He is also seen as a good-hearted bumbler, whose administration fell because he couldn't count, and whose later attempt (as minister for constitutional affairs) to sort out the Quebec issue with the 1992 Charlottetown Accord failed in a referendum.

ECONOMIST: Canada

He personified America's notion of itself as both good-hearted and tough-minded, wised-up and amiable at the same time.

NPR: Reagan Sequel? Hard Act for Thompson to Follow

"Throughout his career, he represented everything that was good about North Carolina: a small town boy and UNC graduate who took a light-hearted approach to some of the attributes he grew up with and turned them into a spectacularly successful career, " she said.

CNN: Actor Andy Griffith dead at 86