14 Facts About Ben Matlock

Benjamin Leighton Matlock is a fictional character from the television series, Matlock, played by Andy Griffith.

Ben Matlock had conspicuously finicky fashion sense, and an insatiable appetite for hot dogs.

Ben Matlock is reported to be based on Georgia defense attorney Bobby Lee Cook.

In high school, Ben Matlock played baseball, and hit a home run in the 9th inning.

Ben Matlock worked for nine years prior to attending Harvard Law School, and accordingly was significantly older than his law school classmates.

Later Ben Matlock recalled that Tate was his favorite professor and that he owed the professor a lot.

Ben Matlock is a widower who had two daughters, Charlene and Leanne, who both became lawyers in their own right and who both worked alongside their father at one point or another.

Ben Matlock's father, Charlie Matlock, was an auto repairman in Ben's hometown.

Ben Matlock had a goddaughter, Laura Miller, whom he had not seen for the last 11 years since her mother's funeral.

Ben Matlock worked at a clothing store at an Atlanta mall.

Ben Matlock had been in practice since the early 1960s, has represented over 400 criminal cases, and chose his cases based on the belief that his client was innocent.

Ben Matlock had several assistants over the years, both as lawyers and private investigators.

Five years afterward, Carla was charged with murdering her ex-husband, and Ben Matlock took the case pro bono as a way of apologizing to Carla.

Ben Matlock won in that he caught the killers but albeit in a different way that wouldn't break client-lawyer privilege as well as living up the agreement he'd made earlier to his client to defend him.