Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is a director and producer as well as an actor. Howard came to prominence in the 1960s while playing Andy Griffith's TV son, Opie Taylor, on The Andy Griffith Show (credited as Ronny Howard), and later in the 1970s as Howard Cunningham's son and Arthur Fonzarelli's best friend, Richie Cunningham, on Happy Days (a role he played from 1974 to 1980). Since retiring from acting, he has directed many films including Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon and the upcoming sequel to the The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons.

Early life

Howard was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, the son of Jean Speegle Howard, an actress, and Rance Howard, a director, writer, and actor. His younger brother, Clint Howard, is a well-known character actor. Howard attended the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts but did not graduate.

Career

Early acting roles and The Andy Griffith Show

Howard first earned recognition for playing Winthrop Paroo, the child with the lisp in the film version of The Music Man with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. Besides appearing in The Music Man, he appeared in the role of Opie Taylor in the television series The Andy Griffith Show, which was the successful spin-off of The Danny Thomas Show. There he portrayed the son of the local sheriff in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina. For eight seasons, he created a loving relationship with Andy Griffith on-screen, and spent a lot of time with him off-screen when not filming. The credits referred to him as "Ronny Howard." He also appeared in the 1963 film The Courtship of Eddie's Father with Glenn Ford and (billed as "Ronnie Howard") in Little Boy Lost, a 1966 episode of the TV show I Spy with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby. Howard made a notable guest-star appearance on the popular television series M*A*S*H during that show's first season as an underage American serving in the Marines during the Korean War.

Happy Days

Howard is also well known for his role as Richie Cunningham in television's Happy Days on which, beginning in 1974, he played the likeable "buttoned down" boy, in contrast to Henry Winkler's Fonz. He attained film success with his role as Steve Bollander in George Lucas' teen movie American Graffiti. In 1977, while still starring on Happy Days, he directed his first film, a low-budget comedy/action film called Grand Theft Auto.

His last significant on-screen role was when he reprised his famous role as Opie Taylor in the 1986 TV reunion movie Return to Mayberry reuniting him with Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, and most of the old cast.

Directing

Before leaving Happy Days in 1980, Howard made his directing debut with the 1977 project Grand Theft Auto (after cutting a deal with Roger Corman to star in Eat My Dust with Christopher Norris). Howard went on to direct several TV movies. His big theatrical break came in 1982 with Night Shift featuring soon-to-be stars, such as Michael Keaton and Shelley Long, as well as reuniting Howard with Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler.

He has since directed a number of high-visibility films, including Splash, Parenthood, Cocoon, Apollo 13 (nominated for nine Academy Awards and winning two), A Beautiful Mind (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director), Cinderella Man and The Da Vinci Code.

Howard's younger brother, Clint, has minor roles in most of his movies.

Ron Howard will showcase the world premiere of his newest film, Frost/Nixon at the 2008 London Film Festival in October, 2008.

Imagine Entertainment

Howard is the co-chairman, with Brian Grazer, of Imagine Entertainment, a major film and television production company, which has produced notable projects like Friday Night Lights, 8 Mile, Inside Deep Throat, and the television series 24 and Felicity.

Through his company Imagine Television, Howard continues to have a presence in television, most recently as the executive producer and uncredited narrator of the critically acclaimed FOX sitcom Arrested Development. The show, despite having won six Emmy awards and near-unanimous praise from critics, did not enjoy high ratings and was limited by Fox Television in 2006 due to FOX scheduling the show opposite major events on other stations. A series finale took place in February 2006, but Howard, on-screen for the first time in the show, suggested a movie version may be in the works. In February 2008, Jeffrey Tambor and Jason Bateman confirmed that a movie is, in fact, going to be made with a possible 2009 release. Creator Mitchell Hurwitz is writing the screenplay, while Howard is rumored to direct.

Personal life

On June 7, 1975, Howard wed his high-school sweetheart, Cheryl (née Alley), a writer with a degree in geriatric psychology. They have four children; daughters Bryce Dallas Howard (b. 1981), Jocelyn Carlyle and Paige Carlyle (twins, b. 1985), and son Reed Cross (b. 1987). His daughter's middle names indicate where they were conceived, Bryce in Dallas, twins Jocelyn and Paige at the Hotel Carlyle in New York City. Son Reed Cross was named after a London street because "Volvo isn't a very good middle name", according to Howard. Daughters Bryce and Paige are actresses. The family lives on a 35 acre estate in the exclusive gated community of Conyers Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut. In February 2007, Howard became a grandfather when his daughter, Bryce, gave birth to a son.

Ron Howard was the sixth cousin to his Andy Griffith Show co-star, Don Knotts, through Howard's ancestor, Lucinda Knotts.

In the June 2006 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Ron Howard was asked, "What do you consider your greatest achievement?" He replied, "Forty-eight consecutive years of steady employment in television and film, while preserving a rich family life."

Howard in popular culture

Howard appeared as himself twice in The Simpsons. In "When You Dish Upon a Star", Homer meets and befriends Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger and Howard. Later in the episode, Howard is injured when trying to jump from a truck to the RV that Homer was driving. In the end, he pitches Homer's movie idea and gets it greenlit. Another episode ("Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder") Homer and Howard are fighting each other while appearing on The Springfield Squares. Later, Howard gives Homer the inspiration to spend more time with his kids and gives him some money that Homer refuses but takes anyway. Ron yoinks the money back from Homer and then drives away.

When he hosted Saturday Night Live in the 1980s, Eddie Murphy called him "Opie Cunningham". In the South Park episode, "Ginger Kids", Cartman asks a crowd of fellow gingers to name great Americans with the hair color, the first and only name they can think of is "Ron Howard", and when asked to name a second, one responds "Ron Howard" again.

On a VH1 special about the 100 greatest child stars, many of the interviewees considered Ron Howard to be the most successful child star of all-time, considering his two major television acting roles and his directing career. In Season 1, Episode 3 of Stroker and Hoop on Adult Swim, Stroker and Hoop ran a detective agency whose first client needed them to make Ron Howard stop controlling his mind.

Filmography

Directorial

Films

Year	Title	No. of Oscar nominations	No. of Oscar wins
1969	Old Paint
	Deed of Daring-Do
	Cards, Cads, Guns, Gore and Death
1976	Eat My Dust
1977	Grand Theft Auto
1982	Night Shift
1984	Splash	1
1985	Cocoon	2	2
1986	Gung Ho
1988	Willow	2
1989	Parenthood	2
1991	Backdraft	3
1992	Far and Away
1994	The Paper	1
1995	Apollo 13	9	2
1996	Ransom
1999	EDtv
2000	How the Grinch Stole Christmas	3	1
2001	A Beautiful Mind	8	4
2003	The Missing
2005	Cinderella Man	3
2006	The Da Vinci Code
2008	Frost/Nixon
2009	Angels & Demons
TBA	Arrested Development
	B-Major
	The Raven
	The Serpent and the Eagle
	The Emperor's Children

Television

• M*A*S*H (1973)
• Cotton Candy (1978)
• Skyward (1980)
• Through the Magic Pyramid (1981)
• Littleshots (1983)
• Take Five (1987)
• Arrested Development (2003)

Acting

Film

• Frontier Woman (1956)
• The Journey (1959)
• Door-to-Door Maniac (1961)
• The Music Man (1962)
• The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963)
• Village of the Giants (1965)
• The Wild Country (1970)
• American Graffiti (1973)
• Happy Mother's Day, Love George (1973)
• The Spikes Gang (1974)
• The First Nudie Musical (1976)
• Eat My Dust (1976)
• The Shootist (1976) Golden Globe nomination
• Grand Theft Auto (1977)
• More American Graffiti (1979)
• The Magical World of Chuck Jones (1992) (documentary)
• ''Apollo 13" (1995)
• One Vision (1998) (documentary)
• The Independent (2000)
• Welcome to Hollywood (2000)
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
• Osmosis Jones (2001) (voice)
• A Beautiful Mind (2001)
• Tell Them Who You Are (2004) (documentary)
• In the Shadow of the Moon (2007) (documentary)

Television

• The Twilight Zone Episode: Walking Distance (1959)
• Dennis the Menace (1959 TV series) Played Stewart (a friend) intermittently from 1959 onwards.
• The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968)
• The Fugitive Episode: Cry Uncle (1964)
• A Boy Called Nuthin (1967)
• Gunsmoke Episode: Charlie Noon (1969)
• Land Of The Giants Episode: Genus At Work (1969)
• Smoke (1970)
• The Smith Family (1971-1972)
• M*A*S*H Episode: Sometimes You Hear the Bullet (1973)
• The Waltons (1974)
• The Migrants (1974)
• Happy Days (cast member from 1974-1980, Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy)
• Locusts (1974)
• Huckleberry Finn (1975)
• I'm a Fool (1976)
• Act of Love (1980)
• The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang (voice) (1980)
• Bitter Harvest (1981)
• Fire on the Mountain (1981)
• Return to Mayberry (1986)
• Arrested Development (Narrator) (2003-2006)

References

External links

• 2002 Commencement Address (USC School of Cinema-Television)
• Ron Howard: Imagining the Wonders of Willow - Article at StarWars.com