Ron Howard was a TV star who grew up in front of the cameras, then gave up acting to become a successful director and producer of Oscar-caliber movies including A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995). In the 1980s Howard stopped acting and began a respected career as a movie director and producer.
Background
Howard was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, the son of Jean Speegle Howard, an actress, and Rance Howard, a director, writer, and actor. He has Dutch, Scottish, English, Irish, German, and Cherokee ancestry. His father was born with the surname "Beckenholdt", and had taken the stage name "Howard" by 1948, for his acting career. Rance Howard was serving three years in the United States Air Force at the time of Ron's birth. The family moved to Hollywood in 1958, the year before the birth of his younger brother, Clint Howard. They rented a house on the block south of the Desilu Studios, where The Andy Griffith Show would later be filmed. They lived in Hollywood for at least three years, before moving to Burbank.
Education
Dropped out from the university.
Career
Bon Howard is the exemplary child given over to the Society of Jesus called Hollywood. The son of actors, he was a regular in a hit TV series. The Andy Griffith Show, from the ages of six to fourteen. He played the ideal, freckled American boy—Tom Sawyer without the wit—safe, satisfying, and sedulous about every item of American faith that was being dismantled in the 1960s.
Then he was the central youth, already equipped with a girlfriend for life, in American Graffiti (73, George Lucas), the movie that inaugurated a culture, of which Happy Days is a key part. On TV, that show lasted a decade, from Nixon to Reagan, yet oblivious of all but the securely small and local concerns that advertisers would wish upon the young man growing up.
In the process, by the age of thirty, Ron Howard was folkloric. He had more hours of moving- image time to his name than anyone of his age. He was hugely popular in the business—and he seems flawlessly likeable and unthreatening. Why should anyone be threatening, yon ask, or adventurous, or difficult? There’s no good reason at all—unless such wayward thoughts take you.
He was a good child actor, and tolerable as a teenager; and he is a proficient director of mild entertainments that make people feel good about their fellow's. It’s just that I could scream.
As a movie actor, he was in The Journey (59, Anatole Litvak); The Music Man (62, Morton Da Costa); very good in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father (63, Vincente Minnelli); Village of the Giants (65, Bert I. Gordon); The Wild Country (71, Robert Totten); Happy Mother’s Day, Love George (73, Darren McGavin); The Spikes Gang (74, Richard Fleischer); The First Nudie Musical (76, Mark Haggard); Eat My Dust (76, Charles Griffith); The Shootist (76, Don Siegel); and More American Grajfiti (79, B. W. L. Norton).
As a director, there is fun and novelty in his early work: Daryl Hannah could not ask for better than Splash; Cocoon did raise the dread topic of old age; and no one has looked at flame with the awe of Backdraft. Bnt such virtues pale in the larger blandness of the works. His record shows just how much of a market there is for what Howard does.
It must be said that, through his company, Imagine, Howard has begun to lend his reputtion as a producer or executive producer to far less viable projects: No Man’s Land (87, Peter Werner); Clean and Sober (88, Glenn Gordon Caron); The Barbs (89, Joe Dante); and Closet Land (91, Radha Bharadway).
He directs big films now, even if most of them seem derived from prior works or topical situations. But The Grinch was verv unusual, and a huge success, and A Beautiful Mind was an unusual exploration of inner worlds, even if it settled for a false kindliness, just as it won best picture, so Howard is a Thalberg Award winner one day—and a deserved one: he makes Hollywood feel better about itself. And these days that is a tough trick. Of course, it might be better for the artist in Howard if he felt less settled or secure about things—about everything.
Director Ron Howard is fighting back against claims that he is “anti-Catholic”. As the director of The DaVinci Code and the soon-to-be-released Angels & Demons, Howard has been battling charges that he makes anti-Catholic films. One of the Howard’s biggest critics is this guy named William Donohue and his “Catholic League”. Donohue’s main claim to fame is his appearances on Larry King Live and Hardball, where he criticizes anyone and anything who does not move in lock-step with every conservative Catholic dogma.
Politics
Ron Howard was such a big supporter of President Barack Obama in 2008 that he teamed up with his former co-stars Andy Griffith and Henry Winkler to create an all-star campaign video.
Howard said governing is hard for anyone when politicians go to partisan extremes, as the country saw with the recent federal government shutdown. The director said he champions a "militant middle" where people can come together and compromise their ideals.
Views
Quotations:
“I've acted with all types, I've directed all types. What you want to understand, as a director, is what actors have to offer. They'll get at it however they get at it. If you can understand that, you can get your work done.”
“It was always my dream to be a director. A lot of it had to do with controlling my own destiny, because as a young actor you feel at everyone's disposal. But I wanted to become a leader in the business.”
Interests
Trap shooting, archery, fishing.
Politicians
Baraсk Obama
Connections
Howard married Cheryl Alley on June 7, 1975. They have four children: daughters Bryce Dallas Howard (b. 1981), twins Jocelyn Carlyle & Paige Howard (b. 1985), son Reed Cross (b. 1987), and two grandchildren: grandson Theodore Norman Howard-Gabel (b. 2007), and granddaughter Beatrice Jean Howard-Gabel (b. 2012) from daughter Bryce Dallas Howard and son-in-law Seth Gabel.
In 2002 won in nomination Best Picture - A Beautiful Mind (2001) Shared with:Brian Grazer
Won in nomination Best Director - A Beautiful Mind (2001)
In 2002 won in nomination Best Picture - A Beautiful Mind (2001) Shared with:Brian Grazer
Won in nomination Best Director - A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Golden Globes,
USA
In 1978 won Golden Globe in nomination - Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy Happy Days (1974)
In 1978 won Golden Globe in nomination - Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy Happy Days (1974)
Primetime Emmy Awards
In 2004 won Primetime Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Arrested Development (2003)
Shared with:
Brian Grazer (executive producer)
David Nevins (executive producer)
Mitchell Hurwitz (executive producer)
John Levenstein (co-executive producer)
Richard Rosenstock (co-executive producer)
Chuck Martin (supervising producer)
Barbie Adler (producer)
Victor Hsu (produced by)
In 1998 won Primetime Emmy Outstanding Miniseries in film From the Earth to the Moon (1998)
Shared with:
Tom Hanks (executive producer)
Brian Grazer (producer)
Michael Bostick (producer)
Tony To (co-executive producer)
John P. Melfi (supervising producer)
Graham Yost (supervising producer)
Janace Tashjian (co-producer)
Bruce Richmond (co-producer)
Erik Bork (co-producer)
In 2004 won Primetime Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Arrested Development (2003)
Shared with:
Brian Grazer (executive producer)
David Nevins (executive producer)
Mitchell Hurwitz (executive producer)
John Levenstein (co-executive producer)
Richard Rosenstock (co-executive producer)
Chuck Martin (supervising producer)
Barbie Adler (producer)
Victor Hsu (produced by)
In 1998 won Primetime Emmy Outstanding Miniseries in film From the Earth to the Moon (1998)