Biography - Ron Howard

there's more spongebob i was holding up this great big juicy worm oh we're having our breakfast now and can i tell you about the bugs no a freckle-faced opie in the andy griffith show a 1950s richie cunningham on happy days an award-winning director of some of hollywood's best love movies the multi-talented ron howard is a devoted family man and confident performer who changed the course of his life to become one of hollywood's top filmmakers from his birth on march 1 1954 ronald william howard seemed destined for a life and entertainment his parents newlyweds rance and gene howard had dreams of starting a family and making their mark in the theater soon after they welcomed their new son they headed for new york the center of theatrical opportunity within months rants landed a role with veteran actor henry fonda in the touring company of mr roberts and jean appeared off-broadway in the passion play but in 1955 rance's career took an unexpected turn when he was cast in a movie a western called frontier woman jean was also hired on the picture and one-year-old ronnie howard made his feature film debut as a babe in his mother's arms we were so pleased to have him so pleased to have him but he was you know he didn't live in one world and we lived in the other he lived in our world with us the child frequently accompanied his parents to auditions and when rants was cast in the journey the director anatole litvak was so charmed by three-year-old ronnie that he created a whole new character just for him we were skeptical but we thought well okay he has an opportunity to do this movie the journey we'll do it and if it has any negative aspects we won't do it anymore the experience was anything but negative the film was shot on location in vienna austria the howards were not only working together they were seeing the world together by the end of the decade the television industry was booming and stage actors flocked to the west coast to get a break on the small screen jean and rants followed the trend and moved to a small suburb outside of hollywood california called burbank when jean gave birth to a second son clint she decided to stay home and become a full-time mom while rants slowly began to find work in television but with popular shows like leave it to beaver and dennis the menace dominating the airwaves a whole new area of the industry had opened up for child actors believing that their red-headed freckle-faced son had potential the howards decided to find five-year-old ronnie an agent in no time the boy's career took off as he began appearing on television programs such as johnny ringo starring don durant now ricky i'm gonna ask you a very important question now boy who killed your mother that man but it was an episode of ge theater called barnaby and mrs o'malley starring bert lahr that changed ronnie's life forever the morning after the show aired his agent was bombarded with phone calls including an offer for a new television series called the andy griffith show based on the life of a sheriff in a small town the show starred andy griffith as sheriff andy taylor don knotts as deputy barney fife francis bavier as aunt b and ronnie howard as andy's son opie but when rehearsals began in the spring of 1960 the six-year-old hit a stumbling block he couldn't read fortunately his father rants was on the set every day and it was a problem they quickly overcame i would go to the script readings i would uh read opie's lines and and and ronnie would sit and listen you know i would teach him his lines you ought to see him eat paul remember when they wouldn't take any food from me at all i sure do well you should have seen him this morning they were grabbing for these great big juicy worms okay we're having our breakfast now but you should have seen it maybe i was holding up this great big juicy worm oh okay i believe ain't bee's trying to tell you that worms ain't exactly a good subject for the breakfast tank oh and can i tell you about the bugs no ronnie displayed not only a seriousness and dedication to the work but a raw natural talent [Music] he had to cry in a scene and he was just about six i guess years old and he cried and he was still crying after the scene was over and bob sweeney was direct he went over and he said how did you how did you arrive at that he said well i had a little dog that died and he thought of that and that brought it on that's methodical yeah the andy griffith show quickly rose to the number one spot on television and ronnie howard became a household name but his newfound celebrity was not a license to misbehave he was uh very quiet and well behaved best behaved child actor i ever worked with wouldn't you say yeah absolutely he uh and his parents told us right off the reel not to spoil him by giving him a lot of presence and stuff like that so we honored what they said while on hiatus in 1961 ronnie went to work on the big screen in door-to-door maniac starring johnny cash and the music man opposite shirley jones and robert preston the music man was a critical and box office success and the press raved about the eight-year-old's performance by 1962 three-year-old clint was making guest appearances on the andy griffith show as leon the silent cowboy and learning the same invaluable lessons his older brother had already mastered dad really was our mentor he made sure that ron and i were prepared every day dad always stressed your number one job is to go to work being prepared but now with both boys working the howards grew concerned that they were robbing their sons of normal carefree childhoods dad would ask us every time do you want to do this ron and i always had a choice whether whether we could do a job or not do a job given the option ronnie chose working but he had to maintain his grades in a full curriculum of classes tutored by a studio teacher luckily his curiosity in the classroom was easily matched by his curiosity on the set crew members patiently answered his copious questions and it was no surprise to them when the eight-year-old actor announced that what he really wanted to do was direct for his next birthday andy griffith gave the young star a super eight millimeter camera and soon ronnie was making movies about anything and everything including his weekly household responsibilities he did have one chore and that was to mow the grass he really hated to cut it and one day he came in and he says um dad he says i've got a wonderful idea i want to do a movie and rant says oh you do he said yes he said you put on those fatigues of yours and you will be like a colonel in the army and you're pushing that lawnmower and you're attacking that grass amazingly it took just as long to make the movie as it did to cut the grass by 1964 the famous 10 year old was earning more than 100 000 a year but despite their children's growing wealth the howards raised the boys in a modest middle class lifestyle rance has always supported our family and we've lived on the money that he's made and everything else went into the bank and rants just wanted the money there for them when they got ready to go to college but college was still far from 11 year old ronnie's thoughts a die hard sports fan he often told journalists his first love was baseball recognizing that their young star still needed to have a childhood the producers of the andy griffith show reworked the entire cast and cruise production schedule so that ronnie wouldn't miss a single little league game by 1967 america watched in living color as the little boy matured into a wholesome teen see you know what you're snaking we don't have any homework or anything i tried to drop by the record store and pick up a few discs okay great by now ronnie was not the only star in the family each week thousands of fans tuned into the popular series gentle ben starring clint howard i do remember there was a year when the griffith show was number one and and gentlemen was number two and yeah you know that made us feel pretty good and that's see that was i was eight and he was 13. and yeah we you know the howard boys kicking some booty but in 1968 after eight successful seasons the andy griffith show shot its final episode it was a very emotional time for ronnie who was unprepared to leave the people who'd become his friends and family for the first time in his life ronnie howard was out of work as the tv star sidestepped the unemployment line he nervously headed for the lunch lines at burbank's burroughs high school a famous face determined to fit into the crowd [Music] [Applause] in 1968 ronnie howard directed his first western cards cads guns gore and death starring his brother clint [Music] but there was little call for 14 year old directors and the shy student turned his attention toward fitting into his new world public high school he decided that he was going to take the year off from acting and really concentrate on basketball he was up early in the morning shooting baskets and late at night shooting baskets but at the end of that basketball season he came to me and he said i'm not going to get the height and he said i don't have the speed and he says i think i better go back into show business but the gangly teenager had difficulty jumping back into work it was his first professional dry spell nevertheless howard refused to give up after school he went from audition to audition and slowly began landing television appearances but in 1970 during his junior year there was something else that sparked the 16 year old's interest her name was cheryl alley and the teenagers quickly became an exclusive item there was a time where ron was trying to get in two dates a week france brought it up one time and said no ron liked to run a lot in those days where he sort of leave the house and say well i'm gonna go jogging and he'd run over the house and come see me ronnie was completely captivated by cheryl and the only thing that vied for his attention was his interest in making movies when he heard about kodak's national student film contest the aspiring director wrote another western and cast his movie with an already popular young star i wanted a piece of the action i was a professional actor i didn't want to work for nothing and ron says well how much do you want and i said well i want fifty percent of the gross once the brothers agreed on the terms the filming was ready to commence starring clint rantz and ronnie's new girlfriend cheryl the movie about a boy who wanders onto a studio back lot and fantasizes about the old west was titled deed of daring do [Music] to his surprise he won second place and a check for 100 win second place nationally in the kodak film festival and ron howard earns a hundred dollars making his star 50 richer and he was angry when he actually had to pay me because he i don't believe he really thought that i'd hold him to the 50 contract and the doe comes in and i say hey great the money's here i'll take mine and and ron didn't want to give it to me and i think dad had to step in and set a deal's a deal no and then ron had to peel me off 50 bucks ronnie was hooked at only 16 he was an award-winning director when howard graduated from high school in 1972 he was accepted into the prestigious film program at the university of southern california but the summer before his freshman year ronnie left at the chance to be directed by one of the most talked about new filmmakers on the scene 28 year old george lucas in a film called american graffiti we're very much alike we became fast friends he was the one actor who was actually the right age for the part he was obviously the most experienced of all the actors and he really knew what was going on and this was his first picture as an adult ronnie was the only famous actor in the cast of struggling unknowns that included richard dreyfuss and harrison ford the film captured one night in the lives of four recent high school graduates as they grappled with decisions that would affect the rest of their lives i don't think i'm gonna be going tomorrow come on what are you talking about well i was thinking i could wait a year you know go to city after all we went through to get accepted we're finally getting out of this turkey town and now you want to crawl back into your cell right ronnie was riveted by lucas's dynamic approach to filmmaking and he shadowed the director through all 28 nights of shooting he was very enthusiastic about directing when he was on american graffiti we would sit down between takes and talk about directing and we had fun you know i i work in a very different way because i'm a san francisco filmmaker as opposed to a hollywood filmmaker and so he wasn't used to working the way i uh had worked which is in a very documentary style putting the cameras off letting the actors do a lot of what they wanted to do i think it was a very different experience from what he had had working especially in television when american graffiti was released in august 1973 it touched a nostalgic chord in the american consciousness and audiences packed the theaters now calling himself a more mature sounding ron he entered usc enthusiastic about his future as a filmmaker but when director gary marshall offered him a starring role in a new television series the young man couldn't refuse the opportunity [Music] happy days debuted in 1974 and centered around the life of a 1950s high school student richie cunningham also included in the cast were tom bosley marion ross and henry winkler he was the star of the show i played the local hoodlum you know the biker and i had six lines i was a fringe character i worked maybe once a week in the beginning and we had an instant communication happy days was a hit and for the second time in his life twenty-year-old ron howard was a star in the most popular show on television [Music] no one had written a screenplay the director 1975 gerald ford was president one flew over the cuckoo's nest was the number one film at the box office and every week 17 million homes tuned in to happy days the cast were now teenage idols and ron howard was swept into a frenzy of adulation but even with all the attention ron was unwavering in his love for his high school sweetheart cheryl and in the spring he proposed marriage two months later on june 7 1975 the 21 year olds were wed invited 306 people in a church that i think only fit 200 we had people standing in the back everybody clapped at the end and we had never heard anybody clap it at it at the end of a wedding and we love that by now ron had left usc convinced he could learn more on the set than in the classroom and he was making a graceful transition from young actor to natural-born leader we're doing happy days reading the scripts and i didn't like some of the jokes so i start yelling and i start pounding the script i said who can do this you can't do this what is this ron put his arm around my shoulder walk me to the back of the soundstage and said henry maybe we shouldn't do this i said what he said you know yell punch the script you know they're working really hard i went yeah they really are and so i never punched the script again for the next 11 years in 1976 car chases and demolition derby flicks were the hot ticket at drive-ins across the country movies like cannonball and death race 2000 were big hits for producer roger corman when corman asked howard to star in one of his films called eat my dust ron couldn't pass up the chance to work with the man who would launch the careers of many young directors including francis ford coppola and martin scorsese his questioning as to the way in which the film was going to be made in the various production techniques were much more intricate and much more knowledgeable than i think any actor i'd ever met eat my dust a car chasing metal grinding action film was a smash hit only three days after it opened corman called ron to suggest a sequel but the 22 year old actor was prepared for the call and he nervously made his first foray into the tough world of hollywood negotiations he said i will do the sequel for exactly the same deal as eat my dust and i'll do one additional job for nothing and i said what's that he said i'll direct and i said you always look like a director to me ron ron was keenly aware that his future was riding on the film's success and set out to master the tricks of filming action sequences he also hired his father to co-write the script and recruited friends and family as cast and crew even his wife cheryl pitched in volunteering to cook for the 85-member company i'm ron howard this is grand theft auto grand theft auto is a love story with cars and i love him and that's why we're going to las vegas to get married also it's a comedy [Applause] [Music] with car crashes look out vegas we're coming in [Music] [Applause] directed by and starring ron howard well hell ron's directorial debut was a monster success that fall he returned to happy days for a sixth season and began negotiating with abc executives to get a shot in the director's chair but the network could not see beyond his boyish image and ron grew frustrated as narrow-minded execs dragged their feet he wanted to direct very badly he had already directed professionally by that time and ron's always been i mean he's he's always been a big risk taker so he decided it was really time for him to go and and direct in 1979 after six and a half years on happy days ron's contract expired and he chose not to renew the network was shocked and fans were heartbroken to lose one of their favorite television stars but for ron howard the end of happy days would be the beginning of a full-time career in a job he had trained for all his life energy coq10 is essential [Music] at the age of 26 ron howard was determined to become a full-time director but the phone was not ringing off the hook with offers that was a difficult period you know his thought was that if he ever you know everything went black in the business and he would become a teacher but ron wasn't ready for plan b just yet he began pitching ideas to anyone who'd listen and by the following year howard's career started to gain some momentum he directed screen legend betty davis in a television movie called skyward and he began collaborating with a young ambitious producer brian grazer i had this idea called night shift that i thought he would never like only because it was really racy and involved you know guys becoming pimps and running a whorehouse out of a morgue but he loved it howard jumped at the opportunity to make the film it was just the subject matter he needed to break from his squeaky clean image he immediately hired his friend henry winkler and two unknowns michael keaton and shelley long the first time that he directed a major motion picture was night shift now he was worried would this cast and would the crew actually pay attention to him so we're making the movie and he just said you know hold it for a minute i i just want to think this out and it was like one of those commercials where everybody just stopped for a minute to wait for ron to speak because he was a natural leader audiences loved the movie that made michael keaton a star and ron howard a commercial director home life also took a huge leap forward that year when a baby daughter bryce was born on march 2 1982 the new father now had the challenge of balancing a family with his growing career but in many ways after 25 years in entertainment it was a challenge he'd faced and overcome all his life the following year howard and grazer went into production on splash a fairy tale romantic comedy about a man and a mermaid ron who'd proven he had an eye for young talent began his search for the ideal cast when we were casting splash i was a huge bosom buddies fan at the time and i was telling him that he had to see tom hanks i went in and read for ron and he put me through about a 20-minute audition process i don't know how it happened but 24 hours later he called me up and told me i had the part and literally my life was changed forever splash starred television actor tom hanks opposite daryl hannah and john candy ron was concerned about directing a big budget feature that involved demanding underwater sequences true to form he dove right in and faced the challenge he was no pretender to the throne he wasn't doing it to see if he could do it ron had already directed so many things and always been thinking about everything so much as a director that i felt as though i was already in the hands of a guy who was an accomplished filmmaker i love you madison go [Music] though the underwater scenes were visually compelling it was the heartwarming romance between hanks and hannah that captivated audiences [Music] splash opened on march 9th 1984 and was a runaway box office success at age 30 ron howard had joined the ranks of hollywood's most sought after young directors he was on a roll and there was no turning back yeah and you know as he's going like on about the fourth of the push in 1985 ron howard was hand-picked by 20th century fox to direct cocoon action a film about a group of senior citizens who stumble on a fountain of youth created by extraterrestrials excellent okay cocoon starred veteran actors jessica tandy hume cronin and don amici and although the special effects were central to the plot ron strove not to let them overshadow his storytelling coming with us bernie no i came to say goodbye i just wanted to tell you i hope you find what you're looking for rose is gone bernie nice day [Music] this is my home where i belong it was kind of a tough transition going from child actor to adult director but i looked up and i saw him up here setting all these shots on his chapman crane and so confident and so sure of himself and knowing exactly how to do it and i just i said to myself the kid is a director my god he's made it and i felt so good and even telling you the story the hair stands up on the back of my neck [Music] in august 1986 ron and brian gracer solidified their partnership and formed imagine films entertainment inc to raise operating funds the new company went public on the new york stock exchange where thousands of eager investors bought shares in a man they had trusted for years ron howard he's uniquely intelligent and he's tough he's not an easy going guy he's calm but he's not easy going he is very competitive but it makes for a very good partner to have someone that has the embodiment of all of those strengths though his next film willow was not warmly received ron had much more on his mind than the ups and downs of his career two years earlier cheryl had given birth to twins jocelyn and paige and on april 12 1987 the family welcomed a son reed wait go see dad not yet not yet for his next project the father of four decided to tell a story about a topic very close to his heart [Music] simply titled parenthood the film was a playful portrait of american family life and featured an all-star cast including steve martin and mary steenburgen what do you say later when the kids are asleep i wear this outfit she's in our bed hi daddy what's the matter honey you don't feel so good you feel like you want to throw up okay oh my god parenthood was great because it represented so much of us that was really an american family and it was seen through the eyes of ron howard but by 1989 ron had been working non-stop for several years and feared his home life was suffering howard announced he would direct only one film every 12 to 18 months in order to spend more time with his wife and children in certain ways my dad is is more involved with my day-to-day life than my mom because he's so conscious of the fact that he has to work um and that he has to go off and film movies so when he is home he'll be at my school talking to my guidance counselors and he's a little gullible when it comes to his his three girls you know what you know we're always we're always already giving him a run for his money inspired by his parents 50-year love affair ron brought the same devotion to his own marriage i think they are soul mates because it's remarkable that they met each other and it was just said they just completely clicked i think they have a good partnership like they they go out three nights a week to go and see movies together it's like they're not supposed to do that they've been married for over 20 years after the success of the 1991 drama backdraft ron took his family to ireland to shoot far and away starring tom cruise and nicole kidman it was an ambitious film far and away you know we shot it in 70. beautiful film looking on a big screen we always think back what a great experience that was even though we were shooting six days a week we were in montana working long hard hours but it was it was a blast have a look at this land it says land they've got so much of it they give it away for free no land is given away in any part of the world in america it is i'm going there i was very young at that stage and and new to american films and so i was very shy and he would draw me out which was lovely and he gave me a lot of confidence the film was loosely based on the tales ron had heard from his father about his own great grandfather's participation in the 1893 oklahoma land rush ron felt a deep commitment to telling the story [Music] and it was amazing to see him directing these huge sequences at the end of the film with hundreds of horses and carriages and just on his game [Music] we were working over the summer and all the kids were around and when you get to know people like that and spend that kind of time together you get really close and uh you know i love them i think you really love them they've managed to raise four really really good kids which is very hard to do in this industry as a mother who's raising two kids now my hat is off to them and i remember one thing they said to us is we're a family and we're always going to travel together they're the perfect role models for that but ron was disappointed when far and away failed to find an audience to make matters worse he and his partner brian grazer were having serious reservations about staying with their publicly held company the filmmakers announced that unless they could buy out the remaining stockholders they would leave imagine entertainment furious shareholders felt their investments were under siege and filed a class action lawsuit charging howard and grazer with fraud and coercion but after a frustrating year-long battle the stockholders were forced to admit that the company had little or no value without howard and grazer they begrudgingly sold their shares to the creative partners at the age of 39 ron howard was finally able to help his own independent film company for the first time in his career he held all the decision-making power [Music] [Applause] in 1994 ron howard and brian grazer came across commander jim lovell's book about his true life experience on the voyage of apollo 13 a near catastrophic space mission that in 1970 threw america into a state of panic although the outcome was already a well-known fact ron couldn't wait to put the story on film he hired an all-star cast that included kevin bacon bill paxton gary sinise and tom hanks there were so many things were going to be hard to communicate to the audience but there were philosophical leaps of faith that ron made that i thought were very very impressed ron sent the actors to nasa space camp in texas where they trained with experienced astronauts after much lobbying he even secured access to the kc-135 jet better known as the vomit comet an aircraft that simulates weightlessness at zero gravity bill paxton took his home movie camera to document the event gary hey buddy you're in space man as you get a little better at it just start practicing moving around and just think in terms of trying to get from one specific place to the other when the chance to shoot on the zero gravity aircraft came along ron jumped on that thing so fast and so aggressively in order to make it happen that it was almost like guerrilla filmmaking you know it was like guys with handheld cameras we jammed it all in there and we did it [Music] this is burning oh yeah okay here we go shut down houston we have shut down apollo 13 was an unprecedented popular and critical success for ron in 1996 his peers in the director's guild of america honored him with their highest accolade the best director award but although apollo 13 was nominated for nine academy awards including best picture howard himself was excluded from the best director category it was the worst bummer that he didn't get nominated for an oscar and he's told his kids and his wife that he was really you know that it hurt and it was disappointing and i said well why'd you do that he said because i want them to know that not everything i do works and that not everything is easy and that there are disappointments and that i face them even if i don't look like i'm facing them i thought that was really poignant ron and brian were on a roll their next film ransom was a remake of the 1956 thriller it starred mel gibson and renee russo and became one of the biggest money makers of 1996 [Music] but it was in 1998 that ron's status as a pop culture icon reached new heights when he was immortalized on the hit tv series the simpsons yeah i'm looking for alec baldwin and kim basinger oh hey ron we heard you were looking for a place in springfield yeah well it's the only town in america that'll let me fish with dynamite the show's creators cleverly played against his good boy image homer we're out of vodka and ron was delighted to play along with the joke howard was on top of the world but instead of resting he took on a completely new challenge in 2000 he directed the epic live-action fantasy dr seuss's how the grinch stole christmas based on the tv cartoon and children's book the film starred in unrecognizable jim carrey as the scrooge-like furry green anti-hero audiences flocked to see the quirky christmas tale and the box office soared to over 260 million dollars howard then changed course again with a daring choice a beautiful mind starring jennifer conley and academy award winner russell crowe i got myself into something i think i might need some help the film was based on the true story of mathematician john forbes nash jr what distinguishes you is that you are the best natural code breaker i have ever seen and his struggle to overcome schizophrenia howard inventively captured the chaotic mind of nash as the mathematician conquered the boundaries between fact and fiction eventually winning the nobel prize when a beautiful mind opened some critics objected to liberties taken with the facts of nash's life they accused the filmmakers of sanitizing personal events in the volatile geniuses story howard defended his creative choices stressing that his movie was inspired by the life of the mathematician and not an historical account despite mixed reviews audiences embraced the film and steady word of mouth turned a beautiful mind into a box office smash the film went on to earn eight academy award nominations and in march 2002 one of ron's greatest dreams came true when he received his first oscar for best director i'm i'm grateful that i was raised by an extraordinary man my father rants howard and my late mother gene howard i also want to mention that um before my mom uh passed away about 18 months ago she predicted that this was going to happen for me on this film well she also made that prediction on every movie that i've directed since 1983 so now you know a little bit something about my mom academy thank you so much [Applause] for two decades america watched as ron howard grew from a sweet-faced boy to a clean-cut young man [Music] today the oscar-winning director continues to delight audiences with films that reflect the value of family friendship and community the standards by which he lives his life he is the same person now only he's older and wiser than he was when he's a little boy just a very good human person who will always do the best he can ultimately his legacy will be that he's a very warm human director who had a good sense of humor i really admire ron i admire him as a filmmaker i admire him as a human being i know that he has this whole wholesome image but he's a little bit like that he is sort of milk and cookies [Laughter] [Music] ron howard returned to television in 2003 as executive producer of the award-winning comedy series arrested development in the summer of 2005 cinderella man a story about a depression-era boxer's rise to fame took critics in the box office by storm the release of howard's film adaptation of the da vinci code starring tom hanks was yet another breakaway hit grossing over 217 million dollars in domestic box office sales by august 2006. both hanks and howard reprised their roles in the da vinci code prequel angels and demons released in may 2009 prior to that howard returned to the director's chair for the political drama frost nixon which was released in december 2008 the film was a success earning five oscar nominations including best director whether it's playing the all-american boy next door or directing a great human drama audiences continue to knock on ron howard's door asking for more

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Length: 42min 50sec (2570 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 16 2022