RON HOWARD

Ron Howard was born Ronald William Howard in Duncan, Oklahoma in 1954. His parents were both actors who had had minor success, and Ronny first appeared in a movie at 18 months of age! He got regular roles starting at 4, and when he was six he was cast as Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show, and he stayed with that classic role until 1968. Afterwards he mostly did TV appearances, and one of them was on Love, American Style, in a segment called "Love and the Happy Days", and in it Ronny played Richie Cunningham, and Marion Ross played his mom, but Harold Gould played his dad. In 1973, Ronny played one of the lead roles in George Lucas' masterpiece, American Graffiti. The following year, Garry Marshall, who had written the above 1972 Love, American Style segment, rounded up the same cast (except for Gould, who was replaced by Tom Bosley, and he added a minor character Arthur 'Fonzie' Fonzarelli [who would later virtually take over the show]), and that became the hit show Happy Days. While he was starring in that show, Howard (who had wanted to make his own movies since he was young) directed and starred in Eat My Dust (now "Ron") and Grand Theft Auto, and also had a major role in John Wayne's last movie, The Shootist. In 1982, as Happy Days was winding down, Howard directed the well received comedy Night Shift, which starred Henry Winkler, but it was unknown Michael Keaton who was most noticed. Two years later, when he left Happy Days, Howard directed Splash and the following year Cocoon, and he was one of America's most successful directors. He has since directed 18 more movies, among them Parenthood, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind (winner of the Best Director Academy Award for this film), and Frost/Nixon (nominated for the Best Director Academy Award for this film). But for all his great success as a director, for most older Americans he will always first and foremost be Opie Taylor or Ritchie Cunningham!