Ken Howard was known for his roles as Thomas Jefferson in 1776 and as basketball coach and former Chicago Bulls player Ken Reeves in the television show The White Shadow.
25 Facts About Ken Howard
2.
Ken Howard was elected president of the actors' union, Screen Actors Guild, in September 2009 and reelected to a second term, in September 2011.
3.
Ken Howard was the last president of the Screen Actors Guild and the first president of the newly combined SAG-AFTRA union, after the Screen Actors Guild and another union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, voted to merge in 2012.
4.
Ken Howard's younger brother, the late Don Howard, was an actor and director.
5.
Ken Howard grew up in Manhasset, New York, on Long Island.
6.
The nickname "The White Shadow" was given to him by the Long Island press in 1961, as, at age 17, Ken Howard was the only white starter on the Manhasset High School varsity basketball team.
7.
Ken Howard graduated in 1966 from Amherst College, where he served as captain of the basketball team.
8.
Ken Howard was a member of the a cappella singing group The Zumbyes.
9.
Ken Howard began his career on Broadway in Promises, Promises with Jerry Orbach.
10.
Ken Howard later starred on Broadway as Thomas Jefferson in 1776 and reprised the role in the 1972 film.
11.
Ken Howard appeared in legitimate theater in many cities, most recently as Tip O'Neill in a one-man show According to Tip, at the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, Massachusetts.
12.
Ken Howard had the starring role in the 1973 TV series Adam's Rib opposite his good friend Blythe Danner, who played wife Martha to his Thomas Jefferson in the film version of 1776.
13.
Ken Howard starred in the TV movie Father Damien in 1980 and won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1981 for his performance as the ideal father in the CBS afternoon special The Body Human: Facts for Boys.
14.
Ken Howard played the title character in the 1984 American Playhouse production of Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson, having earlier played Twain on Bonanza.
15.
Ken Howard was guest villain in Hart to Hart Returns, a 1993 made-for-TV movie.
16.
Ken Howard appeared in season one of The West Wing as President Bartlet's first choice for US Supreme Court Justice in the episode "The Short List".
17.
Ken Howard made his movie debut in 1970, in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, opposite Liza Minnelli.
18.
In 2007, Ken Howard appeared again with Stallone in Rambo, and in George Clooney's Michael Clayton.
19.
Ken Howard next appeared as Harlan F Stone in Clint Eastwood's J Edgar.
20.
Ken Howard gave an acclaimed performance as Phelan Beale in the 2009 HBO film Grey Gardens, playing opposite Jessica Lange, for which he received an Emmy Award.
21.
Ken Howard was elected the National President of the Screen Actors Guild on September 24,2009.
22.
Ken Howard was the author of the 2003 book Act Natural: How to Speak to Any Audience, based on the drama courses he had taught at Harvard University.
23.
In 2007, Ken Howard was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.
24.
Ken Howard was the first and, to date, only Screen Actors Guild or SAG-AFTRA national president to die in office.
25.
George Clooney, in whose 2007 legal thriller, Michael Clayton, Ken Howard appeared, remembered having met him for the first time, in 1983 at 20th Century Fox, as a fan of The White Shadow.