43 Facts About Ron Howard

Ronald William Howard was born on March 1,1954 and is an American filmmaker and actor.

Over his six-decade career, Ron Howard has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award.

Ron Howard was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2003 and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013.

Ron Howard has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions in film and television.

Ron Howard first came to prominence as a child actor, acting in several television series before gaining national attention for playing young Opie Taylor, the son of Sheriff Andy Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show from 1960 through 1968.

Ron Howard was cast in one of the lead roles in the influential coming-of-age film American Graffiti, and became a household name for playing Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days.

Ron Howard starred in the films The Spikes Gang, The Shootist, and Grand Theft Auto, the latter being his directorial film debut.

In 1980, Ron Howard left Happy Days to focus on directing, producing, and sometimes writing a variety of films and television series.

Ron Howard's films included the comedies Night Shift, Splash, and Cocoon as well as the fantasy Willow, the thriller Backdraft, and the newspaper comedy-drama film The Paper.

Ron Howard directed numerous documentaries such as The Beatles: Eight Days a Week, Pavarotti, and We Feed People.

Ron Howard was born on March 1,1954, in Duncan, Oklahoma, the elder of the two sons of Rance Howard, a director, writer, and actor, and Jean Speegle, an actress.

Ron Howard is of German, English, Scottish, Irish, and Dutch ancestry.

Ron Howard's father was born with the surname "Beckenholdt" and took the stage name "Howard" in 1948 for his acting career.

Rance Howard was serving three years in the United States Air Force at the time of Ron's birth.

Ron Howard was tutored at Desilu Studios in his younger years but continued his schooling at Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary and David Starr Jordan Junior High in Burbank, California when not working in television, eventually graduating from Burbank's John Burroughs High School.

Ron Howard later attended the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts but did not graduate.

Ron Howard has said he knew from a young age he might want to go into directing, thanks to his early experience as an actor.

In 1959, Ron Howard had his first credited film role in The Journey.

Ron Howard played "Timmy" in "Counterfeit Gun", Season 4, Episode 2 of the TV series, Cheyenne.

In 1960, Ron Howard was cast as Opie Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show.

Ron Howard left Happy Days to become a film director just before the start of its eighth season in 1980, but returned for guest appearances in the show's eleventh season.

Ron Howard starred in the 1963 film The Courtship of Eddie's Father with Glenn Ford and Jones.

Ron Howard appeared on the 1969 Disneyland Records album The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion.

Ron Howard played Steve Bolander in George Lucas's coming-of-age film American Graffiti in 1973, which was the inspiration for the sitcom Happy Days starring Ron Howard.

Ron Howard starred in the film alongside Richard Dreyfus, Charles Martin Smith, and Harrison Ford.

In 1974, Ron Howard guest-starred as Seth Turner, the best friend of Jason Walton, in The Waltons episode, "The Gift".

In 1976, Ron Howard starred alongside John Wayne and Lauren Bacall in Don Siegel's The Shootist, the story of a Western gunfighter dying of cancer.

Ron Howard was the narrator for Arrested Development and appeared as a cameo in later seasons.

Ron Howard went on to direct several TV movies for NBC between 1978 and 1982, including the 1980 TV movie, Skyward, starring Bette Davis.

Ron Howard directed the science fiction comedy drama Cocoon starring Don Ameche, Hume Cronyn, Wilford Brimley, and Brian Dennehy.

Ron Howard continued directing through the 1990s, including the American drama Backdraft revolving around firefighters.

In 1994, Ron Howard directed the newspaper comedy drama The Paper with an ensemble starring Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Jason Alexander, Jason Robards, and Robert Duvall.

Ron Howard was nominated alongside Robert Altman, David Lynch, Ridley Scott, and Peter Jackson.

In 2005, Howard directed the biographical sports drama Cinderella Man based on the true story of heavyweight boxing champion James J Braddock played by Russell Crowe.

The film received five Academy Award nominations with Ron Howard receiving a nomination for Best Director.

Ron Howard was the recipient of the Austin Film Festival's 2009 Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award.

In 2015, Ron Howard directed the film In the Heart of the Sea about the sinking of the American whaling ship Essex in 1820, an event that inspired Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick.

Ron Howard took over directing duties on Solo: A Star Wars Story, a film featuring Star Wars character Han Solo in his younger years.

Ron Howard officially replaced directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller on June 22,2017; they were let go from their position two days earlier, reportedly due to their refusal to compromise with Lucasfilm over the direction of the film; reportedly the directors encouraged significant improvisations by the actors, which was believed by some at Lucasfilm to be "shifting the story off-course".

In November 2017, Ron Howard announced that he would be teaching his first directing class.

In March 2021, Ron Howard began filming the survival drama Thirteen Lives, a film based on the Tham Luang cave rescue in 2018.

Ron Howard is a co-chairman, with Brian Grazer, of Imagine Entertainment, a film and television production company.

Ron Howard married Cheryl Alley was born on December 23,1953 and on June 7,1975.