Ron Howard

About Ron Howard

Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an Academy Award-winning director and producer as well as a Golden Globe Award-winning actor. Howard came to prominence in the 1960s while playing Andy Griffith's TV son, Opie Taylor, on The Andy Griffith Show (credited as Ronny Howard), and later in the 1970s as Howard Cunningham's son and Arthur Fonzarelli's best friend, Richie Cunningham, on Happy Days (a role he played from 1974 to 1980). Since retiring from acting, he has directed several successful films including Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind.

Howard was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, the son of Jean Speegle Howard, an actress, and Rance Howard, a director, writer, and actor. His younger brother, Clint Howard, is a well-known character actor. Howard attended the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts but did not graduate.

Howard first earned recognition for playing Winthrop Paroo, the child with the lisp in the film version of The Music Man with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. Besides appearing in The Music Man, he appeared in the role of Opie Taylor in the television series The Andy Griffith Show, which was the successful spin-off of The Danny Thomas Show. There he portrayed the son of the local sheriff in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina. For eight seasons, he also created a loving relationship with Andy Griffith, on-screen, and spent a lot of time with him, off-screen, when not filming. The credits referred to him as "Ronny Howard." He also appeared in the 1963 film The Courtship of Eddie's Father with Glenn Ford and (billed as "Ronnie Howard") in Little Boy Lost, a 1966 episode of the TV show I Spy with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby. Howard made a notable guest-star appearance on the popular television series M*A*S*H during that show's first season as an underage American serving in the Marines during the Korean War.