After gaining his initial notoriety as a young actor on the television show “The Andy Griffith Show,” he went on to have a very successful career as an actor and director in his adulthood.
In the Beginning
On March 1st, 1954, Ronald William Howard was brought into the world in Duncan, Oklahoma. His mother, Jean Speegle Howard, is an actress, and his father, Rance Howard, is a director, writer, and actor. He is the eldest son of his parents. In 1958, the family uprooted their lives and went to Hollywood, California, where they remained for at least three years until relocating to Burbank.
After completing his high school education at John Burroughs, he went on to study filmmaking at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Despite this, he did not end up completing his degree at the college.
Career in the Theatre
When Howard was just five years old, he made his debut in the entertainment industry. It was in 1959’s “The Journey” that he made his debut in the film industry.
Following that, he had guest appearances on episodes of shows such as “The DuPont Show with June Allyson,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Dennis the Menace,” “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” and “The Cheyenne Show.” In 1960, Howard was given the role of Opie Taylor in the television show “The Andy Griffith Show.” Throughout the show’s entire run of eight seasons, he portrayed the role of the protagonist’s son.
Other films that he appeared in while he was a child and a teenager include “The Music Man” (1962) and “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” (1963), as well as episodes on series such as “The Eleventh Hour” (1965), “I Spy” (1966), “The Smith Family” (1968), “Daniel Boone” (1971-1972), “M*A*S*H” (1973), and “The Bold Ones.”
One of his first performances as an adult was in the coming-of-age film “American Graffiti,” which was directed by George Lucas and released in 1973.
After that, he became known for his role as Richie Cunningham in the television series “Happy Days,” and then he played the opposite of John Wayne in the film “The Shootist” in 1976.
His final significant role was a revival of his iconic performance as Opie Taylor in the television movie “Return to Mayberry,” which aired in 1986 and served as a reunion for the cast of “The Andy Griffith Show.”
Additionally, he participated in two television reunions of the cast of “Happy Days,” one in 1992 and the other in 2005. The Television Academy honored him with induction into the Hall of Fame that same year (2013).
Managing One’s Profession
Grand Theft Auto, a low-budget comic action picture, was Howard’s first directing endeavor, and it was released in 1977.
After that, he went on to direct a few films for television, but he didn’t get his big break as a director until 1982, when “Night Shift” was released. The picture stars Michael Keaton, Shelley Long, and Henry Winkler.
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Since then, Howard has directed a number of critically acclaimed motion pictures, such as “Splash” (1984), “Cocoon” (1985), “Willow” (1988), “Parenthood” (1989), “Backdraft” (1991), “Apollo 13” (1995), “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000), “A Beautiful Mind” (2001), “Cinderella Man” (2005), “The Da Vinci Code” (2006), “Angels & Demo (2016). In 2008, Howard attended the London Film Festival and presented the global premiere of his film “Frost/Nixon.”
The event took place in that year. As a filmmaker, he has been honored with several accolades, including the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award from the Austin Film Festival in 2009.
In addition, the month of June 2017 marked the formal beginning of Howard’s tenure as director of the Star Wars prequel film “Solo: A Star Wars Story” (2018). The previous directors of the film, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, were dismissed because they refused to reach a consensus with Lucasfilm over the path the movie will take.
When he took control of the production, the movie was actually quite close to being finished. There were only three and a half weeks of filming and five weeks of reshoots left at that point.
Business Ventures
Imagine Entertainment is a firm that produces movies and television shows, and Howard is one of the co-chairmen of the company together with Brian Grazer.
Included on the list of movies produced by Imagine are “Friday Night Lights” (2004), “8 Mile” (2002), and “Inside Deep Throat” (2004). (2005). Additionally, the business has produced such television series as “24,” “Felicity,” and “Arrested Development.” In reality, Howard was the one who came up with the concept for the Fox and Netflix sitcom “Arrested Development.”
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In addition to those roles, he also played a version of himself that was only slightly fictionalized and functioned as the show’s producer and narrator. He was presented with the National Medal of Arts in the year 2003.
Personal Life
On June 7, 1975, Howard wed Cheryl Alley in a wedding ceremony. She is currently known by the pen name Cheryl Howard Crew and works as a writer. They are the parents of four children, the eldest of which, Bryce Dallas Howard, is likewise successful in the acting and directing fields.
Real Estate
Ron and Cheryl paid a total of $5.6 million for a three thousand square foot apartment in the ultra-exclusive Eldorado Building in New York City in the year 2004. They then continued to invest many million dollars more in the remodeling of the building. In 2017, they put this apartment on the market with a price tag of $12.5 million.
They dropped the price to $11.5 million, but in the end they were unable to sell the flat and they still own it as of the time this article was written. They have a second apartment in New York City that they bought for $712,000 in the year 2002.
In 2014, they purchased a 33-acre estate on a lake in Greenwich, Connecticut, for a total price of $27.5 million.
They purchased an apartment in Santa Monica, California, with an ocean view for $2.75 million in the year 2006.
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Net worth
The American actor, director, and producer Ron Howard has a net worth that is estimated to be in the range of $200 million.
