Ron Howard, born in Duncan, Oklahoma on March 1st 1954, is a contemporary American movie director, as well as an ex actor. During his acting career, Howard starred in television shows such as The Andy Griffith Show, Happy Days, The Twilight Zone,
CBS's The DuPont Show and many others. His filmography includes such critically acclaimed films as Apollo 13; A Beautiful Mind - the film that won him an Oscar in 2002; Grinch; The Da Vinci Code; Splash, and others.
He is married to Cheryl Alley, an American actress and writer; they have four children. He has a brother Clint, an actor who was quite famous in the late 70s.
Howard was born into a family of movie stars. His mother Jean Speegle was a television/film actress, but his father Rance Howard, who is also native to Oklahoma, is a now inactive film actor who starred in more than hundred films. Ron "started" his acting career in a Baltimore theater at the age of two, but starred his first film role in the political drama The Journey at the age of five. After that his rise to prominence became inevitable when he acted the affectionate, yet mischievous Opie in the iconic Andy Griffith Show. Later on, in the 70s, he acted Richie Cunningham in the series Happy Days.
He later acted in films such as The Music Man, The Shootist, and George Lucas's American Grafitty. However, Howard stopped acting in the 1980s and focused on his directing career.
His directing career began in 1977 with the chase film Grand Theft Auto (not related to the game) that was received by the public very well, earning over $15m in box office sales. The critic reactions were mixed, but this was changed by his third film, '84s Splash, which received an Oscar nomination. He received his first Oscar only in 2002, for directing A Beautiful Mind. The film is considered to be his 'Opus Magnum' and the film also received the 'best picture' Oscar the same year, as well as the award for the best support actress.
His film works put some actors into the international spotlight. For example, 1984's Night Shift lit up the stage for Michael Keaton, but his 1994 film Far and Away further fortified Nicole Kidman's and Tom Cruise's positions in Hollywood. He has worked with numerous Hollywood actors, such as Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks who starred in his first critically acclaimed movie Splash, Steve Martin, John Wayne, etc.
Howard was a critically acclaimed actor, and alongside Clint Eastwood and Sean Penn, Howard is one of the rare highly successful actor-turned-directors of this generation. His Hollywood-themed action paced movies are fun to watch, and it is hard to determine Howard's influences, as his life was pretty much spent in either side of movie cameras. Although now surrounded by controversy as his latest works, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons had sensitive religious content. Critics say that Howard is a normal director that has his ups and downs; they say that after his somewhat fiasco-ish debut with Grand Theft Auto Howard has produced both good and bad films, but he should focus more on the accessibility to the viewer, as it is said to be one of Howard's biggest trump cards.
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