Ron Howard’s acting career was part of a family legacy, as his father, Rance, was already a prolific performer when he was born in 1954. Howard’s first professional acting credit is for the 1959 feature “The Journey,” with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr. That same year, the five-year-old Ron infiltrated TV, appearing as precocious moppets in multiple hot shows.
More notably, beginning in 1960, Ron — credited as Ronny — began starring on “The Andy Griffith Show,” playing Opie, the son of Griffith’s character. Howard would appear in 243 of the show’s 249 episodes, over the course of eight seasons. While appearing on “Andy Griffith,” Howard would continue to be a TV presence, appearing in dozens of additional hot shows, as well as several notable B-pictures.
Even in his teen years, Howard continued to act, proving that he was no mere child prodigy. He appeared in George Lucas’ nostalgia film “American Graffiti,” and he played as Richie Cunningham in the first seven seasons of the hit sitcom “Happy Days.” Howard continued to appear on TV throughout the early 1980s, but he was already looking to flee the front of the camera and work his way behind it by then. Indeed, in 1977, Howard helmed his first feature as a director: “Grand Theft Auto,” an action cheapie he made for Roger Corman.
From there, Howard was a director first and foremost, and has since gone on to make many notable high-profile Hollywood blockbusters, including “Willow,” “Backdraft,” “Apollo 13,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “The Da Vinci Code,” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
Back in 2015, the year Howard released his “Moby-Dick” riff “In the Heart of the Sea,” he talked to the Express about his transition from acting to directing. As he recalled, Howard left performing because he knew that he wouldn’t have survived in Hollywood too much longer. Moving to directing was a means to retain his professional passion and his sanity.
Howard moved to directing for the good of his mental health
Howard doesn’t say exactly what happened in Hollywood in the 1970s, but he seems to have sensed a change. He knew that the corny sitcoms he grew up in were becoming increasingly moribund, and that he might not have the actorly wherewithal to change acting styles or pursue more daring, challenging roles. Howard typically played smart, often average, and always genial characters, and it wasn’t in his wheelhouse to play characters that one might see in “Five Easy Pieces” or “Midnight Cowboy.” Rather than dictate to people what kind of roles he wanted to play — a requisite for Hollywood movie stars — Howard chose to direct instead. As he put it:
“I listened and learned –- and knew that I would never survive as an actor. […] There was also a lot of stuff going on that I did not understand or could not come to terms with. I was not assertive. I was not a leader. You have to be like some of the big stars such as Dustin Hoffman to make it. He could take control while remaining an actor. I was relaxed but never terribly satisfied with my work.”
Also, like many actors, Howard wasn’t fond of his own work. Many actors have said in interviews that they love performing, but don’t like watching their own films. Howard, when he watched back his movies, became sharply aware of his own lack of range. He felt that he didn’t have a thespian’s pliability and couldn’t keep coasting by on lightweight character roles: “I was always a little uncomfortable watching myself and felt I was not capable of doing it differently from the way I was delivering each particular part. Over time it would have driven me mad.”
It’s also possible that Ron Howard was more ambitious than his father Rance, who spent many decades playing friendly hayseeds. Ron, in contrast, wanted to move past simple acting jobs and make the films himself. Given his success as a director, he made the right choice.
