Ronald William Howard (born March 1, 1954 in Duncan, Oklahoma) is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor, film director, and producer, primarily for his roles on sitcoms, movies and television, who came to prominence in the 1960s as Andy Griffith's son, Opie Taylor, on The Andy Griffith Show, and later as Tom Bosley's son & Henry Winkler's best friend, Richie Cunningham, on Happy Days (a role he played from 1974 to 1980).

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. After The Music Man, he appeared in the role of Opie Taylor in the television series The Andy Griffith Show. There he portrayed the son of the local sheriff in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina. The credits referred to him as "Ronny Howard." He also appeared in "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" with Glenn Ford.

Howard is also well known for his role as Richie Cunningham in television's Happy Days on which, beginning in 1974, he played the likable "buttoned down" boy, in contrast to Henry Winkler's Fonz. He attained film success with his role as Steve Bollander in George Lucas' teen movie American Graffiti. In 1977, while still starring on Happy Days, he directed his first film, a low-budget comedy/action film called Grand Theft Auto. After leaving Happy Days in 1980, he directed several TV movies. His big theatrical directing break came in 1982 when he directed the bigger budget film Night Shift featuring soon-to-be well-known actors such as Michael Keaton and Shelley Long, and reuniting Howard with his Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler.

He has since directed a number of high-visibility films, the most acclaimed of which include Splash, Cocoon, Apollo 13 (nominated for several Academy Awards), A Beautiful Mind, for which he won the Oscar for Best Director, and Cinderella Man. His latest film, The Da Vinci Code, reteaming Howard with Splash and Apollo 13 star Tom Hanks, has been a box office hit earning more than $700 million at the box office. Howard is the co-chairman, with Brian Grazer, of Imagine Entertainment, a major film and television production company, which has produced notable projects like Friday Night Lights, 8 Mile, Inside Deep Throat, and the television series 24 and Felicity. His last significant on-screen role was when he reprised his famous role as Opie Taylor in the 1986 TV reunion movie Return to Mayberry reuniting him with Andy Griffith, the now late Don Knotts, and most of the old cast.

Through his company Imagine Television, Howard continues to have a presence in television, most recently as the executive producer and uncredited narrator of the critically acclaimed FOX sitcom Arrested Development. The show, despite having won six Emmy awards and near-unanimous praise from critics, did not enjoy high ratings and was limited by Fox Television in 2006. A series finale took place in February, but Howard, on-screen for the first time in the show, suggested a movie version may be in the works.

Howard often casts his younger brother Clint with a minor role in most of his movies.

Personal life

On June 7, 1975 Howard wed his high-school sweetheart, Cheryl, born Alley, a writer with a degree in geriatric psychology. They have four children (daughters Bryce Dallas Howard, Jocelyn Carlyle (twin, b. 1985), Paige Carlyle (twin, b. 1985), and son Reed Cross (b. 1987), and two of their daughters Bryce Dallas Howard and Paige Howard are both actresses. They live on a 35-acre estate in the exclusive gated community of Conyers Farm in Greenwich, Connecticut. Became a grandfather when daughter Bryce gave birth to a son in February, 2007.

Howard in popular culture

• In the The Simpsons episode When You Dish Upon a Star, Homer meets and befriends Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger and Ron Howard. Later in the episode, Ron Howard is injured when trying to jump from a truck to the RV that Homer was driving. In the end, he pitches Homer's movie idea and gets it greenlit.

• When he hosted Saturday Night Live in the 1980s, Eddie Murphy called him "Opie Cunningham".

• In an episode of South Park, when Cartman "turns ginger" he asks a crowd of fellow ginger haired people to name great Americans with the hair color, the first named is "Ron Howard", when asked to name a second, after a short silence from the crowd, one responds "Ron Howard".

• On a VH1 special about the 100 greatest child stars, many of the interviewees considered Ron Howard to be the most successful child star of all time, considering his two major television acting roles and his directing career.

Directorial Filmography

Films:

• Old Paint (1969) (short subject)

• Deed of Daring-Do (1969) (short subject)

• Cards, Cads, Guns, Gore and Death (1969) (short subject)

• Grand Theft Auto (1977)

• Night Shift (1982)

• Splash (1984)

• Cocoon (1985)

• Gung Ho (1986)

• Willow (1988)

• Parenthood (1989)

• Backdraft (1991)

• Far and Away (1992)

• The Paper (1994)

• Apollo 13 (1995)

• Ransom (1996)

• EDtv (1999)

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

• A Beautiful Mind (2001)

• The Missing (2003)

• Cinderella Man (2005)

• The Da Vinci Code (2006)

• Angels & Demons (2008) (in negotiations)

Television:

• Cotton Candy (1978)

• Skyward (1980)

• Through the Magic Pyramid (1981)

• Littleshots (1983)

• Take Five (1987)

Acting Filmography

Film:

• Frontier Woman (1956)

• The Journey (1959)

• Door-to-Door Maniac (1961)

• The Music Man (1962)

• The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963)

• Village of the Giants (1965)

• The Wild Country (1970)

• American Graffiti (1973)

• Happy Mother's Day, Love George (1973)

• The Spikes Gang (1974)

• The First Nudie Musical (1976)

• Eat My Dust (1976)

• The Shootist (1976)

• Grand Theft Auto (1977)

• More American Graffiti (1979)

• The Magical World of Chuck Jones (1992) (documentary)

• One Vision (1998) (documentary)

• The Independent (2000)

• Welcome to Hollywood (2000)

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

• Osmosis Jones (2001) (voice)

• A Beautiful Mind (2001)

• Tell Them Who You Are (2004) (documentary)

Television:

• The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968)

• A Boy Called Nuthin' (1967)

• Smoke (1970)

• The Smith Family (1971-1972)

• The Migrants (1974)

• Happy Days (cast member from 1974-1980)

• Locusts (1974)

• Huckleberry Finn (1975)

• I'm a Fool (1976)

• Act of Love (1980)

• Bitter Harvest (1981)

• Fire on the Mountain (1981)

• Return to Mayberry (1986)