The Howards of Hollywood

The title of this post is of course a play on The Howards of Virginia (1940) See how clever? They radiate about as much Americana as the fictional Virginians in that Cary Grant movie. Though, in their own way, they’re just as fictional: their real last name is Beckenholdt. The story begins with Rance Howard (Harold Engle Beckenholdt, 1928-2017) and his wife Jean (1928-2000). The pair were native Oklahomans with an interest in acting. Rance worked in children’s theatre starting in 1948, and then toured nationally in Mister Roberts in 1950, prior to serving a three year hitch in the air force during the Korean War.

Interestingly, while Rance and Jean Howard both have plenty of screen credits, none of them predates Ron’s earliest one — the three of them (Ron was only two years old) were in the low budgest western Frontier Woman in 1956. Rance worked a little in live TV drama and westerns in the early days and would eventually accumulate nearly 300 screen credits, but it must be acknowledged that almost from the beginning, his acting career and that of his wife was bolstered considerably by roles in film and TV projects in which their kids starred, and, later, he was stunt cast based on the family legend.

That’s old Rance in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994).

The real success story in the family is of course, the oldest son Ron Howard (b. 1954). That one was born under a lucky star. The early phase of his life and career was simply charmed. He played the central role of Opie in nearly 250 episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68). During the same years, he was that kid with the annoying tooth-whistle in The Music Man (1962), the titular Eddie in The Courtship of Eddie Father (1963, with Glenn Ford as a single dad not unlike Opie’s Mayberry one), and the teen horror flick Village of the Giants (1965). His awkward adolescent period was mercifully brief, and even that was full of work. He was in the 1970 Disney film The Wild Country, and a regular on the series The Smith Family (1971-72) starring Henry Fonda, who had toured with his dad in Mister Roberts two decades earlier.

His next phase began with his casting in the 1972 Love American Style segment “Love and the Television Set”, which, with its nostalgic 1950s setting was to serve as a sort of pilot for Happy Days. This was followed by his similar teenage performance in American Graffiti (1973) opposite Cindy Williams. Then his lead role on the smash hit Garry Marshall sit-com Happy Days, on which he starred from 1974 to 1980.

Even while this pop culture phenomenon was swirling around him, Howard had incredible other stuff going on. He supported John Wayne in his last movie The Shootist(1976), with Lauren Bacall playing his mom. The same year he appeared in the Roger Corman produced Eat My Dust, penned by Charles B. Griffith, which enabled his real aim — directing his first feature film Grand Theft Auto for the producer the following year. Thus he already his parachute lined up for when Happy Days eventually petered out. He was also reunited with Cindy Williams in the oft-forgotten More American Grafitti (1979).

I really enjoyed Howard’s next couple of films as director, both high concept comedies co-written by Babaloo Mandel: Night Shift (1982) with Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton, and Shelley Long; and Splash (1984) with Tom Hanks, John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Daryl Hannah. He went on to direct around four dozen more pictures, many of them major blockbusters. I wish I could say that I liked any of them, but I generally find them insipid, medicore, pandering, obvious, cliched, sentimental, and several less printable adjectives. I’ve seen nearly all of them; among them, my favorite is probably Frost/Nixon because of the strong script and performances, followed perhaps by Solo. My savage review of Hillbilly Elegy (fairly representative of what I think of his movies) is here. I will say I am very much interested in seeing In the Heart of the Sea, though. It sounds very much to my tastes, which is probably why it bombed at the box office.

Howard’s voice returned to television between 2003 and 2019 as the voice-over narrator on Arrested Development, playing once again on his wholesome, all-American image. Even after all these decades, Howard still has nearly twice as many acting credits as he does directing ones, though most are from the early days, when he made appearances on shows like The Twilight Zone, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,The Red Skelton Hour, Dennis the Menace, Gunsmoke, M*A*S*H, The Waltons etc.

Two of his daughters are actors. Bryce Dallas Howard (b. 1981) is best known for the Jurassic World movies. Paige Howard (b. 1985) may be best known for the horror film The Employer (2013) with Malcolm MacDowell.

We save the best (because the strangest) for last. Clint Howard (b. 1959) is often unfairly thought of, like Rance, as riding Ron’s coat-tails, but in reality, he very much carved out his own niche, especially in the early days. Star Trek fans know and love him from the 1966 episode “The Corbomite Maneuver” (an adult actor dubbed his voice). He was the original voice of Roo in the Disney’sWinnie the Pooh shorts and the baby Elephant in The Jungle Book (1967). He starred on the tv series Gentle Ben from 1967 to 1969, and starred in The Red Pony (1972) — still every bit the peer of his brother.

It was the success of Happy Days that widened the gap. But outside of Ron’s shadow you could see Clint in bit parts in things like Harper Valley PTA (1978), Rock and Roll High School (1979), Tango & Cash (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Carnosaur (1993), Barb Wire (1996), comedies by Adam Sandler and Mike Myers, horror movies by Rob Zombie, and dozens of tv shows, including many stints on the various Star Trek iterations. He has a remarkable face that jumps right out at you, and on that account, he has over 250 screen credits, and very likely would have done even if Ron had never made it big.