Ron Howard Then and Now: From Richie Cunningham to Oscar Winner at 72

Ron Howard has been on American screens for more than six decades, and few careers have changed shape so completely. He was Opie Taylor as a child, Richie Cunningham as a teenager on Happy Days, and then one of Hollywood's most successful directors, with two Academy Awards for A Beautiful Mind. Born on March 1, 1954, Howard is 72, and in May 2026 he was photographed at the Cannes Film Festival, still working in the industry he grew up in.

How did Ron Howard get his start?

Ronald William Howard was born in Duncan, Oklahoma, the elder son of Rance Howard, a director, writer and actor, and Jean Speegle, an actress. His younger brother, Clint Howard, also became an actor. Howard began working as a child and gained national attention as young Opie Taylor, the son of Sheriff Andy Taylor, played by Andy Griffith, on The Andy Griffith Show from 1960 through 1968.

During those years, he also played Winthrop Paroo, the boy with the lisp, in the 1962 film version of The Music Man, starring Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. The movie was a critical and commercial success, became the third highest-grossing film of its year and received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. In 1963, he starred with Glenn Ford in The Courtship of Eddie's Father. By the time he was a teenager, Howard had years of experience in both television and film.

How did he become Richie Cunningham?

A role in "Love and the Television Set," a 1972 installment of the ABC anthology series Love, American Style, led directly to Happy Days. The segment was an unsold pilot starring Howard, Marion Ross and Anson Williams. Based on that pilot, George Lucas cast Howard as Steve Bolander, one of the leads in his 1973 coming-of-age film American Graffiti. The film grossed $55 million and became one of the biggest hits of the year, which led ABC to take a fresh look at the pilot.

Happy Days premiered on ABC on January 15, 1974. Set in 1950s and early 1960s Milwaukee, it followed Richie Cunningham, a nice, soft-spoken teenager who often got into trouble trying to meet girls, along with his family and friends. Howard played the likable, buttoned-down Richie opposite Henry Winkler's greaser Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, and the two developed chemistry on and off screen. Around the same time, he appeared in the films The Spikes Gang (1974) and The Shootist (1976), in which he starred with John Wayne and Lauren Bacall.

What made Happy Days such a hit?

The series opened to mixed reviews. When ratings slipped in the second season, creator Garry Marshall retooled it to emphasize broader comedy and give more room to Fonzie. The changes worked: Happy Days became the No. 1 program on television in the 1976-77 season and launched spin-offs including Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. It ran until July 19, 1984, for a total of 255 half-hour episodes over 11 seasons.

Howard left just before the start of the eighth season in 1980, after signing an exclusive contract with NBC, to focus on directing. On the show, Richie was written out by joining the U.S. Army. Howard returned as a guest during the 11th and final season, including the two-part episode "Welcome Home." For many viewers, Richie Cunningham is still the clearest "then" image of Ron Howard.

How did he move behind the camera?

Howard made his directing debut in 1977 with Grand Theft Auto, a low-budget action comedy he co-wrote with his father, Rance. The chance came through a deal with producer Roger Corman, who let Howard direct a film in exchange for starring in Eat My Dust! Between 1978 and 1982, he directed several TV movies for NBC, including Skyward (1980), starring Bette Davis.

His big break as a director came in 1982 with Night Shift, starring Michael Keaton, Shelley Long and his Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler. Splash followed in 1984, starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, and became a box-office and critical success. Cocoon (1985) was also a critical and financial hit, and it won Don Ameche an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Howard teamed with George Lucas again on the fantasy adventure Willow (1988). He closed the decade with the family comedy Parenthood (1989), which opened at No. 1 and grossed more than $100 million in the United States and $126 million worldwide.

Which films made him one of Hollywood's top directors?

In the 1990s, Howard directed the firefighting thriller Backdraft (1991), the Western epic Far and Away (1992) and the newspaper comedy-drama The Paper (1994). Then came Apollo 13 in 1995, the story of the troubled NASA moon mission. It was a major financial hit and received nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. In 2000, his live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim Carrey, became the highest-grossing film of the year in the United States.

His next film, A Beautiful Mind (2001), starring Russell Crowe, won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture, giving Howard two Oscars. He was nominated for the same two awards again for Frost/Nixon (2008), a film about the famous television interviews that received five Academy Award nominations in all. Over his career, Howard has also won seven Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and two Grammy Awards, and he has been nominated for seven British Academy Film Awards. He received the National Medal of Arts in 2003, was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013 and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

What has Ron Howard made since then?

Howard has kept directing at a steady pace. His films include the boxing drama Cinderella Man (2005), the Robert Langdon mysteries The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Inferno (2006-2016), the comedy The Dilemma (2011), and the Formula One drama Rush (2013). He followed with In the Heart of the Sea (2015), about the sinking of the whaling ship Essex, and Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). His drama Hillbilly Elegy was released on Netflix in 2020. Thirteen Lives, about the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand, arrived in 2022. That same year, Netflix acquired two of his projects from Paramount: The Shrinking of Treehorn, set to be his first animated feature, and the survival thriller Eden, starring Jude Law and Ana de Armas.

He has stepped in front of the camera now and then, too. His best-known later acting job was as the unseen narrator of Arrested Development, from 2003 to 2019, and he also appeared as himself in several episodes while serving as an executive producer. He has played fictionalized versions of himself on The Simpsons, This Is Us, Only Murders in the Building and The Studio. The Studio earned him a 2025 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, the first acting Emmy nomination of his career.

Where is Ron Howard now?

In May 2026, Howard was photographed giving an interview at the Elvis Mitchell lounge during the Cannes Film Festival. At 72, he remains a familiar face in entertainment because his work spans so many eras: child actor, sitcom star, studio director and occasional on-screen guest. His Happy Days co-star Henry Winkler is also still working, and the two remain linked in the memories of viewers who grew up with Richie and the Fonz. Few performers have stayed this visible for this long while moving so fully from one side of the camera to the other.

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Timeline

• **March 1, 1954:** Ron Howard is born in Duncan, Oklahoma.
• **1960-1968:** He plays Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show.
• **1973:** He stars in George Lucas's American Graffiti.
• **Jan. 15, 1974:** Happy Days premieres on ABC, with Howard as Richie Cunningham.
• **1977:** He directs his first feature, Grand Theft Auto.
• **1980:** He leaves Happy Days before its eighth season.
• **1984-1985:** He directs Splash and Cocoon.
• **1995:** Apollo 13 earns nine Oscar nominations.
• **2002:** A Beautiful Mind wins Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.
• **2025:** He earns his first acting Emmy nomination, for The Studio.
• **May 2026:** He appears at the Cannes Film Festival.

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*ARCHIVE PHOTOS: Ron Howard (right) as Richie Cunningham with Anson Williams in a 1974 ABC press photo from the premiere episode of Happy Days (left), and Ron Howard during an interview at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival (right). Photos: ABC Television / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain (left); Vbrunophotog / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 (right). Both cropped.*

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