On This Day

Birthday of Ron Howard

March 1st 1954

15:04 1 March 2024

American director and actor Ron Howard was born on this day in 1954. Howard was already a successful actor, having appeared in ‘American Graffiti’ (1974), ‘The Shootist’ (1976) and the popular U.S. sitcom ‘Happy Days’, when he made his feature length directorial debut with the low budget comedy road film ‘Grand Theft Auto’ (1977).

His directorial breakthrough came with the comedy film 'Night Shift' (1982) starring Michael Keaton, Shelley Long and his 'Happy Days' co-star Henry Winkler. A string of major movies followed through the 80s and into the 90s including 'Splash' (1984), 'Cocoon' (1985), 'Willow' (1988), 'Parenthood' (1989), 'Backdraft' (1991), 'Far and Away' (1992) and 'The Paper' (1994). The hugely successful 'Apollo 13' (1995) received nine Academy Award nominations and was the first of Howard's true-life dramas that also includes 'A Beautiful Mind' (2001), 'Cinderella Man' (2005), 'Frost/Nixon' (2008), 'Rush' (2013), 'In the Heart of the Sea' (2015) and 'Thirteen Lives' (2022).

Other notable credits include the thriller 'Ransom' (1996) starring Mel Gibson, the children's fantasy film 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' (2000), the Robert Langdon film series: 'The Da Vinci Code' (2006), Angels & Demons' (2009), and 'Inferno' (2016), the music documentaries 'The Beatles: Eight Days a Week' (2016) and 'Pavarotti' (2019) and his space western 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' (2018). Academy Award winning filmmaker Ron Howard has directed some of Hollywood's most memorable films and continues to be one of the most popular film directors in the world. Happy Birthday Ron.