Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this
generation’s most popular directors. From the critically
acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13 to the hit
comedies Parenthood and Splash, he has created some of
Hollywood’s most memorable films. Most recently, he
directed the big-screen adaptation of the international best
seller The Da Vinci Code, starring Oscar® winner Tom Hanks,
Audrey Tautou, Sir Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno and
Paul Bettany. Prior to The Da Vinci Code, Howard directed and
produced Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe, with whom he
previously collaborated on A Beautiful Mind, for which Mr. Howard
earned an Oscar® for Best Director and which also won awards
for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress.
The film garnered four Golden Globes as well, including the award
for Best Motion Picture Drama. Additionally, Mr. Howard won Best
Director of the Year from the Directors Guild of America (DGA).
Mr. Howard and producer Brian Grazer received the first annual
Awareness Award from the National Mental Health Awareness
Campaign for their work on the film.
Mr. Howard’s skill as a director has long been recognized.
In 1995, he received his first Best Director of the Year award
from the DGA for Apollo 13. The true-life drama also garnered
nine Academy Award® nominations, winning for Best Film
Editing and Best Sound. It also received Best Ensemble Cast and
Best Supporting Actor awards from the Screen Actors Guild. Many
of Ron Howard’s past films have received nods from the
Academy, including the popular hits Backdraft, Parenthood and
Cocoon, the last of which took home two Oscars®. Mr. Howard
was honored by the Museum of the Moving Image in December 2005
and by the American Cinema Editors in February 2006.
Ron Howard’s portfolio includes some of the most popular
films of the past 20 years. In 1991, Mr. Howard created the
acclaimed drama Backdraft, starring Robert De Niro, Kurt Russell
and William Baldwin. He followed it with the historical epic Far
and Away, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Mr. Howard
directed Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise and Delroy Lindo in
the 1996 suspense thriller Ransom. He worked with Tom Hanks,
Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise and Kathleen
Quinlan on Apollo 13, which was rereleased recently in the IMAX
format. Mr. Howard’s other films include the blockbuster
Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring Jim
Carrey; Parenthood, starring Steve Martin, the fantasy epic
Willow; Night Shift, starring Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton and
Shelley Long; and the suspenseful western The Missing, starring
Oscar® winners Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones.
Mr. Howard has also served as an executive producer on a number
of award-winning films and television shows, such as the HBO
miniseries From the Earth to the Moon and FOX’s Arrested
Development, an Emmy Award winner for Best Comedy, which he also
narrated.
Ron Howard and longtime producing partner Brian Grazer first
collaborated on the hit comedies Night Shift and Splash. The pair
co-founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 to create independently
produced feature films. The company has since produced a variety
of popular feature films, including such hits as The Nutty
Professor, The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Bowfinger, The
Paper, Inventing the Abbotts and Liar, Liar. Ron Howard made his
directorial debut in 1978 with the comedy Grand Theft Auto.
Mr. Howard began his career in film as an actor. He first
appeared in The Journey and The Music Man, then as Opie on the
long-running and beloved television series The Andy Griffith
Show. Ron Howard later starred in the wildly popular hit series
Happy Days and drew favorable reviews for his performances in the
smash hit American Graffiti and The Shootist.
Ron Howard is currently in post-production on the big-screen
adaptation of Dan Brown’s best-selling novel ‘Angels
& Demons,’ and just finished production on Universal
Pictures’ recently released the lauded Changeling, directed
by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie.
© 2009, The Hollywood Sentinel