Ron Howard spent 18 of his first 30 years as a regular presence in our homes on two classic TV series. Then, with his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer, he built one of the most successful film careers of our time, winning Oscars for “A Beautiful Mind” and “Frost/Nixon” and critical acclaim for such hits as “Cocoon,” “Splash” and “Apollo 13.”
His iconic 1989 film “Parenthood” next week premieres re-Imagined, as a weekly TV series designed to help solve NBC’s 10 p.m. problems on Tuesday nights.
My father, Rance, was in “Mister Roberts,” touring the country with Henry Fonda. So when he had to go into the military, he started directing there to avoid combat in Korea. When he got out, one of his calling cards was he really knew “Mister Roberts.” So in summer stock and stuff, he’d wind up directing and sometimes playing the character. It was a really popular summer-stock production.
I was born while he was in the Air Force, and being around these summer-stock productions is among my earliest memories. Apparently, I started picking up on the dialogue and mimicking the dialogue when I was about 3.
We did a scene between Roberts and Ensign Pulver -- the characters played by Jack Lemmon and Henry Fonda in the movie. I played the Lemmon part. My dad thought that was pretty amusing.
So, dissolve, a few months later, my dad was making the rounds in New York, and he wandered into this casting office at MGM. It was swamped, swarming with kids for a movie called “The Journey” that was gonna be made in Vienna, starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr. And he couldn’t get in, s
o he left a note: “Rance Howard stopped by. And by the way, I have a son who’s a fine actor.”
We were surprised to get a call back. The guy said, "Bring your son in."
So we went in and did this little scene from “Mister Roberts.” They said, "Can you do anything else?" And he said, "I really don’t know if he can." So they gave him some sides, and I learned this new scene, did it, and then they said, "OK, we’re gonna screen-test him."
I remember my dad preparing me by running the lines, and he had one of his acting buddies holding up a broomstick with a string and tin can like a boom mic and jiggling it around so I would learn not to get distracted and look up at the real mic. And he was just working on me, talking to the character, listening … really good preparation -- sort of Actors Studio stuff.
I got the part. And he got a small part in it, too, which enabled my mom to go with us on location.
Their feeling was, as struggling actors, we’ll never be able to afford to take him to Europe.
