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This sitcom became very popular in a short period of time and ran in the prime time for several years. In addition to this, Ron featured in another well recognized program named Happy Days and played the leading role of Richie Cunningham. He was in his late teens then. Simultaneously, he again played a lead in the blockbuster film American Graffiti and in John Wayne's The Shootist. Even though he earned extremely appreciative reviews for most of these films, he was, by that time, adamant to become a director.
In his later life,inspite being popular and well recognized, the actor turned director found difficulty in receiving good work. He directed a number of episodes for Happy Days but the existing studios were not inclined to thrust the responsibility of direction on so young a director as him. Later however, Ron made a deal with an independent producer Roger Corman who gave him the offer to direct his film. In exchange, Ron agreed to act in his film for virtually nothing. Roger Corman is known to have taken a chance with directors like Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese and its not unknown to us that today they stand as some of the best directors.
Corman booked Ron's unmade film only on the intensity of its title, without even having a script ready with a defined structure. Eventually, Ron Howard and his father Rance Howard worked out a script in only about two weeks and Ron finally went into production. Grand Theft Auto proved to be a huge hit and this gave Ron an opportunity to get into mainstream cinema. His tremendous effort resulted in a comedy film called Night Shift casting Henry Winkler (his Happy Days co-star).
As an actor, Ron was stereotyped as the clean-cut-all-American boy and later he found himself being stamped as a comedy director. To prove himself and to break the chains of monotony, Ron directed George Lucas' fantasy film Willow which was followed by a blend of comedy and fantasy in the popular films Splash and Cocoon. Additionally he also produced successful films like Kindergarten Cop and My Girl. He directed other films like Parenthood, The Paper, Backdraft, Apollo 13 and Ransom. He also made an attempt to direct a historical epic , Far and Away. Apollo 13 won him the 1996 award as Best Director. From the year 1986, his films have been produced by Imagine Films Entertainment which was co-founded by Ron and his partner Brian Grazer. Ron has been declared as the chairman of the production company and under his guidance, A Beautiful Mind which released in 2002, received four Oscar Awards including The Best Director Award which went to Ron Howard.
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