Ron Howard

 Born March 1st, 1954. Ronald William Howard is an American screenwriter, producer, and actor. Howard first rose to fame as a child actor. Howard was a guest actor in various television shows, including The Twilight Zone. He was the young Opie Taylor who played the role of the son of Sheriff Andy Taylor between 1960 and 1968 on The Andy Griffith Show. In this period the actor was also in the musical film The Music Man (1962) which was a commercial and critical success. From 1959 until 1973, he was known as Ronny Howard on both his television and film appearances. Howard was one of the main characters in American Graffiti (1973). Howard became famous as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days from 1974 until. In 1980, Howard left Happy Days to concentrate on directing writing and producing various television and film. Howard was the director of comedies Night Shift (1982), Splash(1984) and Cocoon (1985) as well as the genre-bending Willow (88), Backdraft (1991) and The Paper (1994).