Growing up, Clint and Ron Howard never had to dream of fame, as as children they had already achieved it. Ron was only 6 when he was featured as runner-up on “The Andy Griffith Show” and 8 when “The Music Man,” starring him singing “Gary, Indiana”, came out. Clint, his younger brother, was accumulating roles in “Bonanza”, “Star Trek” and “Gentle Ben”.
Today, they are both Hollywood veterans: Ron, 67, is an Oscar-winning director (“A Beautiful Mind”) and co-founder of Imagine Entertainment, while Clint, 62, is a prolific actor who has appeared everywhere from “Seinfeld” to the “Austin Powers” movies.
But their lives were transformed by their time as child actors and the influence of their parents, Rance Howard and Jean Speegle Howard, who left Oklahoma to pursue their own ambitions to become actors – goals that were overwhelmed countless times by the accomplishments of their two sons.
Ron and Clint Howard retrace this period of training in a new book, “The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family”, which will be released Tuesday by William Morrow. In their alternate tales, the Howards look back at their parents’ lives, their own upbringing, and their success in warding off the darker aspects of their profession – at least until the realities of adolescence and age adult manifest themselves.
When the brothers spoke in a video interview last month, they spoke about how writing “The Boys” has helped them reconnect with each other and their family history.
“We’ve stayed close, but we’re 3,000 miles apart and busy with our own families,” said Ron Howard, adding that the book “has everything to do with trying to put our lives in the context of who our parents were and what they gave us.
“We wouldn’t have done it just to tell our story,” he added. “Once again, mom and dad brought us closer together. “
Clint and Ron Howard opened up about their early days in show business, their early contact with celebrity, and how their parents helped them stay together. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.
It is well known that you are the children of actors, but you are not exactly the descendants of Barrymore. How were your parents? How did they find him in Hollywood?
RON HOWARD There is no reason they were successful. They didn’t know where they were going. They weren’t bohemian, they weren’t hippie, but they sure weren’t conservative. But they had this dream. They must have chased this horizon. And when they got to the horizon, they never really fit in. They were still a little horny. Hence the term they applied to themselves, sophisticated hicks.
Have you ever been made to feel like you are supporting your family?
CLINT HOWARD We haven’t brought show business home. Mom and dad both worked their tails. Mom was just a champion mom. She was on the PTA, she was a basketball mom, she was a baseball mom.
RON Dad was a child-actor whisperer. But he said, I work with you boys because you are my sons and I think you can learn something. I don’t think he believed it was our career for the rest of our lives. I don’t think he wanted to project this desire onto us.
You probably could have lived a lot more with the money you were making – why didn’t you?
RON We have always lived off daddy’s wages. Someone wanted to create an Opie clothing line – I’m sure that would have meant hundreds of thousands of dollars at the end of the day. Mom and Dad turned me down because they didn’t want me to waste my time on this.
CLINT We have never lacked for anything. But we didn’t go on vacation. They didn’t buy new cars. Once a year Ron and I received new school clothes. No one was chasing those intoxicating elements that modern life or show business can overwhelm you with.
As a child, you regularly crossed paths with revered Hollywood artists. Clint, you gotta meet Walt Disney when you were working on “The Jungle Book”. How was it ?
CLINT I was completely blown away when Walt walked in and said, “You are doing a good job, Clint.” I was truly a Disney baby. But I was a little irritated that I hadn’t worked in other Disney series. [Laughter.]
RON Too bad you didn’t just say, “What took you so long?” Walt, how many times have I been to Disneyland? Where’s the counterpart here, Walt? “
CLINT These people all seemed friendly enough, but they didn’t hand out the contracts. I have never participated in “The Mickey Mouse Club”.
Have either of you ever been jealous of each other?
CLINT Our age difference was ideal. Five years apart I’d look at my brother and walk away, there’s no way I could kick his ass. There were a few times we had a fight over baseball cards or a toy, and dad physically separated us. He looks like you boys are going to want to be good friends when you grow up. So why not just shoot it down?
RON It looks like you have a luck be good friends when you grow up.
There is a period that you describe in the book, where things were starting to calm down for Ron on “The Andy Griffith Show” and Clint was starting to take off on “Gentle Ben”. Did this create tension between you?
RON I was longing for what Clint was doing. He was very popular at school, an excellent athlete, sociable, intelligent, confident. Things that I don’t necessarily feel or breathe. And I admired that about his character. And I could see it in the work he was doing too. He was a damn good child actor. The system is set up to make the child performers feel like failures as they go through adolescence, that most vulnerable time, and I was starting to experience it. Clint experimented with a version of it later.
CLINT I worked on “Gentle Ben”, I was one of the co-hosts of a TV series that was very popular for a short time. What really hit my chin was being hired to work on a TV series called “The Cowboys”. The work ended up sucking. It was a bad show. I was still making money, but the work was poor. That, and then buttons. Mom and dad warned us about this show business period. We knew it was going to happen. There was no way to really quantify how I was going to feel about it.
In a time and industry where drugs were rife, Ron meticulously avoided them while Clint had a long period of addiction and recovery. Why do you think you have had such different experiences?
RON I was very introverted and so was my group of friends. I wasn’t really allowed to go to parties. If I’ve been invited once or twice, I think my parents said no. But Clint was in a different group, much more socially mature. I also resented some of the restrictions my parents placed on me, and constantly implored them to use a lighter hand with Clint.
CLINT I just had a weird kind of fascination with smoking weed. To the point where I literally practiced – took some pencil shavings from my sharpener and twisted a joint and tried to smoke it. Ron was the first, he was a little more old-fashioned. I was more socially outgoing. I ended up with a group of friends where it wasn’t a big deal. The problem is, once this train leaves the station, it can start very quickly. It’s a slippery slope and I was throwing the Crisco.
Ron, have you ever felt guilty for letting your little brother down and not protecting him from this?
RON Yes, I felt that. When we found out that Clint was smoking weed, I said, look, that’s not the horrible demon curse you’re afraid it will be. But as Clint started to take things further, I was then married and started having children. I was worried and tried to offer my support and go to meetings. I continued to work with Clint and chose him when it made sense. I remember telling him pretty late in his time of abuse – we used a lot of baseball terminology – I said, you’re a real .300 hitter hitting around .217.
CLINT I have this letter. You wrote it on notepaper in a hotel room in New York.
RON I was thinking of you while I was on the road. But I was very proud of Clint for sailing it. This achievement meant so much to mom and dad, probably more than anything we had ever achieved.
CLINT My recovery was not easy, easy, clean and elegant. Ron had a lot to do with it and dad too. I struggled with mom’s passing, but I was very proud of the moment I was able to put my nine year old baby in her coffin. I only wish it was a 10 year old chip.
What is your favorite performance that your brother has given?
RON Clint was great in “The Red Pony”. But while I was doing research for it, I had forgotten that we had both been on “The Danny Kaye Show”, and there was this sketch where I was supposed to be this young James Bond character and Clint was. my boss. He nailed down this scene. When I looked at him I said, my God, look like he is present. He really plays a 50 year old, hardened guy, and I buy him.
CLINT He talks about me in “The Red Pony”, but I never had the chance to do what he did in “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”. There’s a scene in that movie where he has this panic attack that turns into a tantrum, and he was so believable. I’m going, the guy has chops. Also, as a young man, he made a movie, “Act of Love”. It was heavy material and he nailed it.
RON It was a story of euthanasia, based on a real event, where one younger brother was begged by the other to end it after a horrific accident. There is a scene in a courtroom where he talks about how much he loves his brother and Clint was going through a rough time during this time. It was one of the most personal moments I have ever generated onscreen, because I was channeling my own sense of love and desperation for what Clint was going through. The tears and the emotions were real – they came from my own guts.
