Ronald William Howard born March 1 1954 is an American filmmaker and actor Howard first came to prominence as a child actor gueststarring in several television series including an episode of The Twilight Zone He gained national attention for playing young Opie Taylor the son of Sheriff Andy Taylor played by Andy Griffith in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show from 1960 through 1968 During this time he also appeared in the musical film The Music Man 1962 a critical and commercial success He was credited as Ronny Howard in his film and television appearances from 1959 to 1973 Howard was cast in one of the lead roles in the comingofage film American Graffiti 1973 which received widespread acclaim and became one of the most profitable films in history The following year Howard became a household name for playing Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days a role he would play from 1974 through 1984 Howard continued appearing in films during this time such as the western film The Shootist 1976 and the comedy film Grand Theft Auto 1977 which also marked his directorial debut In 1984 Howard left Happy Days to focus on directing producing and occasionally writing variety films and television series His films include the sciencefictionfantasy Cocoon 1985 the fantasy Willow 1988 the thriller Backdraft 1991 the historical docudrama Apollo 13 1995 the Christmas comedy How the Grinch Stole Christmas 2000 the biographical drama A Beautiful Mind 2001 the biographical sports drama Cinderella Man 2005 the thriller The Da Vinci Code 2006 the historical drama FrostNixon 2008 Solo A Star Wars Story 2018 and the documentary Pavarotti 2019 For A Beautiful Mind Howard won the Academy Award for Best Director and Academy Award for Best Picture He was nominated again for the same awards for FrostNixon In 2003 Howard was awarded the National Medal of Arts He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013 Howard has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions in the television and motion pictures industries Description above from the Wikipedia article Ron Howard licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia