#RON HOWARD ANDY GRIFFITH HOW TO#
#RON HOWARD ANDY GRIFFITH TV#

He was teaching me, at age eight or nine, the power of concentration and focus. One director on that show, Bob Sweeney, expected a lot of me and, in a very loving, respectful way, would take me to task. It wasn’t “Hit the marks and belt out the jokes, kid.” It was much more about truth and honesty and Andy Griffith’s recollection of what it was like growing up in the South. The scene direction was built around character. On The Andy Griffith Show most of the directors had been actors and had a very comfortable way with us.

That was a huge step in having as constructive a mental health outlook as one can have in that wacky business.Īs a little kid on the set with all those adults, whom did you learn the most from? And what did they teach you? And by the time I was 15, I knew I wanted to be a director. Even as I got older and went into that awkward stage, where acne and child labor laws are not your friend (because they can hire somebody over 18 who looks the same age as you and they won’t have to restrict the work hours), so roles were a little less forthcoming, I wanted to continue acting. So I was lucky in that I did not have that adolescent confusion. There was a lot of laughter, but there was also a lot of hard work and care. I could see the grown-ups really hustling, straining, arguing to try to get things right, even on a show that looked as relaxed and down-home as The Andy Griffith Show. You come to know the art and the discipline involved and the camaraderie and the energy around creative problem-solving. It’s like a kid who grows up with the circus. I also really enjoyed the environment and the process. That meant a neighborhood of three-bedroom, one-bathroom houses in Burbank, California, not gated communities. But at the same time, we always lived in the house that my dad, a struggling workaday actor, could afford. I was well-known, and I think they had a lot of anxiety about security. They were strict-not harsh, but helicoptering before that was a thing. How did you avoid that?Ī lot of it had to do with my parents.

The local casting agents took notice, and I wound up working a lot that year, which ultimately led to The Andy Griffith Show. When we got back from Europe, we got in the old Plymouth and drove to Los Angeles, and he set me up with his agent and said, “I have no idea if this will go anywhere, but let’s just see.” The first couple of jobs were on live television shows, and he was so good at preparing me that I did it anxiety-free.

#RON HOWARD ANDY GRIFFITH HOW TO#

My dad realized I had an aptitude for acting, and he was a naturally gifted teacher, so he began to explain not how to perform but how to act-to understand what the scenes were about. Brynner was this bigger-than-life guy, and I could crawl around on what were made to look like Soviet tanks with the other kids in the movie. My first film was The Journey, about the Hungarian Revolution, starring Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr and shot in Vienna.

My earliest recollections are of having a lot of fun. By the time I was four, I was actually acting, and I enjoyed it. If they needed a baby for a play, I’d be the baby. Howard: I was involved before I ever thought about it. Did you always expect to follow in their footsteps? HBR: Your parents were in the entertainment business. or celebrating cooperation and volunteerism.” His latest directorial effort, Thirteen Lives, is streaming on Amazon now. As he told an audience at the Masters of Scale Summit, his aim is to make films that have a positive impact on the world – “whether it’s destigmatizing mental illness …. Often in partnership with his Imagine Entertainment cofounder, Brian Grazer, and working with the industry’s top talent as well as its up-and-comers, Howard has produced more than 120 films and shows, and he has acted in or directed more than 130, all while maintaining a reputation for being one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. Then he started directing popular (and critically acclaimed) movies, from Splash and Cocoon to Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind.

#RON HOWARD ANDY GRIFFITH TV#

First he won our hearts as a child and teen actor playing the beloved TV characters Opie Taylor and Richie Cunningham.

Ron howard andy griffith