Gentle Ben

Background:

Prolific actor Rance Howard has amassed over 200 credits under his belt since kicking off his professional career in 1956. He is the father of actor/director Ron Howard and actor Clint Howard. In 1977, he and son Ron co-wrote the script of the box office hit “Grand Theft Auto,” which marked the directorial debut of Ron. Howard Sr. also co-starred as Ned Slinker as well as served as associate producer. He has since appeared in most of Ron's films such as “Splash” (1984), “Cocoon” (1985), “Gung Ho” (1986), “Parenthood” (1988), “Far and Away” (1992), “The Paper” (1994), “Apollo 13” (1995), “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000), “ A Beautiful Mind” (2001), “The Missing” (2003), “Cinderella Man” (2005), “Frost/Nixon” (2008), “Angels & Demons” (2009) and “The Dilemma” (2011). Howard has also worked with other directors like Tim Burton, Joe Dante, Jake Kasdan, Gus Van Sant, Rolland Emmerich, Henry Winkler, and Rob Reiner. On the small screen, Howard is famous for portraying Henry Broomhauer in the TV series “Gentle Ben” (CBS, 1967-1969). He also had recurring roles in “The Waltons” (1973-1975, as Dr. McIvers), “Babylon 5” (1996-1997, as David Sheridan), “Clueless” (1998, as Mr. Bell) and “Two of Kind” (1998, as Mr. Fillmore). He shared an Emmy nomination for his work on Ron's TV film “Through the Magic Pyramid” (1981), which he co-wrote and produced. Howard was honored with Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2004 Asheville Film Festival.

Howard has been married twice. His first marriage to Jean Speegle Howard lasted for 51 years (from 1949 until her death in 2000). He is currently married to Judy Howard.

Rance Beckenholdt

Childhood and Family:

Harold Rance Beckenholdt was born on November 17, 1928, in Oklahoma, to Engel Beckenholdt, a farmer, and Ethel Cleo Tomlin. He changed his name to “Rance Howard” when he became an actor. As a young, he joined a touring children's theater, and he would continue to tour as an adult.

In 1949, Rance married actress Jean Speegle Howard in Burbank, California. Their first child, Ronald William “Ron” Howard, was born on March 1, 1954 in Duncan, Oklahoma, while Rance was in his three year serving with the United States Air Force. They welcomed a addition of the family with the birth of the second son, Clinton “Clint” Howard, on April 20, 1959. Rance remained with his wife until she died on September 2, 2000. He then was married to Judy Howard on June 29, 2001.

Rance has four grandchildren from Ron's marriage to Cheryl Alley: Bryce Dallas Howard (actress; born March 2, 1981), Jocelyn Carlyle Howard and Paige Carlyle Howard (twins, born 1985) and Reed Cross Howard (born 1987). In February 2007, he became a great-grandfather when Bryce gave birth to a son, Theodore Norman Howard Gabel.

Through the Magic Pyramid

Career:

Rance Howard started his career on stage with credits including “Mister Roberts” (with Henry Fonda) and “The Seven Year Itch.” In 1955, he became a resident director of The Hilltop Theatre, a repertory theater in Baltimore, before moving to New York. In 1956, he was cast along side his eldest son in his first feature, “Frontier Woman,” a Western movie helmed by Ron Ormond and starring Cindy Carson, Lance Fuller and Ann Kelly. Howard made his television debut with a live episode of “Kraft Theatre” called “ Paper Foxhole” (1956), and went on to appear in two more episodes, “Most Blessed Woman” and “Sheriff's Man” (both 1957). More TV gigs followed, such as “Flight” (1958), “ How to Marry a Millionaire” (1958), “Bat Masterson” (1959), “The Danny Thomas Show” (1960), “Vacation Playhouse” (1963), “Combat!” (1963), “The Andy Griffith Show” (1962-1964), “That Girl” (1966) and “The Virginian” (1966) before he eventually scoring a series regular role on the CBS series “Gentle Ben” (1967-1969), starring his second son, Clint as Mark Wedloe. There Howard played Henry Boomhauer, in addition to writing episodes. In the meantime, Howard also appeared in several films like Morton DaCosta's“The Music Man” (1962), “The Courtship of Eddie's Father” (1963), “Village of the Giants” (1965), “The Desert Raven” (1965), “An Eye for an Eye” (1966), “Gentle Giant” (1967), Stuart Rosenberg's “Cool Hand Luke” (1967, played a sheriff) and “Deed of Daring-Do” (1969).

Howard managed a busy schedule throughout the 1970s. He appeared in episodes of various TV shows such as “Then Came Bronson” (1970), “Here Come the Brides” (1970), “Gunsmoke” (1970, 1974), “Rod Serling's Night Gallery” (1971), “Bonanza” (1971, 1972), “ Nichols” (1972), “The F.B.I.” (1973), “Kung Fu” (1973), “ ABC Afterschool Specials” (1975), “Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color” (1975), “ The Rookies” (1975), “Switch” (1975), “Little House on the Prairie” (1977), “Battlestar Galactica” (1978, as Farnes), “Happy Days” (3 episodes, 1976-1979) and “Laverne & Shirley” (1979). He made his TV movie debut playing Sheriff Bill Smith in the Emmy Award winning drama “The Red Pony” (1973), starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. The same year, he also landed a recurring role as Dr. McIvers in the CBS family drama series “The Waltons,” a gig he held until 1975. Howard also played roles in other TV films like “ The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe” (1976), “ Locusts” (1974), which starred son Ron and Ben Johnson, “Huckleberry Finn” (1975), where he played Pap Finn, opposite Ron as the title character, “The New Daughters of Joshua Cabe “ (1976) and “Flatbed Annie & Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers” (1979).

On the wide screen, Howard co-starred with Paul Harper in the Richard Robinson 1972 Western movie “Bloody Trail,” appeared with Clint in the family/comedy “Salty” (1973), which was directed and co-written by Ricou Browning, portrayed Roy Luther in William A. Graham's “Where the Lilies Bloom” (1974), had a small role in the Roman Polanski Academy Award winning drama “Chinatown” (1974), was cast along side Ron in Charles B. Griffith's “Eat My Dust” (1976), played Howard Blacker in the Western movie “The Legend of Frank Woods” (1977) and worked with James Caan, Geneviève Bujold and Francis Huster in Claude Lelouch's “Another Man, Another Chance” (1977). In 1977, he co-wrote with Ron the action film “Grand Theft Auto,” which marked the directorial debut of his son. The film, on which the senior Howard also served as an associate producer and co-starred as Ned Slinker, was a financial success by earning over $15 million at the box office despite receiving mixed critical reception.

Howard reunited with Ron by serving as an associate producer and also acted in Ron's TV film, “Cotton Candy” (1978), and then appeared in his son's TV film, “Skyward” (1980). In 1981, he co-wrote (with Herbert Wright) the made for television film “Through the Magic Pyramid” (NBC), directed by Ron. The film brought the father and son a 1982 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Children's Program. Also in 1981, he appeared in such films as Thomas Flood's “Forever and Beyond,” Charles B. Griffith's “Smokey Bites the Dust” and Robert Michael Lewis' “The Miracle of Kathy Miller” (TV).

Following performances in “The Kid with the Broken Halo” (1982, TV), “ The Executioner's Song” (1982, TV), “The Kid with the 200 I.Q.” (1983, TV), “Love Letters” (1983), “ Rita Hayworth: The Love Goddess” (1983, TV), “The Lonely Guy” (1984) and “ The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins” (1984, TV), Howard was cast as McCulloughby in the Ron hit comedy film “Splash” (1984), starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, and then appeared with Clint in Ron's science fiction movie, “Cocoon” (1985). He went on to appear in Ron's films such as “Gung Ho” (1986), “Parenthood” (1988), “Far and Away” (1992), “The Paper” (1994), “Apollo 13” (1995). Howard also worked in other films such as Ivan Passer's “Creator” (1985, starred Peter O'Toole), Henry Winkler's “ A Smoky Mountain Christmas” (1986, TV), Joe Dante's “Innerspace” (1987, starred Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg Ryan, Robert Picardo and Kevin McCarth) and “The 'burbs” (1989, produced by Ron), Douglas Day Stewart's “Listen to Me” (1989, starred Kirk Cameron, Jami Gertz, and Roy Scheider), Richard Martini's “Limit Up” (1989), Waris Hussein's “Switched at Birth” (1991, TV), Roland Emmerich's “Universal Soldier” (1992), Tim Burton's “Ed Wood” (1994), Greg Beeman's“Problem Child 3 Junior in love” (1995, TV), Roland Emmerich's “Independence Day” (1996, starred Will Smith, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum)Tim Burton's “Mars Attacks!” (1996, starred Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Jessica Parker), Rob Reiner's “Ghosts of Mississippi” (1996, starred Alec Baldwin, James Woods and Whoopi Goldberg), Brett Ratner's “Money Talk” (1997, starred Charlie Sheen, Chris Tucker and Heather Locklear), Dante's “Small Soldiers” (1998, starred Kirsten Dunst, Gregory Smith and David Cross), Gus Van Sant's “Psycho” (1998, as Mr. Lowery) and Mark Illsley's “Happy, Texas” (1999, starred Jeremy Northam, Steve Zahn and William H. Macy), among others. Besides, Howard appeared in countless TV shows during this period, including “Dynasty” (1984), “Murder, She Wrote” (1984), “ Dallas” (1985), “ Days of Our Lives” (1985, as Henry Clovis), “ Wiseguy” (1988), “Equal Justice” (1990), “ Quantum Leap” (1991), “Baywatch” (1992), “ Diagnosis Murder” (1994), “Tales from the Crypt “ (1994), “ Seinfeld” (2 episodes, 1993, 1996), “ Melrose Place” (1996), “Married with Children” (2 episodes, 1996-1997), “Baywatch Nights” (1997) and “Just Shoot Me!” (1999). He had recurring roles on “Babylon 5” (1996-1997, as David Sheridan), “Clueless” (1998, as Mr. Bell) and “Two of Kind” (1998, as Mr. Fillmore).

Entering the new millennium, Howard could be seen Ron's movies like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (2000), “ A Beautiful Mind” (2001), “The Missing” (2003), “Cinderella Man” (2005), “Frost/Nixon” (2008) and “Angels & Demons” (2009). Other films he appeared in during this decade included “Love & Sex” (2000), “Ping!” (2000), “Rat Rice” (2001, directed by Jerry Zucker), “Joe Dirt” (2001), “D-Tox” (2002, helmed by Jim Gillespie and starred Sylvester Stallone), “Ghost Rock” (2004), “ Aimee Semple McPherson” (2006), directed by Richard Rossi), “Sasquatch Mountain” (2006, helmed by Steven R. Monroe), “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” (2007, directed by Jake Kasdan), “Drillbit Taylor” (2008, directed by Steven Brill and starred Owen Wilson), “Play the Game” (2009), “Valentine's Day” (2010), “Bloodworth” (2010), “Once Fallen” (2010), “Jonah Hex” (2010), “The Genesis Code” (2010) and “The Trial” (2010). He made guest appearances in “7th Heaven” (2000), “That '80s Show” (2002), “Cold Case” (2004), “ That's So Raven” (2004), “ Ghost Whisperer” (2005, as Dirk Abrams), “ Twenty Good Years “ (2006), “ CSI: NY” 92006, as Samuel Cooper), “ER” (2009, as Dr. Oliver Kostin), among other TV shows.

Recently, in 2011, Howard played the role of Burt in “The Dilemma,” Ron's first comedy film since he directed “Edtv” in 1999. The film, which starred Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, received mostly negative reviews from critics. He also had supporting roles in Sam Borowski's comedy film, “Night Club,” starring Ernest Borgnine, Zachary Abel and Natasha Lyonne, Richard Gabai's “InSight,” Dustin Rikert's “Easy Rider: The Ride Back,” Victor Salva's horror, “Rosewood Lane,” starring Rose McGowan, Lauren Vélez and Ray Wise, and the direct to video “Spooky Buddies,” directed by Robert Vince. He made a guest appearance as Jerry in an episode of “Workaholics” called “The Strike” (2011).

Howard is set to play roles in the upcoming movies “For Robbing the Dead” (2011), “For Robbing the Dead” (2011), “ Let Go” (2011), “ The Story of Bonnie and Clyde” (2011), “ Wild Michigan” (2011), “16 South” (2012) and “ Timberwolf” (2012).

Awards:

• Asheville Film Festival: Lifetime Achievement Award, 2004