Ron Howard is a director and producer of a wide range of film styles including comedy, action, drama and sci-fi. What runs through his films is the importance of characters an family. He came from a family of actors. He started as a child actor appearing in over 200 episodes of The Andy Griffiths Show. This was followed by 10 years starring in Happy Days. He worked with Roger Corman and starred and directed hid first film, Grand Theft Auto. His next film was Night Shift. It was Splash that was the film that made his name in part thanks to the casting of the then relatively unknown Tom Hanks with Darryl Hannah and the resultant chemistry between them. Ron Howard was good during his career at choosing the right actors for the characters in his films. This was followed by Cocoon a piece of science fiction that features several more mature actor. Willow was a fantasy film that he worked on with George Lucas and developed a lot of effects an was also a box office success. Parenthood is a family comedy and reflects the fact that Ron Howard and all the actors were parents which gave an authenticity to the film. Backdraft was an action thriller based around firefighters. Far And Away was an historical epic that was shot on 70mm film and featured the Oregon land Rush. Apollo 13 was his retelling of the story of the ill-fate Apollo 13 mission to the moon. It is the most authentic space films that has been made. It is notable for the authenticity which Ron Howard brought to making the film. A Beautiful Mind was a more intimate film rather than big scale and was a critical success and also won him an Oscar for Best Director. It is one of the better depictions of someone with a mental illness. Missing was a return the the Western genre of films. Cinderella Man is a period sports drama. His adaptation of the popular novel The Da Vinci Code was the most commercially successful film of his career. Frost/Nixon was not a blockbuster film an gained him a Oscar nomination for Best Director. Angels And Demons was the sequel to The Da Vinci Code Rush was another sports film, though this time set in the world of Formula 1 with the rivalry between Hunt and Lauda.
