Double-Oscar winning actor/director Ron Howard is one of those rare child actors that made it very good indeed.

Howard started acting when he was just a little boy with the active encouragement of his father who was a part of the New York TV scene. When the TV business started to sag, the family packed up their 1952 Plymouth and resettled in California.

Howard’s career turned a corner when he landed the role of the “son” in “The Andy Griffith Show.” He was just 6 years old.

As a young man in his twenties he had the foresight and courage to leave the prestigious USC fim school not to miss the “Richie” part in Gary Marshall ‘s “Happy Days” opposite Henry Winkler’s “Fonz.” The show was a tremendous hit and Ron Howard never looked back.

Next step in his evolution as a Hollywood great was Roger Corman’s workshop.

“I did not not graduate from USC but graduated from Roger Corman school,” is how Howard put it in an AMC documentary aired to honor his wonderful and inspiring career.

“Grand Theft Auto” was a concept Howard developed with his father years ago but they could never find a chance to produce it. Then one day Corman said if he and his dad could come up with the story he would allow them to direct it as well. “It was the fastest screen green-light I had ever,” Howard reminisced years later.

In “Skyward (1980),” his first drama as a director, he directed Betty Davis, one of Hollywood’s more difficult actors, he survived the experience and got stronger for it.

That was followed by such memorable films as “Cocoon,” “Backdraft,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Cinderella Man,” “Apollo 13,” and his latest at this writing: “Frost/Nixon.”

Ron Howard – we movie fans salute you, your talent and your vision. Your career is nowhere near but we still say: thanks for the memories.