March 2 - Bryce Dallas and Ron Howard

Image courtesy ew.com

On this day, in 1981, Bryce Dallas Howard was born in Los Angeles, California. As the oldest daughter of actor/director Ron Howard (who celebrated his birthday yesterday), you might think that Bryce was compelled to become an actress. In reality, her parents actually kept her away from television during her formative years, not letting her be an extra in her father’s films until she was seven and could ask about it. It is in her blood, though (both of Ron’s parents were also actors) and, once bitten, she was infected for life.

Bryce spent part of her teens at Stagedoor Manor, a performing arts camp in the Catskills, palling around with Natalie Portman. Her first (kind of) notable screen appearance was in Parenthood in 1989 (she’s the strawberry blonde girl in the audience at the school play if you want to look for her). She continued showing up in significant extra roles in her dad’s movies over the next few years (funny how those scenes never ended up on the cutting room floor) while beginning classes at New York University, the Stella Adler Conservatory, the Experimental Wing and Amsterdam’s International Theatre Wing. With all that, it’s no wonder she left NYU before earning a degree.

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Bryce concentrated on performing in theatres around New York, including the Public Theater, where, in 2003, she was playing Rosiland in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. One night, M. Night Shyamalan was in the audience and the talented redhead piqued his interest. He cast her in The Village, no audition needed, and Bryce’s performance as the blind heroine, Ivy Walker, earned several award nominations. She played in modest films for the next three years (including reprising Rosiland in the film version of As You Like It), before starring in Spider-Man 3 as Gwen Stacy. Bryce has since appeared in a Terminator picture (Kate Connor), the Twilight series (Victoria) and the reboot of the Jurassic Park series (Claire Dearing), so her box office totals are doing just fine, thank you very much.

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Bryce has only one Disney credit to her name (other than The Village which was a Touchstone Picture) so far. She starred in the 2016 film Pete’s Dragon, a quasi-remake of the 1977 classic, with Robert Redford. Her father, on the other hand, holds a couple unique positions in the Disney family.

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Ronald William Howard was born on March 1, 1954 in Duncan, Oklahoma. His parents, both actors themselves, moved the family to Southern California when he was four. He began his acting career a year later with parts on Dennis the Menace, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and The Twilight Zone. In 1960, he began the first of his big television runs on The Andy Griffith Show as little Opie Taylor. His eight years as Opie took him right into high school. After finishing his primary schooling, he began attending the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, but, like father like daughter, he never graduated.

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Ron guest starred on a number of television shows during the early Seventies, including M*A*S*H and The Waltons. He also had a prominent role in George Lucas’ homage to the Fifties, American Graffiti. That, and a role on Love, American Style, led to his second big run on television. Starting in 1974, he starred in Happy Days, as another all-American guy, Richie Cunningham. By 1980, Ron was ready to trade in his acting shoes for a director’s chair and left Happy Days to seek his fortunes behind the camera. It’s worked out pretty well. You might have heard of some of his films: Cocoon, Parenthood, Apollo 13, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Beautiful Mind (which earned him a Best Director Oscar) and The DaVinci Code series, to name a few.

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Ron’s first Disney project was actually a record album. Just prior to the Haunted Mansion’s debut in 1969, Disneyland Records released a promotional album, The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion, to whet people’s appetites for the new attraction. The story part featured Ron as Mike and Robie Lester as Karen, two teenagers who get trapped in the spooky Mansion. At about that same time, he was cast in a couple of episodes of Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. In 1970, he appeared in a Western movie for the company, The Wild Country, with his younger brother (and frequent collaborator) Clint Howard.

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Ron’s first big hit as a director, Splash, holds an important distinction in Disney history: it’s the first movie ever released under the Touchstone Pictures banner. The PG rated film (also something of an anomaly for Disney at the time) won several Saturn Awards (including Best Actress for Daryl Hannah, Best Supporting Actor for John Candy and Best Director) and the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy. In 2018, Ron returned to the director’s chair for the company amid great controversy when he took over the helm of Solo: A Star Wars Story. The disappointing box office of Solo effectively ended non-episode Star Wars pictures, at least for a while, but its troubles began long before Ron arrived. He did his best to salvage something out of the mess he inherited (for the record, I enjoyed the film), but Solo only reaped just under $400 million on a budget of $300 million. Probably not Ron’s fault, but will also probably remain a black mark on his record anyways.

The Howard dynasty has yet to come together on a single project for Disney, but we can always hold out hope. In the meantime, each continues to chug along individually, entertaining the world one blockbuster picture at a time. Happy birthday Bryce (with a belated nod to Ron).