Ron Howard Filmography

Angels and Demons

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, Ewan McGregor

Synopsis: Angels and Demons re-teams director Ron Howard and star Tom Hanks for the sequel to their international blockbuster adaptation of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code. Although the book Angels and Demons was written before the novel The Da Vinci Code, the movie transpires after the events of the Read More

The Emperor's Children

Crew: Director

Synopsis: Ron Howard directs this adaptation of Claire Messud's novel about a group of young Ivy League socialites in New York City whose aimless lives are put into turnaround when the events of 9/11 disrupt their self-centered existence. Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming) writes the screenplay, with Read More

Frost/Nixon

Crew: Director

Actors: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Toby Jones, Matthew MacFadyen, Oliver Platt

Synopsis: Hollywood heavyweight Ron Howard adapts playwright Peter Morgan's West End hit for the silver screen with this feature focusing on the 1977 television interviews between journalist David Frost (Michael Sheen) and former president Richard Nixon (Frank Langella). At the time Nixon sat down with Read More

The Changeling

Crew: Producer

Actors: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Michael Kelly, Colm Feore

Synopsis: Inspired by actual events that occurred in 1920s-era Los Angeles, Clint Eastwood's The Changeling tells the story of a woman driven to confront a corrupted LAPD after her abducted son is retrieved and she begins to suspect that the boy returned to her is not the same boy she gave birth to. The Read More

Ron Howard: 50 Years in Film

Actors: Ron Howard

Synopsis: Esteemed American film critic Richard Schickel helms this feature-length documentary, originally produced for the Turner Classic Movies cable network as one installment in a loosely-knit series of films on the lives and careers of esteemed American directors. In this instance, multi-Oscar winning Read More

The Da Vinci Code

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jürgen Prochnow

Synopsis: Dan Brown's controversial best-selling novel about a powerful secret that's been kept under wraps for thousands of years comes to the screen in this suspense thriller from director Ron Howard. The stately silence of Paris' Louvre museum is broken when one of the gallery's leading curators is found Read More

Curious George

Crew: Producer

Actors: Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, Frank Welker, Shane Baumel, Timyra-Joi Beatty

Synopsis: The naughty little monkey from Margret Rey and H.A. Rey's beloved children's stories makes the leap to the big screen in this animated adaptation. Ted (voice of Will Ferrell) is an explorer with a large yellow hat who is good friends with Bloomsberry (voice of Dick Van Dyke), who runs a natural Read More

Curious George [Animated TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: William H. Macy

Synopsis: Inspired by the series of popular children's books created by H.A. Rey and Margret Rey in 1941, the daily, half-hour Curious George was the second animated TV version of the venerable property. Narrated by actor William H. Macy, the two short cartoon segments per half-hour episode found Read More

Cinderella Man

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Russell Crowe, Renée Zellweger, Paul Giamatti, Craig Bierko, Paddy Considine

Synopsis: The true story of an athlete who achieved his greatest success against the most daunting odds of his life is brought to the screen in this historical drama. In the 1920s, James Braddock (Russell Crowe) from Bergen, NJ, was a promising contender in professional boxing; he had strength, spirit, and Read More

Tell Them Who You Are

Actors: Haskell Wexler, Mark S. Wexler, Peter Bart, James Becket, Verna Bloom

Synopsis: Mark Wexler is a successful photojournalist who has also distinguished himself as a documentary filmmaker, but in many ways he has spent much of his life in the shadow of his more famous father, Haskell Wexler. One of Hollywood's greatest cinematographers, Haskell is also known as a director (he Read More

24: Season 04

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Kiefer Sutherland, William Devane, Alberta Watson, Nestor Serrano, Shohreh Aghdashloo

Synopsis: Season four of the wildly successful "real-time" adventure series 24 begins some 18 months at the end of season three. John Keeler (Geoff Pierson) has succeeded David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert) as president of the United States, and the new secretary of defense is James Heller (William Devane) Read More

The Alamo

Crew: Producer

Actors: Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson, Jordi Mollà, Emilio Echeverria

Synopsis: Re-teaming Dennis Quaid with John Lee Hancock, the director of 2002's The Rookie, The Alamo retells the story of the historic 1836 battle in the Texan War of Independence. Facing 4,000 Mexican troops, 186 Texan soldiers and volunteers -- including William Travis (Patrick Wilson), Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton Read More

Arrested Development: Season 02

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, Jeffrey Tambor

Synopsis: The Bluth family of Orange County, CA, once again forces the media critics to come up with new variations on the word "dysfunction" as the cult-favorite sitcom Arrested Development launches its second season. For those who came in late, straight-arrow Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) is still trying Read More

The Missing

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Eric Schweig, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna Boyd, Aaron Eckhart

Synopsis: Director Ron Howard turns to the Western genre in this tale of a father and daughter who are brought together under difficult circumstances. Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) is a man living in New Mexico in the 1880s. He had abandoned his family years before to live and travel with a band of Read More

Arrested Development: Season 01

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, Jeffrey Tambor

Synopsis: As Arrested Development leaps into its first season, hard-working Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) is on the brink of starting a new life in Arizona with son George Michael (Michael Cera) when he is dragged kicking and screaming back to California, there to take charge of his family's business when Read More

Television: The First 50 Years

Arrested Development [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Making its Fox network bow on November 2, 2003, the weekly, half-hour Arrested Development would seem to meet all the qualifications of a "cult favorite." It was smart, hip, and savagely funny; it developed a fiercely loyal circle of fans; it was almost universally beloved of the critical Read More

Man for All Stages: The Life and Times of Christopher Plummer

Actors: Christopher Plummer

A Beautiful Mind

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg

Synopsis: The true story of prominent mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. is the subject of this biographical drama from director Ron Howard. Russell Crowe stars as the brilliant but arrogant and conceited professor Nash. The prof seems guaranteed a rosy future in the early '50s after he marries beautiful Read More

The Independent

Actors: Jerry Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Max Perlich, Ginger Lynn Allen, Billy Burke

Synopsis: Imaginary Z-grade 1960s exploitation film producer Morty Fineman (Jerry Stiller), who was responsible for such faux-works as Buddy Cops V: Hayseed and Toughnut, sci-fi blaxploitation flick The Foxy Chocolate Robot, and, of course, Heil Titler , is the focus for this Read More

Osmosis Jones

Actors: Bill Murray, Molly Shannon, Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce

Synopsis: Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly, the impish impresarios of gross-out comedy, take their body function-inspired humor to new extremes in this mixture of live action and animation. Bill Murray stars as Frank, a zoo worker suffering from the effects of an unknown malady he contracted after eating Read More

The Beast

Crew: Executive Producer

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Jim Carrey, Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin, Molly Shannon, Clint Howard, Taylor Momsen, Anthony Hopkins

Synopsis: He's mean, he's green, and he's doesn't like the Yuletide season one bit -- Jim Carrey stars in this live-action adaptation of the classic children's story by Dr. Seuss (aka Theodore Geisel). High atop Mt. Crumpet, the Grinch (Carrey) observes the residents of Whoville joyously preparing to Read More

Wonderland [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Billy Burke, Joelle Carter, Patricia Clarkson, Martin Donovan, Michelle Forbes, Ted Levine

Synopsis: This series is a gritty hard-driving look at an insane asylum. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide Read More

Chuck Jones: Extremes and Inbetweens - A Life in Animation

Actors: Chuck Jones, Leonard Maltin, Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg

Synopsis: Chuck Jones: Extremes and Inbetweens - A Life in Animation was originally telecast as a PBS "Great Performances" episode on November 22, 2000. Warner Bros. animator Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones created many cartoon characters, including Pepe Le Pew, Wile E. Coyote, and the Road Runner. A key Read More

Beyond the Mat

Crew: Producer

Actors: Barry W. Blaustein, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Terry Funk, Vince McMahon, Mick Foley

Synopsis: In a rare foray into documentary filmmaking, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment produced this behind-the-scenes look at professional wrestling, shot on digital video by director (Barry W. Blaustein), screenwriter of several hit Eddie Murphy comedies. An unabashed wrestling fan Read More

EDtv

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Sally Kirkland, Martin Landau

Synopsis: The turning point in the life of Ed Pekurny (Matthew McConaughey) comes thanks to the misfortunes of the NorthWest Broadcasting Company. After two years on the air, their flagship cable channel, True TV, has slid into obscurity due to competition from the The Gardening Channel. Program director Read More

The PJs

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Eddie Murphy, Loretta Devine, James Black, Michael Paul Chan, Ja'net DuBois

Frasier: Good Samaritan

Synopsis: Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) is determined to prove that he is as good a Good Samaritan as anyone. Unfortunately, all of his best efforts have a habit of backfiring or heaping embarrassment upon our well-meaning hero. This is galling enough -- but Frasier must also consider the effect that his Read More

FilmFest, Vol. 2

Sports Night [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: This highly acclaimed but shortly lived half-hour comedy focused on the staff of a cable sports news program called "Sports Night." As the anchors and producers duck and weave through their career goals, workplace romances, rough divorces, and a love/hate relationship with professional sports, the Read More

From the Earth to the Moon

Crew: Producer

Actors: David Andrews, Bryan Cranston, Tim Daly, Al Franken, Tony Goldwyn

Synopsis: Originally aired on HBO and directed by Apollo 13 star and space enthusiast Tom Hanks, among others, From the Earth to the Moon explores the ups and downs of space travel, beginning with President Kennedy's famous speech before Congress on May 25, 1961, and chronicling the journey to putting the Read More

Felicity [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: Beginning on September 29, 1998, as a "teen angst" romantic drama, the weekly, 60-minute WB series Felicity evolved into a "young adult angst" affair by the time the series ran its course on May 22, 2002. Each of the series' four seasons represented a different year in the college life of its Read More

Welcome to Hollywood

Actors: Tony Markes, Adam Rifkin, Angie Everhart, David Andriole, Nicolas Cage

Synopsis: Film director Adam Rifkin spoofs Hollywood's star machine in concocting this fictional "mockumentary" about a director (Rifkin playing himself) who wants to make a documentary film about a rising young star. Anton Markwell (Tony Markes, who co-directed the film) is the object of Rifkin's inquiring Read More

Inventing the Abbotts

Crew: Producer

Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Kathy Baker, Joanna Going

Synopsis: The lives of two closely linked, small town Illinois families dangerously intersect in this domestic drama set in the 1950s, based on a short story by Sue Miller and directed by Pat O'Connor. Though they are from the wrong side of the tracks, the working class brothers Jacey (Billy Crudup) and Read More

Frank Capra's American Dream

Synopsis: It's hard to think of American cinema without thinking of director Frank Capra, whose large and varied body of work includes such classics as It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946). This detailed documentary offers an insightful portrait Read More

The Directors: Ron Howard

Actors: Ron Howard

Synopsis: From Opie to the director of Apollo 13 and Ransom, Ron Howard grew up in Hollywood and this video details it all. Darryl Hannah, Tom Hanks, and Kevin Bacon are interviewed. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide Read More

Ransom

Crew: Director

Actors: Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise, Brawley Nolte, Delroy Lindo, Lili Taylor

Synopsis: Ron Howard directed this thriller which stars Mel Gibson as Tom Mullen, a former fighter pilot who built a ramshackle one-plane airline into a major multinational service fleet. Mullen has a multi-million dollar fortune, a beautiful wife, Kate (Rene Russo) and a nine-year-old son, Sean (Brawley Nolte Read More

The Chamber

Crew: Producer

Actors: Chris O'Donnell, Gene Hackman, Faye Dunaway, Robert Prosky, Lela Rochon, Millie Perkins, Raymond J. Barry

Synopsis: Based on a novel by John Grisham, this drama deals with a man trying to come to terms with his family and their ugly secrets. Adam Hall (Chris O'Donnell) is a successful attorney based in Chicago who travels to Mississippi to look into the case of Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman). An outspoken racist Read More

Apollo 13

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, Kathleen Quinlan

Synopsis: "Houston, we have a problem." Those words were immortalized during the tense days of the Apollo 13 lunar mission crisis, and the suspense, fear, and excitement of those days are captured in Ron Howard's epic recreation of the 1970 crisis. When the commander of the original mission Ken Read More

First Works: A Revealing Look at Today's Greatest Directors, Vol. 2

Synopsis: Everyone has to start somewhere, even if they are Martin Scorsese or John Carpenter. This documentary takes a look at their beginning works and film school clips along with those of Richard Donner Lethal Weapon 4, Ron Howard Cocoon, John Milius, director and writer, and Susan Seidelman Desperately Read More

The Paper

Crew: Director

Actors: Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Randy Quaid

Synopsis: Director Ron Howard's drama follows a beleaguered reporter during a hectic 24 hours at a New York City tabloid. Michael Keaton stars as Henry Hackett, a metro editor for the struggling New York Sun. Hackett is being wooed by the Sentinel, a more upscale paper, but he's addicted to the Read More

The Magical World of Chuck Jones

Actors: Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Ron Howard, Matt Groening, Leonard Maltin

Synopsis: This colorful, fast-paced documentary pays tribute to animator Chuck Jones on his eightieth birthday. Amidst many clips from his most famous cartoons, major stars and Hollywood figures ranging from Steven Spielburg to Ron Howard to composer Danny Elfman to film historian/critic Leonard Maltin to Read More

Far and Away

Crew: Director, Producer, Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Thomas Gibson, Robert Prosky, Barbara Babcock

Synopsis: In this epic Ron Howard film, Joseph Donelly (Tom Cruise) is an impoverished 19th-century Irish tenant farmer who has recently lost both his father and his home to the agents of his unscrupulous landlord. On a mission to avenge his family's injustice at the hands of the ruthless land baron Joseph Read More

Backdraft

Crew: Director

Actors: Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Synopsis: The sons of a Chicago fireman who gave his life in the performance of his duties, firefighting brothers Kurt Russell and William Baldwin carry their lifelong sibling rivalry into their work. Russell is convinced that Baldwin hasn't got what it takes to remain in the fire department. Baldwin is Read More

Closet Land

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Madeleine Stowe, Alan Rickman

Synopsis: Indian-born, American-educated director Radha Bharadwaj based her allegorical thriller on the work of her husband with Amnesty International. The story concerns The Woman (Madeleine Stowe), a children's book writer who, in an unspecified country, is abducted from her bed in the middle of the night Read More

Parenthood

Crew: Director, Screen Story, Screenwriter

Actors: Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Wiest, Jason Robards, Jr., Rick Moranis

Synopsis: This feel-good ensemble comedy tracks a quartet of suburban siblings and their families over the course of a single summer. Hardworking Gil Buckman (Steve Martin) and his stay-at-home wife, Karen (Mary Steeenburgen), have just a few months to help their oldest son, Kevin (Jasen Fisher), overcome Read More

Clean and Sober

Crew: Executive Producer, Producer

Actors: Michael Keaton, Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, M. Emmet Walsh, Brian Benben, Tate Donovan

Synopsis: The directorial debut of Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of the television series Moonlighting (1985-89), this intense, gritty drama was received as one of the best-ever cinematic treatments of substance abuse. Michael Keaton stars as Daryl Poynter, a hustling, successful Philadelphia real estate Read More

Vibes

Crew: Executive Producer, Producer

Actors: Cyndi Lauper, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Falk, Googy Gress, Julian Sands

Synopsis: Two hapless psychics unwittingly aid a criminal in his quest to obtain a mystic relic in this farcical adventure. Street smart beauty-school dropout Sylvia Pickel (Cyndi Lauper) navigates life with the counsel of a spirit named Louise, while genteel Nick Deezy (Jeff Goldblum) has the ability to Read More

Willow

Crew: Director

Actors: Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Warwick Davis, Patricia Hayes, Jean Marsh

Synopsis: Though Willow was one of director Ron Howard's few box-office disappointments, it definitely deserves a second look. At once an epic celebration and a gentle spoof of the sword-and-sorcery genre, the film concerns the efforts by little person Willow Ufgood (Warwick Davis) to protect a sacred Read More

No Man's Land

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Charlie Sheen, D.B. Sweeney, Randy Quaid, Lara Harris, Bill Duke

Synopsis: Benjy Taylor (D.B. Sweeney) is a rookie cop who goes undercover to nab a gang of car thieves in this routine crime drama. Taylor salivates over the lifestyle and money enjoyed by Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen), the smooth operator who leads the Porsche pilferers, and he reports back to Lieutenant Read More

Gung Ho

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Michael Keaton, Gedde Watanabe, George Wendt, Mimi Rogers, John Turturro

Synopsis: Michael Keaton stars as a wheeler-dealer who hopes to save a failing Pennsylvania automobile-assembly factory from having to close its doors. Keaton persuades a Japanese auto firm to reopen the factory, retrain its staff, and streamline the operation. It isn't long before the American-born workers Read More

Return to Mayberry

Actors: Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, Jim Nabors, Ron Howard, Howard Morris

Synopsis: Inspired by the success of previous TV sitcom "reunion" films, Return to Mayberry debuted on April 13, 1986. Eleven of the original cast members of the classic Andy Griffith Show were reunited in this marvelous blast from the past. The plot finds former sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith, of course) Read More

Into Thin Air

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: In this docudrama, Ellen Burstyn stars as the mother of a Canadian teen who mysteriously vanishes while traveling to school in Colorado. Robert Prosky portrays the detective who leads the search for the boy's whereabouts. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Cocoon

Crew: Director

Actors: Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Jack Gilford, Steve Guttenberg, Maureen Stapleton, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon

Synopsis: Cocoon is a warm-hearted science-fiction fable that avoids becoming overly corny thanks to the performances of its mostly senior cast. Wilford Brimley, Don Ameche, and Hume Cronyn are three old-timers who sneak out of their retirement home a few days a week to swim in the large pool on an Read More

Splash

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Dody Goodman

Synopsis: "I'm in love with a mermaid!" read the opening line of Leonard Maltin's original review for Splash. And with the delightful Darryl Hannah in the lead, who could fault Maltin for his public declaration of ardor? The story begins in 1959, when a young boy is rescued from a watery grave by an Read More

When Your Lover Leaves

Synopsis: In this made-for-television comedy drama, a divorcee reels even further when her married lover dumps her too. On the rebound, she takes up with a peculiar policeman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Night Shift

Crew: Director

Actors: Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton, Shelley Long, Gina Hecht, Pat Corley

Synopsis: Straight-laced Henry Winkler takes a night-shift job as a morgue attendant. Winkler falls under the spell of wheeler-dealer coworker Michael Keaton, whose catchphrase "Is this a great country or what?" is the clarion call for his many get-rich-quick schemes. His latest plan is to turn the morgue Read More

Saturday Night Live: Ron Howard

Actors: Ron Howard, The Clash

Synopsis: This 1982 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Ron Howard and features musical guest the Clash. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide Read More