Ron Howard, now 68, is living comfortably in his retirement from on-screen acting roles and he hasn’t been seen in front of a camera in some time: despite this, however, Howard has admitted that he would probably be willing to return to acting, but only if his actress/director daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, was the one behind the camera.
Ron Howard is an Academy Award-winning actor, director, and producer, whose long career stretches all the way back to the 1960s and includes a lot of voice roles, like the voice of Stephen in Frasier (1999), the voice of Tom Colonic in Osmosis Jones (2001) and the Philosophy Club President in From Up on Poppy Hill (2011). Some of his other, albeit uncredited, roles include a Whoville Townsperson in Jim Carrey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) and a man at the governor’s ball in A Beautiful Mind (2001).
As far as on-camera roles are concerned, some of Ron Howard’s biggest on-camera roles are at least forty years old, like the time he starred as Opie Taylor in Return to Mayberry (1986), or in a major starring role as Richie Cunningham in Happy Days between 1974 and 1984.
In more recent years, Howard has expressed a desire to stay behind the camera – with only a few exceptions. For the last four decades, Ron Howard has served as a director, producer, executive producer, or writer for over one hundred projects, including Under the Banner of Heaven (2022), Mars (2016), and Parenthood (2010), among other titles.
Ron Howard Would Act, But Only for Bryce Dallas Howard
Despite his desire to stay largely behind the camera, Ron Howard has come forward to express that he would, in fact, be willing to return to acting, but on the condition that his daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, was the director for the project in question.
Though this decision is probably motivated, at least in part, by a completely reasonable amount of bias toward his own daughter, Howard has also stated he trusts Bryce not to ask him unless he’s perfect for the role, and that he would have to audition for whatever role she offers him – “I’d be a little disappointed if she didn’t [make me audition],” he admitted.
Bryce Dallas Howard has made a name for herself recently as well, both by starring in roles like Claire Dearing in the Jurassic World franchise – with her most recent role being in Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) – and by directing big-name projects like The Mandalorian (2019) and The Book of Boba Fett (2023).
