The remarkable link between Jack Black and Ron Howard
He may have evolved into becoming one of the most popular stars in Hollywood thanks to his boisterous, infectious enthusiasm and natural charisma, but Hollywood wouldn’t have ended up with one of its most freewheeling performers had Jack Black decided to follow in the family business.
It’s remarkable to think, given his exuberant personality and easy-going charm, but Black hails from a family of renowned scientists and engineers. That’s not to say he couldn’t have joined their number had he wanted to, but clearly, he was always more drawn to the artistic side of life than the analytic.
His father, Thomas William Black, was a satellite engineer; his mother, Judith Love Cohen, was an aerospace and electrical engineer, and his brother, Neil Siegel, was a systems engineer and computer analyst. With multiple lines of work, it’s impossible to imagine the star of Kung Fu Panda and the Jumanji sequels occupying.
One of his mother’s most famous contributions to her field came through her work on the Abort-Guidance System of the Apollo Lunar Module, which was a computer system that provided an abort capability in the event that the module’s principal guidance system failed during either descent, ascent, or docking with its proposed destination.
Thanks to the film of the same name, the most famous instance of the Abort-Guidance System being used to prevent disaster came during the Apollo 13 mission of April 1970. The plan for the crew to land safely on the Moon was abandoned when an oxygen tank in the primary service module ruptured two days into the interstellar journey, with the backup systems helping to safely return the team to Earth.
The story gained renewed interest and fame when Ron Howard’s 1995 drama earned over $350million at the global box office and secured nine Academy Award nominations, including ‘Best Picture’. As strange as it may sound for anyone who only knows Black for his on-screen antics, his mother was integral to creating the apparatus integral to securing the safety of Apollo 13’s astronauts.
Following her passing in July 2016, her son Siegel explained that “my mother usually considered her work on the Apollo programme to be the highlight of her career”. Writing for the University of Southern California, he noted that “when disaster struck on the Apollo 13 mission, it was the Abort-Guidance System that brought the astronauts home safely”.
Apollo 13 blasted off less than eight months after Black was born in August 1969, creating a remarkable connection between himself and Apollo 13 director Howard. They may have never worked together in a professional capacity, but Cohen was pregnant with the future star during her time working on the space programme, and he was only a baby when she was thanked by the crew following their eventual – and unharmed – return.
