Ron Howard names the four actors who “worked a little harder than everyone else”
Having made his screen debut at the age of two years old in 1956 Western Frontier Woman before playing his first credited role at four in 1959 drama The Journey, Ron Howard took his first steps in the film business at around the same time he took them in real life.
It’s mind-boggling to think that the actor and filmmaker is fast closing in on the 70th anniversary of his career, so he knows a thing or two about what it takes to achieve longevity. From his days to a child actor through to his stint on Happy Days before his eventual transition into directing, Howard has put the work in to ensure that each new step of his evolution was as successful as the last.
Along the way, he’s worked with many of the biggest names in Hollywood on either side of the camera, several of whom gave him advice he’s carried ever since. Howard played a major supporting part in John Wayne’s final film The Shootist in 1976, where he didn’t miss the opportunity to pick the brains of an icon.
Before that, he’d co-starred with Henry Fonda in TV series The Smith Family, where he made a point of absorbing as much information as he could from another enduring legend of the screen. ‘The Duke’ and Fonda continued working and delivering strong performances right up until the end of their respective careers, and that ethic wasn’t lost on Howard, either.
Most young actors would be overawed in the presence of Wayne, but Howard was eager enough to ask him if he could do him the favour of running lines before their scenes together. When Wayne remarked that “nobody ever asks me to do that,” he knew that this kid was destined to go far.
As Howard explained per The Huffington Post, watching Wayne on set opened his eyes to the nuances of the craft. “I always admired him as a movie star, but I thought of him as a total naturalist,” he said. “Even those pauses were probably him forgetting his line and then remembering it again, because, man, he’s ‘The Duke’. But he’s working on this scene and he’s like, ‘Let me try this again.’ And he put the little hitch in and he’d find the Wayne rhythm, and you’d realize that it changed the performance each and every time.”
Left suitably impressed by seeing ‘The Duke’ in action, Howard reflected on how he was just one of a quartet of timeless figures who made it their mission to outwork everyone around them. “I’ve worked with Bette Davis, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda,” he mused. “Here’s the thing they all have in common: They all, even in their 70s, worked a little harder than everyone else.”
That’s not to generalise any generation of actors as being inherently lazy, but neither is a coincidence that the quartet will be remembered as being among the greatest stars in silver screen history.
