Ron Howard and his brother Clint grew up in a famous family. Their parents were both famous actors, and they learned the ropes from them.
Ron and Clint wrote a book about their family called “The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family” as a tribute to their parents. The book was called “The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family,” and it told the story of how their parents, Rance Howard and Jean Speegle, built their family legacy.
Speegle started taking classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York before an accident left her unable to walk.
Speegle was lucky that she got better and was able to keep acting at the University of Oklahoma, where she met Rance.
In their book, Ron and Clint wrote that his dad was thin, good-looking, and liked living the cowboy life. Her boys said that Speegle had a doll’s face and red, wavy hair.
Rance and Speegle fell in love right away and knew they would be together for the rest of their lives. So, not long after they started dating, they decided to drop out of school to follow their dream of becoming actors.
After trying to find steady work, Rance and Speegle got jobs with a traveling children’s theater. Speegle is said to have played princesses like Cinderella and young girls who didn’t know anything. Rance, on the other hand, was a prince or Huntsman.
The Howards got married in Kentucky while on tour with the children’s theater. After a year and a half, they stopped going all over the country.
With their two sons, Ron and Clint, Rance and Speegle started a family. The mother of two kept performing until the 1950s, when she quit to spend more time with her family.
Rance kept acting, and oversaw Ron and Clint as they worked on different projects under his watch.
Clint was in some of the best movies ever made, including “Bananza,” “Star Trek,” and “Gentle Ben.” Rance and Speegle put their sons’ earnings in a trust account and did everything they could to help them deal with their fame.
In an interview, Ron and Clint talked about their lives and how they became well-known child actors. First, there was a question about lifestyle. Since the Howard brothers were making money from their many businesses, it’s possible that they lived in luxury.
Still, Ron admitted that they lived off his father’s salary so that they could have a normal childhood. Ron also said that they were asked to start a clothing line, which would have given them extra money, but Rance did not want his children to lose their youth to fame.
Clint also said that when they were kids, they had everything they needed. But nothing was extravagant because they only bought new clothes once a year and didn’t go on vacations or drive expensive cars. The needs were met, and Rance and Speegle made sure no one thought they would live like stars in Hollywood.
Ron thinks back to a time when he was 10 and on set with kids who were older than him. Rance stepped in when the cast started using bad language. He reminded them of how old his son was and that their language was not appropriate for him.
Ron went on to become a well-known and award-winning director, while his brother Clint kept acting in movies like “The Grinch” and “Parenthood.”
Ron’s mom stopped acting so she could raise her kids, but after 30 years, the mother of two went back to the movies. Speegle came back in 1995, right before Ron started making his movie “Apollo 13.”
Her son Ron said that she was the “new old woman on the comedy block.” When Ron’s dad suggested that Speegle be cast in “Apollo 13,” the director admitted that he was scared.
Ron’s career depended on the movie, so there was a lot of pressure on him to do it well. After thinking about what his dad said, the director chose to have his mother play Tom Hanks’ mother.
Ron said that he didn’t want to do it at the studio because it would be too formal. So, he went home to tell his parents that his mom was nervous but ready for her audition.
The “Andy Griffen Show” star said that they did the sequence, and that it made him cry to see his mom do it. Ron said that she made him cry because she was his daughter and he was proud of her, but also because he thought she could do it and this was her chance.
“Apollo 13” was a big success. It won 29 of the 59 awards it was nominated for, including two Academy Awards.
In 2000, the Howard boys lost their mother. Speegle died at the age of 73 because he had problems with his heart and lungs.
Rance died in 2017 when he was 89 years old. Ron wrote a touching letter on Twitter to let people know that his father had died. In the letter, Ron praised his father for using his love of acting to leave a legacy for his family.
After Rance died, the Howard brothers realized that they were now orphans with no one to help them but each other.
Clint said that he felt uncomfortable around death. Even though the actor said he didn’t freak out when his dad died, he felt like he was hiding his pain and not letting himself be sad.
Despite that, he was thankful for Ron’s help. The brothers decided to publish “The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family” as a way to remember and honor Rance and Speegle’s lives.
