Clint Howard

Clint Howard (born April 20, 1959) is an American film and television actor. He is a seasoned character actor with numerous brief appearances on television and movies, usually noted for his awkward and homely appearance. He has played many bit parts in movies directed by his brother, actor-turned-director Ron Howard. He is also the uncle of actress Bryce Dallas Howard.

Biography

Early life

Howard was born Clinton E. Howard in Burbank, California; the son of actors Rance Howard and Jean Speegle Howard, and the younger brother of actor-turned-director Ron Howard. Howard has German, Dutch, Scottish, Irish, and Cherokee (Native American) ancestry.^[1]

Television

As a child actor, Howard starred on Gentle Ben. He was sometimes seen on The Andy Griffith Show as "Leon", a toddler in a cowboy outfit who wandered freely around Mayberry and would silently offer people a bite of his sandwich. They would respond to him "no thank you". He also starred on Rod Serling's Night Gallery as Herbie:a ten year old boy who could predict the near future(in which he eventually predicts the end of the world)

One of Howard's other roles as a child actor was the voice of the elephant Hathi's son Hathi, Jr. in 1967's The Jungle Book from Disney. He also was the voice of Roo in Disney's The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Howard appeared in various Star Trek episodes:

• The Corbomite Maneuver, a first-season episode of Star Trek. He briefly reprised the character he played, Balok, on Comedy Central's roast of William Shatner;
• Past Tense Part II, a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode;
• Acquisition, a first-season episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.

He played "Johnny Bark" on a first-season episode of Arrested Development, which was produced and narrated by his brother, Ron Howard. He was seen in an episode of Married...With Children as a creepy janitor. He played a car thief/murderer in a fourth-season episode of Seinfeld. Also, he played Creepy Rodney in the My Name is Earl episode, "Stole a Badge" (Season 1 Episode 22).

Film

Howard has appeared in many films that were directed by his brother, Ron Howard, often playing unpleasant characters, including a callous morgue attendant in Backdraft, a sour Little League parent who taunts Steve Martin in Parenthood, an uncaring retirement home worker in Cocoon, Flynn, a demanding, abusive factory overseer in Far and Away, and the original Eaglebaur in the 1979 film Rock 'n' Roll High School, and he appeared as a mission control operations person in his brother's boxoffice hit Apollo 13.

He also appeared as the head usher in Get Crazy, a television director in EdTV, a Southern-fried college football fan in The Waterboy, flight controller Seymour Liebergot in Apollo 13 (a role he reprised in the episode 'We Interrupt This Program' of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon), a father of one of the main characters in Uwe Boll's Heart of America and in That Thing You Do (1997), as a radio DJ, a space tracking agent in the spy series of the Austin Powers series, and a crossdresser named 'Nipples' in Little Nicky. He starred as the title character in the 1995 low-budget comedy-horror film Ice Cream Man as well as the mayor's assistant in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Clint Howard also had a minor roll in the 1986 sci-fi masterpiece The Wraith where he played Rughead, a nervous and often annoying auto technician. He is also featured briefly in Rob Zombie's "Halloween".

In 2008, Howard will appear in the romantic comedy Play The Game, starring Andy Griffith, Doris Roberts, Liz Sheridan, Paul Campbell, and Marla Sokoloff.

Music

In 1981, Clint formed The Kempsters, a New Wave Rock & Roll group. The band was composed mostly of Clint's friends who were neighbors with him on Kemp Street, hence the band's name. In 1982, their original drummer, Mike "Spooner" Bauer was replaced by Tony Rodriquez and the band began to play regularly at Madame Wong's West. Clint retired the band in 1983. Although The Kempsters never released an album while together, Clint Howard has recently begun distributing a CD featuring 4 tracks the band recorded in various studios and 7 tracks recorded live October 17, 1982 at Madame Wong's. Clint is currently selling autographed copies of the album, which is titled No Brains At All.

Clint Howard is the subject of the song Ron Howard's Brother by the Trailer Park Troubadours.^[2]

Recognition

In 1998, Howard was awarded the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is largely considered a spoof on Lifetime Achievement Awards with past recipients such as Godzilla, Jason Vorhees, Chewbacca and The Three Stooges. Howard is one of two actual actors to receive the award (the other being Jackie Chan). The award was retired after Howard's receiving it and replaced with the more serious Generation Award which has been given to actors whose work defines a generation (such as Tom Cruise and Adam Sandler).

The Phoenix, a Boston-based newspaper, listed Howard as 22nd in their list of "100 unsexiest men in the world," one spot behind his brother Ron.^[3] Mad magazine spoofed his cameo appearance in his brother's films with the article "The Clint Howard Collection".

Personal life

Clint Howard was married twice: first in 1986 and divorced in 1987, and secondly in 1995 to Melanie. An avid golfer carrying a ten handicap, Howard boasts of playing 150 rounds a year. He is also known for his activity in the game World of Warcraft. Howard plays the game under the name Extas of the guild "we brang trickz" on the Dark Iron realm.^[4]

References

External links

• Clint Howard at the Internet Movie Database
• Clint Howard at Allmovie
• Clint Howard at MySpace
• The Kempsters at MySpace
• Clint Howard article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
• About Me, Howard's biographical page from the website for The Clint Howard Variety Show
• Play The Game website
• Oct 2008 Interview with L.A. Record
• World of Warcraft Amory Page for Extas