Clint Howard

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Clint Howard
Born	Clinton E. Howard April 20, 1959 (1959-04-20) (age 50) Burbank, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1963–present
Spouse(s)	1st wife (1986–1987; divorced) Melanie Howard (1995–present)
Official website

Clinton E. "Clint" Howard (born April 20, 1959) is an American film and television actor. He is a character actor with numerous brief appearances on television and films, usually noted for his unusual 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.

Television

As a child actor, Howard starred on Gentle Ben and Streets of San Francisco in the episode entitled The House on Hyde Street. 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, to which they would respond saying "No thank you". In 1963, he appeared in the ABC medical drama Breaking Point in the role of four-year-old Mikey in the episode "The Gnu, Now Almost Extinct". 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). In 1966, he guest starred in the short-lived The Jean Arthur Show sitcom on CBS in the episode entitled "My Client, the Rooster". He also guest-starred in the first season of the "Streets of San Francisco" in the episode "House on Hyde Street".

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) and he was a guest star in episode 24 of season 3 of the acclaimed NBC show Heroes.^[1]

Film

Howard has appeared in many films that were directed by his brother, Ron Howard, often playing unpleasant characters, including a morgue attendant in Backdraft, a Little League parent who taunts Steve Martin in Parenthood, a retirement home worker in Cocoon, Flynn, a factory overseer in Far and Away, and the original Eaglebaur in the 1979 film Rock 'n' Roll High School.

He also appeared as the head usher in Get Crazy, a television director in EDtv, a Southern-fried college football fan in The Waterboy, a marijuana farmer, Jarvis Tanner in Ticks (Film) (1993), flight controller Seymour Liebergot in Apollo 13 (a role he reprised in the episodes 'Spider' and '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 role in the 1986 sci-fi film 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 appeared in the romantic comedy Play the Game, starring Andy Griffith, Doris Roberts, Liz Sheridan, Paul Campbell, and Marla Sokoloff.

In 2009, he had several film roles, including one in the sequel Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.^[2]

Music

In 1981, Clint formed The Kempsters, a New Wave rock and 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 four tracks the band recorded in various studios and seven tracks recorded live on 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.^[3]

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 Voorhees, 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.^[4] 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. His son is named Chad Olin. 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 "Rush" on the Dark Iron realm.^[5]

References

External links

• Clint Howard at the Internet Movie Database
• Clint Howard at Allmovie
• Clint Howard at MySpace
• The Kempsters at MySpace
• Clint Howard at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• About Me, Howard's biographical page from the website for The Clint Howard Variety Show
• Oct 2008 Interview with L.A. Record
• The Clint Howard Project