Howard is of Dutch, Scottish, English, Irish, German and Cherokee Indian descent. He first earned recognition as Winthrop Paroo, the child with the lisp in the film version of The Music Man with Robert Preston and Shirley Jones. His younger brother, Clint Howard, is a popular character actor. Ron's parents, Rance Howard and the late Jean F. Speegle, were also actors.

After The Music Man, he appeared in the role of Opie Taylor in the television series The Andy Griffith Show. There he portrayed the son of the local sheriff in the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina. The credits referred to him as Ronny Howard.

Howard is also well known for his role as Richie Cunningham in television's Happy Days where he played the likeable foil to Henry Winkler's Fonz. He attained film success with his role as Steve Bollander in George Lucas' teen movie American Graffiti.

In 1977, while still starring on Happy Days, he directed his first film, a low budget comedy action film called Grand Theft Auto. After leaving Happy Days in 1980, he directed several TV movies. His big theatrical directing break came in 1982 when he directed the bigger budget film Night Shift featuring soon-to-be well-known actors such as Michael Keaton and Shelley Long.

He has since directed a number of high-visibility films, the most acclaimed of which include Splash, Cocoon, Apollo 13 (nominated for several Academy Awards), and A Beautiful Mind, for which he won the Oscar for Best Director, and Cinderella Man. His latest film, The Da Vinci Code, reteaming Howard with Splash and Apollo 13 star Tom Hanks, has been a box office hit, despite largely negative reviews and criticisms of its historical and theologic accuracy. Howard is the co-chairman, with Brian Grazer, of Imagine Entertainment, a major film and television production company, which has produced notable projects like Friday Night Lights, 8 Mile, Inside Deep Throat, and the television series 24 and Felicity. His last signicant on-screen role was when he reprised his famous role as Opie Taylor in the 1986 TV reunion movie Return to Mayberry reuniting him with Andy Griffith, Don Knotts, and most of the old cast.

He attended the University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television but did not graduate.

Through his company Imagine Television, Howard continues to have a presence in television, most recently as the executive producer and uncredited narrator of the critically acclaimed FOX sitcom Arrested Development. The show, despite having won six Emmy awards and near-unanimous praise from critics, did not enjoy high ratings and was limited by Fox Television in 2006. A series finale took place in February, but Howard, on-screen for the first time in the show, suggested a movie version may be in the works.

Howard wed his high-school sweetheart, Cheryl, a writer, and they have been married for more than 30 years. Their daughter Bryce Dallas Howard is an actress. They live on a 35-acre estate in backcountry Greenwich, Conn.

    * In the The Simpsons episode "When You Dish Upon a Star", Ron Howard is injured when trying to jump from a truck to an RV.
    * In an episode of South Park, when Cartman "turns ginger" he asks a crowd of fellow ginger haired people to name great Americans with the hair color, the first named is "Ron Howard", when asked to name a second, after a short silence from the crowd, one responds "Ron Howard".