THE BOYS: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family

You may remember Ron as a young child actor on Happy Days as Richie Cunningham opposite Henry Winkler's the Fonz? You may remember Clint who co-stared with a trained black bear in the US TV series Gentle Ben or playing the bizarre alien Balok in Star Trek? For the first time brothers Ron and Clint Howard tell the story of their childhoods as two of the busiest child actors of the 1960s and 70s. Their mother and father were not typical stage parents - Rance and Jean Howard, farm-belt Oklahomans who bucked family tradition, moved to California to make a go at showbusiness. While pursuing their dreams could prove frustrating at times, they happily adjusted their lives to also become mentors and managers to their sons in a tremendous act of love and sacrifice. The boys grew up frugally in a family that lived determinedly beneath its means, even if 12 year old Ron earned more than pitching legend Sandy Koufax at the time. They were barred from sleeping over at friends' houses to avoid kidnapping. They learned about the birds and the bees from graffiti in TV studio men's cloakrooms. Ron suffered from bullying at school and bridled at his parents' protectiveness. Clint rebelled and spiralled into substance abuse when the jobs stopped coming, but the strength of the Howard family held fast. The boys blossomed anew as they approached adulthood, the former an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and one of his generation's most popular directors. From critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon, Rush and Apollo 13 to the hit comedies Parenthood and Splash, Ron has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films. He made his directorial debut in 1977 with Grand Theft Auto and also starred in The Music Man. Clint is now a much loved character actor in Seinfeld, Rock & Roll Highschool, Arrested Development, The Water Boy and many horror films. Their lives have brought them into contact with a who's who of Hollywood - George Lucas, Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Shirley Jones and many others, but Dad and Mom have remained their guiding stars. 24 pages of photos, 393pp.