num_pages: 393
description: Happy Days The Andy Griffith Show Gentle Benthese shows captivated millions of TV viewers in the 60s and 70s. Join award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard and audience-favorite actor Clint Howard as they frankly and fondly share their unusual family story of navigating and surviving life as sibling child actors.What was it like to grow up on TV? Ron Howard has been asked this question throughout his adult life. In The Boys he and his younger brother Clint examine their childhoods in detail for the first time. For Ron playing Opie on The Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days offered fame joy and opportunitybut also invited stress and bullying. For Clint a fast start on such programs as Gentle Ben and Star Trek petered out in adolescence with some tough consequences and lessons.With the perspective of time and successRon as a filmmaker producer and Hollywood A-lister Clint as a busy character actorthe Howard brothers delve deep into an upbringing that seemed normal to them yet was anything but. Their Midwestern parents Rance and Jean moved to California to pursue their own showbiz dreams. But it was their young sons who found steady employment as actors. Rance put aside his ego and ambition to become Ron and Clints teacher sage and moral compass. Jean became their loving protectorsometimes over-protectorfrom the snares and traps of Hollywood.By turns confessional nostalgic heartwarming and harrowing The Boys is a dual narrative that lifts the lid on the Howard brothers closely held lives. Its the journey of a tight four-person family unit that held fast in an unforgiving business and of two brothers who survived child-actor syndrome to become fulfilled adults.
language: English
title: The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family
publisher: William Morrow