Kids Ron and Clint Howard grew up with a lot of fame and attention. They were stars on TV and movies, but their parents also let them have a childhood.
In their book “The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family,” they wrote about how hard their parents worked at their jobs and in their personal lives to make sure their famous sons always had a normal life.
Rance Howard and Jean Speegle, their parents, were also performers. Their mother, Jean Speegle, went to school at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Unfortunately, she was in an accident that made it hard for her to move and eventually made it so she couldn’t walk!
Luckily, she got better and kept following her dream of studying acting at the University of Oklahoma. At college, she met Rance Howard, who would become her husband.
In their book, the Howard boys wrote in great depth about both of their parents. They talked about their thin, good-looking father and their red-haired, doll-faced mother. Right away, they fell in love and chose to keep acting together, which was something they both loved.
A group that tours children’s theater hired both Rance and Speegle. She dressed up as different queens, but Rance was more likely to be a huntsman or a prince.
They chose to get married in Kentucky while they were on tour there. After a year and a half with the traveling theater group, they chose to quit and focus on starting a family.
Soon, their boys Ron Howard and Clint Howard came to live with them. Speegle kept acting for a little while longer, but then she quit so she could get back to raising her boys.
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Rance kept acting and managed his kids’ careers at the same time. Ron Howard, who is 6 years old, got a part on “The Andy Griffin Show,” and his dad was there to watch. After that, when he was in “The Music Man,” his dad was right there with him.
Furthermore, Clint played lead parts in TV shows such as “Bananza,” “Star Trek,” and “Gentle Ben.” Their parents were careful with their sons’ money and put it in trust accounts so that their boys could use it later in life.
In their book, Clint and Ron Howard write about how they lived after they became Hollywood stars. It turned out that they didn’t live a fancy life because their parents didn’t let them spend a lot of money or go on trips.
They mostly lived off of their dad’s money and didn’t use the money the boys made. Ron Howard said that the family was given the chance to start a clothing line at one point, but their father flatly turned it down. Their dad didn’t want to start the clothing line because he didn’t want the “celebrity” lives of other people to ruin their youth.