Saturday, May 7, 2011

Mama's Boy


We just lost Jackie Cooper, the foremost child star of his era. Back in 1931, he became the youngest best actor Oscar nominee of all time, for his leading role in a weepie boy-and-his-dog saga called Skippy. He was all of nine years old. Much admired for his ability to cry on cue, young Jackie was able to tap into the tough circumstances of his own upbringing: a father who went out for cigarettes and never returned; a financially strapped mother who toured in vaudeville, parking him with a grandmother who scrounged for work as an extra. In the Depression era, when he was known as “America’s Boy,” he made big bucks and hobnobbed with celebrities. But he never got over the loss of his childhood. Predictably, he grew into a rocky adult life, marked by booze, bankruptcies, fast cars, faster women. He got through it somehow, and ultimately found his niche on television, both as an actor in light comedies and as an Emmy-winning director.

Cooper’s trajectory makes me think of another celebrated child actor, little Ronny Howard. The adorable redhead began acting at four, and entered American living rooms at five, as Opie Taylor on a sitcom classic, The Andy Griffith Show. (During his summer hiatus, he co-starred in popular movies like The Music Man and The Courtship of Eddie’s Father.) When he and his TV dad, Sheriff Andy Taylor, strolled down to the fishing hole for the last time, Ronny was fourteen years old, and quickly outgrowing his days as a cute kid. Like Jackie Cooper, he was entering the awkward fraternity of over-the-hill child actors. Happily, Ronny Howard had much to fall back on. His parents, actors Rance Howard and Jean Speegle Howard, had raised him to be both a thoroughgoing professional in front of the cameras and a real boy at home. Rance, who regularly accompanied him to the set, made sure that he behaved himself and that he was never given special treatment. Jean, a stalwart PTA mom, oversaw the home front, providing Ronny and younger brother Clint with another kind of Mayberry experience in workaday Burbank, California.

Sadly, Jean Howard, who had overcome a devastating accident as a young woman, succumbed to heart disease at the age of seventy-two. But she lived long enough to see Ronny evolve into the very grown-up Ron Howard: a loyal husband, a devoted father of four, and a major Hollywood director. Paying tribute to Jean’s fight for life, Ron told a reporter in 1999, “A lot of that drive and ambition I have, it turns out, comes from my mother.” She may have taught him ambition, but she also taught him what really counts. When asked which of his many achievements she admired the most, she always said, “My grandchildren.”

Ron’s mother is no longer with him. Fortunately for me, mine is alive and well. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

15 comments:

  1. Brilliant post, Beverly! I watch Andy Griffith almost daily. My TV most frequently stays on TV Land, too. Great stuff those old shows. Howard was blessed with appearing in some truly excellent programming. For that I could overlook his appearing in Mr. B.I.G.'s pseudo cult (bad) film excursion, VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS (1965).

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  2. Yes, yes -- Village of the Giants is pretty putrid. Did you ever see Five Minutes to Live, in which Johnny Cash stars as a crazed killer? I'm not quite sure how the Howards let their young son appear in that one. But Ron has done some excellent films, both as a child and a young man. I was really impressed by his performance in The Shootist (with John Wayne), and he's excellent in a heartbreaking TV movie called The Migrants, in which Cloris Leachman plays his mother, Sissy Spacek his sister, and Cindy Williams his love interest. Both Tennessee Williams and Lanford Wilson had a hand in the tough-minded script, which is about the plight of migratory farm workers.

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  3. No, I've not seen FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE. But a few months ago I was revisiting the entirety of the original TWILIGHT ZONE and noticed Howard in the delightful season one episode, 'Walking Distance'.

    Speaking of Cindy Williams, have you seen her in the psychological horror film THE KILLING KIND with John Savage and directed by Curtis Harrington? It's a terribly obscure, but wonderfully macabre character study. I was a bit surprised to see her in there, but it was prior to her turn on LAVERNE & SHIRLEY, and she has a pretty sizable role in it.

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  4. I do know "Walking Distance," of course. But I don't know "The Killing Kind" at all. Sounds interesting. I guess I should ask if you've seen Cindy in something called "The First Nudie Musical," written and directed by a high school buddy of mine named Bruce Kimmel. It's about as tasteless as it sounds, but definitely original. She keeps her clothes on, but most of the rest of the cast do not. By the way, there's a very funny Ron Howard cameo.

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  5. No, I haven't seen that one, but I did see both Kimmel and Williams in SPACESHIP aka THE CREATURE WASN'T NICE aka a handful of other titles. I haven't seen it since I was a kid but the main thing I remember about it was the alien singing the 'I Want To Eat Your Face' song.

    A great cast, yet a shame the movie couldn't have been funnier, at least I don't recall it being very funny. Gerrit Graham is in that and I always liked him and thought it was a shame he didn't go farther. He was one of the best things about USED CARS with Kurt Russell, one of my favorite comedies--another movie that didn't do very well, but I think it's just as hilarious today as it was then having to sneak and see it in the early 80s at around 8 years old.

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  6. Of course sneaking around to see movies that are supposedly too "adult" for you is always part of the excitement.

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  7. I am proud to say I've seen every movie mentioned in these comments - thanks mainly to Showtime in the late 70's and early 80's and later home video. I also enjoyed them all - please pass along my kudos to Mr. Kimmel if you're still in touch - I like his movies, with The First Nudie Musical my fave. I also had a great time sneaking around back in the day watching movies I wasn't supposed to!

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  8. Here is a review of Five Minutes to Live from my blog, should anyone care to drop by...

    http://craiglgooh.blogspot.com/2010/11/planet-of-buddha-man.html

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    1. I enjoyed reading your review, Craig! And I'll have to convey your kudos to Bruce Kimmel, with whom I'm indeed still in touch. He's a unique personality, that's for sure.

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  9. I love being a unique personality. Craig, kudos much appreciated! And if you don't know, Nudie Musical has just been released on Blu-ray in a brand new restored transfer that looks really swell.

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    1. Just to be clear, http://www.haineshisway.com is Bruce Kimmel's very own website, imbued through and through with Bruce's idiosyncratic (no, I didn't say idiotic) take on life. Enjoy, Craig!

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  10. Wow! (picking jaw up off the floor) Thank you Ms. Gray! Hello Mr. Kimmel! I will be dropping by the website - and that is AWESOME about the Blu-Ray release of TFNM! This is one of the coolest blogs EVER!

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    1. I'm glad we've made your jaw drop. But your comment begs the question -- which blog is coolest, Bruce's or mine? I guess you don't have to answer that, Craig. But I want to go through life thinking my blog is the fairest of them all!

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  11. They are equal to this fanboy's eyes. Ms. Gray - I forgot to thank you for the kind words about my blog review - so thank you!

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    1. You are very welcome, Mr. Edwards. Do keep reading -- and commenting!

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