Clinton Engle Howard (born April 20, 1959) is an American actor. He is the second son born to American actors Rance and Jean Howard, and younger brother of actor and director Ron Howard. His 200-plus acting credits include feature films such as The Waterboy and Apollo 13, as well as television series, such as Gentle Ben, The Baileys of Balboa, The Cowboys, My Name Is Earl, and several entries in the Star Trek franchise. He has appeared in many films directed by his brother, Ron, and had a small role in the 1967 animated film The Jungle Book. He is lead singer of his own band, The Kempsters, and also makes custom snow globes.
Born in Burbank, California, Clint's parents were actors Rance Howard and Jean Speegle and his older brother is actor and filmmaker Ron Howard.
Howard began his career when he was two, appearing in five episodes of The Andy Griffith Show, then starring his older brother Ron. He played Leon, a toddler in a cowboy outfit who wandered around Mayberry and silently offered people a bite of his sandwich, to which they would respond, "No thanks, Leon".[1] Other early notable roles include his appearance on The Streets of San Francisco in the episode entitled "The House on Hyde Street", and The Virginian as Tommy, the proud owner of a new litter of pups in the episode entitled "Melanie".
In 1963, Howard appeared in the ABC medical drama Breaking Point in the role of four-year-old Mikey in the episode "The Gnu, Now Almost Extinct". He also played little Billy Taft, the nephew of Dr. Richard Kimble, in the season one episode of The Fugitive, "Home is the Hunted" (1964).
Howard's first prominent role was as a regular on the series Gentle Ben (1967–69). He also starred in "The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes", an episode segment of Rod Serling's Night Gallery, as Herbie, a ten-year-old boy who predicts the near future, and played Billy in the made for television version of John Steinbeck's The Red Pony, with Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara.
Howard appeared in various Star Trek episodes:
In 2003, Howard played Johnny Bark on Arrested Development in the season one episode "Key Decisions", which was produced and narrated by his brother, Ron. He was seen in an episode of Married... with Children as a creepy janitor. He played a car thief/murderer Tobias Lehigh Nagy in the season four Seinfeld episode "The Trip". Howard played Creepy Rodney in the season one My Name Is Earl episode "Stole a Badge", and he was a guest star in the season three episode of the NBC show Heroes "I Am Sylar".[3][4]In 2024 Howard appeared on the CBS soap The Bold and the Beautiful as Tom Starr, a homeless man who turned his life around, only to be murdered.
In his film debut The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), he played a child party guest standing on a table at his birthday party.
Howard also voiced Roo in Disney's animated shorts Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) and Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968), which were later incorporated into The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), and Hathi Jr. in The Jungle Book (1967).
Howard has appeared in seventeen films directed by his brother, Ron, including his first directorial effort — a short film called Old Paint — when Clint was ten. He also starred in Ron's first full-length feature, Grand Theft Auto. Other roles in the elder Howard's films include: John Dexter in Cocoon (1985), Paul in Gung Ho (both film and TV series), pathologist Ricco in Backdraft (1991), Lou in Parenthood, Flynn in Far and Away (1992), flight controller Seymour Liebergot in Apollo 13 (1995), Ken in EDtv (1999), Whobris in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), and Harry the referee in Cinderella Man (2005).
Howard also played Sheriff Purdy in The Missing (2003), Lloyd Davis in Frost/Nixon (2008), Herbert Trimpy in The Dilemma, and Paul Lucas in the episodes "Spider" and "We Interrupt This Program" of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, which was produced by Ron.
Howard played Eaglebauer in Rock 'n' Roll High School, Usher in Get Crazy, Paco in The Waterboy, Arthur Lynne in Uwe Boll's Heart of America, cellmate Slinky in Tango & Cash, KJZZ disk jockey in That Thing You Do!, Johnson Ritter in the Austin Powers series, another flight controller in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Nipples in Little Nicky (2000), Gregory Tudor in the low budget film Ice Cream Man (1995), Rughead in The Wraith (1986), Stanley Coopersmith in Evilspeak (1981), Kate the Caterer in The Cat in the Hat (2003), Doctor Koplenson in Halloween (2007), and appeared in the romantic comedies, Play the Game and Speed-Dating.
Howard played Sanders in Alabama Moon and Dr. Owen in Nobody Gets Out Alive, which was written and directed by Jason Christopher.
Howard appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story, which his brother Ron directed.[5]
In 1981, Howard formed The Kempsters, a new wave rock and roll group that was composed mostly of his friends who were neighbors with him on Kemp Street. The band played regularly at Madame Wong's West. The band retired in 1983. Although The Kempsters never released an album while together, Howard has recently begun distributing No Brains At All, a CD [citation needed] featuring four tracks the band recorded in various studios, and seven tracks recorded live on October 17, 1982, at Madame Wong's West.
Howard has been married three times. After a short courtship, Howard married Ann Marie Lynch in 1988.[6] He filed for divorce after less than a year of marriage. The couple had no children.
Howard's second marriage, in 1995, was to Melanie Sorich. He filed for legal separation in 2015, and their divorce was finalized in 2018. The couple had no children.[7]
On July 1, 2020, Howard married Kat C. Cruz, at a private service in Las Vegas. They have a daughter, Rafa’ella Erlinda.[8]
Howard was an avid golfer who played 150 rounds a year from 1990 until hip replacements forced him to quit.[9][10]
In 2015, Howard began creating one-of-a-kind snow globes that are occasionally featured on entertainment programs. Howard brought one with him for his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (with, as a guest, his niece Bryce Dallas Howard).[citation needed]
Howard is a Republican (contrasting with his brother, Ron, a Democrat).[11] On January 29, 2016, three days before the Iowa Caucuses, he endorsed United States Senator Ted Cruz of Texas for the Republican presidential nomination.[12][13]
