The name Ron Howard invokes the title "Mr. Nice Guy." Americans have watched Howard grow up before their eyes, from the red-headed Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show, to the wholesome Richie Cunningham on Happy Days, to the successful director of such smash hits as Splash, Parenthood, Backdraft, Apollo 13, Ransom, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, and the Oscar-winning A Beautiful Mind. Through it all Howard's public image remains, in essence, that of the "nice" and "normal" boy of his youth. "The real Ron Howard is so benign, so nice, so normal that you immediately begin to fantasize about how he, as a long-time Hollywood brat, should have turned out," maintained Ron Givens and Charles Leerhsen in Newsweek. Because he has not changed, many people continue to address Howard as the two popular television characters he played. "I know when people say, `Hi, Richie' or `Hi, Opie,'...