Ron Howard Honors His Late Mother Jean and Her 'Can-Do Spirit' on Her 98th Birthday

Mar. 15, 2025

From Left: Ron Howard and Jean Speegle Howard.Photo:Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Ron Howardis honoring his mother, Jean Speegle Howard, on what would have been her 98th birthday.

On Saturday, Feb. 1, Ron, 70, shared an undated throwback photo toInstagramthat showed Jean painting an apartment hallway, which was part of a short film he made as a teenager. TheAcademy Awardwinner then reflected on his mother’s impact on his career. “A fav pic of our late mother, actress Jean Speegle Howard. She would have been 98 today and I love this photo because it says so much about her can-do spirit and total support of her loved ones,” he wrote.

Jean, who died at 73 in 2000, was credited with 62 on-screen roles between 1956 and her death. ALos Angeles Timesobituary noted that she put her own career on hold to raise Ron and his younger brother,Clint, 65, with her husband, Rance. When Jean resumed acting full time in the mid-1980s, she found character roles in movies, likeScrooged,Matildaand even a part in Ron’s 1995 docudrama,Apollo 13.

Ron spoke to his relationship with Jean — and regret that he did not make his appreciation for her clear until late in life — during a 2023 appearance on the interview seriesIn Depth with Graham Besinger.

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“It wasn’t until later as I started to have kids myself and I began to see her deal with even more serious illness and I could see what a warrior she was,” Ron said at that time, after noting that Jean struggled with her health throughout adult life. “I would have these conversations with my dad where I would begin to recognize how profoundly she had influence the course of his life and therefore our lives and her belief in what a career in this business could be like and her excitement around that.”

From Left: Ron Howard, Rance Howard, Jean Speegle Howard and Clint Howard in 1975’s Huckleberry Finn.American Broadcasting Companies via Getty

American Broadcasting Companies via Getty

“I have so few regrets in my life, and to feel that in some way you didn’t communicate to your mother everything she meant - it does hit me,” he added. “It hits me hard.”

Ron’s father, Rance,died at 89 in 2017. Ron wrote in an obituary for his father shared with PEOPLE at the time that said he “devoted himself to caring for” Jean before her death from complications of heart disease.

source: people.com