Rance Howard
Rance Howard (born Harold Engle Beckenholdt; November 17, 1928 – November 25, 2017) was an American actor who starred in film and on television. He was the father of actor and filmmaker Ron Howard and actor Clint Howard, and grandfather of actresses Bryce Dallas Howard and... Read full bio →
Featured Characters
Roles you can spot in Whatthemovie snapshots
The Lone Ranger
The Texas Rangers chase down a gang of outlaws led by Butch Cavendish, but the gang ambushes the Rangers, seemingly killing them all. One survivor is found, however, by an American Indian named Tonto, who nurses him back to health.
Nebraska
An aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million dollar Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes prize.
Easy Rider: the Ride Back
In this revisionist drama, the film delves into the family lineage of Wyatt Williams, the character made famous by Peter Fonda in the original Easy Rider Movie.
The Dilemma
A man discovers that his best friend's wife is having an affair.
Spooky Buddies
The puppies go on a spooky adventure through a haunted mansion.
Rosewood Lane
When radio talk show psychiatrist, Dr. Sonny Blake, moves back to her hometown, she takes notice of her neighborhood paper boy's unusual behavior.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2
Puppy mayhem turns the lives of newlywed Chihuahua parents Papi and Chloe upside down when their rambunctious, mischievous puppies present one challenge after another. But when their human owners end up in trouble, the tiny pups will stop at nothing to save them - because in good times and hard times, the family always sticks together.
Yohan - Barnevandrer
With his family struggling to survive in late-1890s Norway and his father leaving on a ship for America to earn much-needed money, 10-year-old Yohan devises his own plans to help his family, but his jealous older brother has other ideas and, unbeknownst to their parents, he signs a contract with an agent for Yohan to become a farm laborer.
Valentine's Day
A Love Story. More or Less. Intertwining couples and singles in Los Angeles break-up and make-up based on the pressures and expectations of Valentine's Day.
Once Fallen
An ex-convict tries to make a fresh start, but circumstances force him back into a life of crime.
Jonah Hex
In the Wild West, a scarred bounty hunter tracks a voodoo practitioner bent on liberating the South by raising an army of the undead.
Angels & Demons
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon works with a nuclear physicist to solve a murder and prevent a terrorist act against the Vatican during one of the significant events within the church.
Keith
Natalie is high school royalty, but her queen bee status falls apart when she falls for the new guy at school. Although Keith ignores her at first, they soon become friends -- even though Natalie suspects that Keith has something to hide.
Grizzly Park
A giant grizzly bear stalks 8 troubled young adults and a park ranger in a forest reserve called Grizzly Park after making the demise of an escaped serial killer.
Frost/Nixon
A dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate television interviews between British talk-show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon.
Drillbit Taylor
Three kids hire a low-budget bodyguard to protect them from the playground bully, not realising he is just a homeless beggar and petty thief looking for some easy cash.
Audie & the Wolf
When the moon is full, a friendly WOLF turns into a savage, bloodthirsty MAN and goes on a kill spree in a starlet's Hollywood mansion.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Singer Dewey Cox overcomes adversity to become a musical legend.
Georgia Rule
Georgia Rule follows a rebellious, uncontrollable teenager who is hauled off by her dysfunctional mother to spend the summer with her grandmother. Her journey will lead all three women to revelations of buried family secrets and an understanding that - regardless what happens - the ties that bind can never be broken.
Miracle at Sage Creek
Two families overcome prejudice and tragedy in 1888 Wyoming when a special Christmas miracle saves the life of a small boy.
Cinderella Man
Cinderella Man is the story of a boxer in the 1920’s who after his retirement has a surprise comeback in order to get him and his family out of a socially poor state. The film is based on the true story of boxer Jim Braddock who was more famously known as Cinderella Man.
Toolbox Murders
A historic Hollywood hotel houses a supernatural evil. It's been subdued for decades - but when renovations start, a series of murders take place. It's up to our heroine to solve the mystery.
The Alamo
Based on the 1836 standoff between a group of Texan and Tejano men, led by Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, and Mexican dictator Santa Anna's forces at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.
Back by Midnight
The warden of a small, rundown, minimum-security prison plots revenge against the the prison's dishonest owner by having four inmates break out and plan a department store robbery to spruce up the prison's faculties.
The Missing
In 1885 New Mexico, a frontier medicine woman forms an uneasy alliance with her estranged father when her daughter is kidnapped by an Apache brujo.
Legend of the Phantom Rider
Two ancient entities reincarnated through the centuries face off time and again for an innocent soul.
D-Tox
A disgraced FBI agent with a drinking problem joins nine other troubled law enforcement officers at an isolated detox clinic in the wilds of Wyoming. But the therapeutic sanctuary becomes a nightmarish hellhole when a major snowstorm cuts off the clinic from the outside world and enables a killer on the inside to get busy.
Rat Race
A Las Vegas casino magnate, determined to find a new avenue for wagering, sets up a race for money.
Joe Dirt
Joe Dirt is a janitor with a mullet hairdo, acid-washed jeans and a dream to find the parents that he lost at the Grand Canyon when he was a belligerent, trailer park-raised eight-year-old. Now, blasting Van Halen in his jacked-up economy car, the irrepressibly optimistic Joe hits the road alone in search of his folks.
A Beautiful Mind
In this Oscar crowning work, director Ron Howard puts the magnified glass on mathematician and Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash. With respect to Hollywood conformity the film details the life of a paranoid schizophrenic genius which caused the film much critique.
Love & Sex
When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Big budget remake of the classic cartoon about a creature's intent on stealing Christmas.
Happy, Texas
Two escaped convicts roll into the village of Happy, Texas, where they're mistaken for a gay couple who work as beauty pageant consultants. They go along with it to duck the police, but the local sheriff has a secret of his own.
The Night Caller
A woman goes to desperate measures to meet a successful radio psychologist, even if it means killing in order to do so.
Small Soldiers
When missile technology is used to enhance toy action figures, the toys soon begin to take their battle programming too seriously.
Psycho
A remake of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, the film is about Marion Crane, who after stealing $40,000 cash, leaves town and ends up at the Bates Motel where she meets the troubled Norman Bates who seems to be dominated by his mother.
Evasive Action
When Redwood Federal Penitentiary closes, there are going to be several hundred prisoners looking for a new home. Several of the most dangerous, all killers, will be transported by train to Santa Ana, a new high tech prison for the worst of the worst.
The Second Civil War
When a planeload of Pakistani orphans are shipped to his state for permanent relocation, the governor of Idaho defies the president and closes the state's border.
Money Talks
Sought by police and criminals, a small-time huckster makes a deal with a TV newsman for protection.
Sgt. Bilko
Sgt. Bilko is a well-liked conman in charge of the army base's motor pool, developing a hover tank and unofficially of gambling etc. One man hates Bilko and he's coming to inspect the base for possible closure.
Mars Attacks!
“We come in peace” is not what those green men from Mars mean when they invade our planet. This star studded cast must play victim to the alien’s fun and games in this comedy homage to science fiction films of the 50’s and 60’s.
Independence Day
The aliens are coming and their goal is to invade and destroy. Fighting superior technology, Man's best weapon is the will to survive.
Ghosts of Mississippi
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.
Problem Child 3: Junior in Love
Now a pre-teen, Junior has fallen head over heels for a classmate who doesn't even notice him, but does notice three other boys – a child star, a hockey player and a Boy Scout – who are rivals to Junior. This means war!
Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest
After a couple adopts a pair of orphaned brothers, it becomes alarmingly clear the boys are much more than they seem.
Apollo 13
A Hollywood film based on true catastrophic events that occurred aboard a NASA space mission to the moon. With original dialogue integrated and to the present day the only film about NASA.
The Paper
Henry Hackett is the editor of a New York City tabloid. He is a workaholic who loves his job, but the long hours and low pay are leading to discontent. Also, publisher Bernie White faces financial straits, and has hatchetman Alicia Clark, Henry's nemesis, impose unpopular cutbacks.
Terminal Velocity
A maverick skydiver and a former KGB agent team up to stop the Russian mafia from stealing gold.
Runaway Daughters
Angie, Mary and Laura are tired of the same old 50s suburbia routine. The 3 guy-crazy girlfriends take to the road in a stolen car, trying to track down one of their ex-lovers before he leaves for the Navy, ending up in a heap of trouble.
Little Giants
When Danny O'Shea's daughter is cut from the Peewee football team just for being a girl, he decides to form his own team, composed of other ragtag players who were also cut. Can his team really learn enough to beat the elite team, coached by his brother, a former pro player?
Ed Wood
Ed Wood is the worst director of all times. Together with his friends they film B-movies one after another without ever becoming famous or successful. A strange black and white Tim Burton/Johnny Depp film.
Ticks
Teens camping in a northern California retreat are terrorized by mutant insects created by evil, polluting pot farmers.
Snapdragon
An erotic amnesiac lures a police psychologist into a world of lust and danger.
Fearless
After surviving a plane crash that kills many others, Max Klein develops a sense of invulnerability, leading to radical, compulsive actions. Can a psychologist and a fellow guilt-ridden survivor bring him down to earth?
Ed and His Dead Mother
A mourning son makes a deal to reanimate his one year dead mother, however things turn into an unexpected direction.
Universal Soldier
Luc and Scott were killed in Vietnam, but the army has a secret project for reanimating dead people as near-perfect soldiers.
Far and Away
In 1893, a young man (Cruise) leaves Ireland with his landlord's daughter (Kidman) after some trouble with her father, and they dream of owning land at the big giveaway in Oklahoma.
9 1/2 Ninjas!
Joe Vogue, a ninja, butts heads with a real estate tycoon who has hired assassins to eliminate him. In addition to that he has to also protect and train a woman in the arts of ninjutsu.
The 'Burbs
An overstressed suburbanite and his paramilitaric neighbor struggle to prove their paranoid theory that the new family in town is a front for a cannibalistic cult.
Parenthood
Parenthood is the 1989 comedy about a series of interwoven relationships and the chaos that parenting can be. A classic family comedy.
Innerspace
A hapless store clerk must foil criminals to save the life of the man who, miniaturized in a secret experiment, was accidentally injected into him.
Gung Ho
When a American car manufacturer is purchased by a Japanese firm a clash of cultures occurs as the Japanese work ethic is pushed through out the plant.
A Smoky Mountain Christmas
A country/western singer on a trip through the Tennessee mountains runs into a reclusive backwoodsman--and a witch.
Scandal Sheet
The publisher of a celebrity gossip tabloid sets out to destroy an aging actor, whose career is foundering and who is also facing a battle with alcoholism.
Creator
With the help of student assistant Boris and stolen university equipment, Dr. Harry Wolper plans to clone his dead wife. But then he meets Meli, an egg donor for his experiment, and they fall in love.
Cocoon
When a group of trespassing seniors swim in a pool containing alien cocoons, they find themselves energized with youthful vigor.
The Lonely Guy
A writer for a greeting card company learns the true meaning of loneliness when he comes home to find his girlfriend in bed with another man.
Splash
A star-studded cast including Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah and John Candy join together for this hilarious comedy. The fun starts when a successful businessman (Hanks) falls in love with the girl of his dreams (Daryl Hannah). There's one big complication though; he's fallen hook, line and sinker for a mermaid.
The Thorn Birds
A priest torn between God and human passion. A beautiful girl desiring only what she cannot have. Five decades of ambition, fear, longing and revenge. From Colleen McCullough's bestseller, The Thorn Birds tells this epic story against the limitless horizons of Australia's Outback.
Airplane II: The Sequel
A faulty computer causes a passenger space shuttle to head straight for the Sun. Can Ted Striker save the day and get the shuttle back on track--again?
Mr. No Legs
Heads roll as two cops, Chuck and Andy, go against Mr. D'Angelo, the biggest drug dealer in Florida, and his ruthless enforcer Fred, who has no legs but does have two mean double barrel shotguns built into his wheelchair.
Un autre homme, une autre chance
Young Jeanne falls in love with photographer Francis, who soon takes her with him when he emigrates to America. In a small town in the still wild west, they build up a small photo shop. Meanwhile, animal doctor David lives on his lonesome farm together with his unlucky wife. It takes years and two tragic accidents until Jeanne and David meet.
Grand Theft Auto
A rich girl steals her dad's Rolls Royce and heads off to Las Vegas to get married. However, her angry parents, a jealous suitor, and a bunch of reward seekers are determined to stop her.
Eat My Dust
Hoover Nielbold is a car-crazy teenager who, in order to impress the hottest girl in school, takes her for a ride in a souped-up race car owned by local racer Big Bubba Jones. Hoover's father Harry, who's also the local sheriff is furious at the situation and orders his bumbling deputies to go after him.
Chinatown
Chinatown is a classic US American film from 1974 Directed by Roman Polanski and starring Jack Nicholson. A plot about a conspiracy of the water and land use in the state of California.
Cool Hand Luke
Cool Hand Luke is a Drama from director Stuart Rosenberg starring Paul Newman. The film tells the story of a nonconformist rebel named Luke who while in jail tries to break out.
Village of the Giants
Delinquent teenagers ingest a substance, grow 30 feet tall, and proceed to take over a small town.