66 Years After The Andy Griffith Show Premiered, Little Opie Is Worth A Staggering Fortune

"The Andy Griffith Show" premiered in October 1960, and suffice it to say, quite a lot has changed since then. Fans have experienced the heartbreaking death of "The Andy Griffith Show" star Betty Lynn, as well as the passing of actor Maggie Peterson, who played only daughter Charlene Darling. The beloved sitcom also lost its titular star in 2012. Fortunately for fans, there's at least one cast-member who is alive and well today — and he's absolutely thriving. Between the ages of six and 14, Ron Howard famously played Opie Taylor. For those who knew him best as Opie, it's surprising to see what Howard looks like now. 

Indeed, the strides the former child star has made in his career are noteworthy. Folks who loved "The Andy Griffith Show" knew him as Opie; "Happy Days" fans knew him as Richie Cunningham. But nowadays, most people know Howard best for his work as a renowned filmmaker. "Apollo 13," "A Beautiful Mind" — for which he won both the best director and best picture Oscars — "Cinderella Man," "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and "The Da Vinci Code" are just some of the well-known films Howard was behind. With a body of work like that, it's unsurprising that he was able to rack up a net worth of $200 million. 

Ron Howard is clearly a very wealthy man today, but it's worth noting that that isn't how he grew up. In fact, when the future A-lister was young, his family often relied on his acting work for income. Howard was only about a year old when he appeared in his first movie, 1956's "Frontier Woman." In a September 2020 interview with The Guardian, the "Hillbilly Elegy" director acknowledged becoming a child actor was "kind of an accident," clarifying, "My father wandered into a casting office and he left a note saying: 'My son's a fine actor,' and I ended up getting the part in a film shooting in Vienna." Howard elaborated, "My parents were poor, struggling actors [...] When the movie ended, we moved out to California where the TV shows were being made [...] and one thing led to another." 

The family's money troubles plagued his early years until Howard hit it big at just six years old with a starring role in "The Andy Griffith Show." Ultimately, though, it was directing where he really found his calling, as well as the financial security he'd long sought. "It was always my dream to be a director," Howard confirmed to the New York Film Academy in September 2026. "A lot of it had to do with controlling my own destiny, because as a young actor you feel at everyone's disposal. But I wanted to become a leader in the business," (via Far Out magazine). Clearly, as time would tell, the prolific filmmaker did exactly that.