Award winning director Ron Howard visits Yeppoon

The former Happy Days and Arrested Development star and director of The Da Vinci Code and A Beautiful Mind paid a visit to Yeppoon, and even cleared his own table at a local cafe.

Lure Living barista Emma with director Ron Howard on Saturday April 22.

Academy award-winning filmmaker and renowned Hollywood director Ron Howard paid a visit to the Capricorn Coast at the weekend, telling eagle-eyed fans he was scouting for a new filming location.

Sleuths spotted the former Happy Days star on a flight into Rockhampton on Friday (April 21) with two other men.

He was then spotted having breakfast at Beaches Bistro at Rosslyn Bay Harbour on Saturday morning where other diners and staff started to recognise him and posed for photos with him.

He moved on to popular cafe Lure Living on the Yeppoon Esplanade where barista Emma served him a smoothie.

Lure Living barista Emma with director Ron Howard on Saturday April 22.

“He was really nice … When he was talking I thought this guy really looks like someone,” Emma told The Morning Bulletin.

“I said ‘are you the guy from Arrested Development’, he said ‘yeah that’s me’.

“We had a photo … He cleared his own table and was really polite.”

When Emma asked him what he was doing in town, he was said he was looking for “filming locations”.

“It was pretty nice he visited us, never would expect someone like that in our little shop,” Lure Living owner Cindy Durbridge said.

“We’ve had a few actors and surfers in here, it’s always really nice when that happens.”

Word on the street is he also paid a visit to Koorana Crocodile Farm.

He was then spotted heading out of Rockhampton on Saturday afternoon, making his way up to the Qantas Club Lounge at Rockhampton Airport.

Howard, who lives in Beverly Hills, also paid a visit to the Gold Coast - where he recently directed Thirteen Lives, a movie about the incredible 2018 Thai soccer team rescue.

He shared a video of the beach to his Twitter account and a photo to his Instagram on April 22.

#Goldcoast#Queensland#Austrailia Enjoy. I certainly did. pic.twitter.com/8ljFnTH0Ct

— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) April 22, 2023

Howard was a child star and began acting when he was less than two years old in shows inlcuding The Twilight Zone and The Andy Griffith Show.

In 1980 he left Happy Days after six years to go into directing, producing and writing.

The catalogue of films and television shows he has worked on includes Apollo 13, Inferno, Parenthood, Arrested Development, Rush, The Da Vinci code, Solo: A Stars Wars Story, Christmas family favourite How The Grinch Stole Christmas and documentary film The Beatles: Eight Days a Week.

He received an Academy Award for Best Director and Academy Award for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind (2001), was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013 and has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Director Ron Howard on the set of Thirteen Lives. Credit: Vince Valitutti / Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures

It wasn’t Howard’s first time in Queensland as the film Thirteen Lives, on the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescues, was filmed in Mudgeeraba, Numinbah Valley, Carrara at the Gold Coast and at Griffith University and Brisbane Domestic Airport in February 2021.

The film injected about $52 million into the state economy and created more than 250 jobs for Queensland crew and extras.

“In the last 10 to 15 years, Australia has become one of those go-to places – great crew members, the government is co-operative, there are good tax credits and so forth – but more than anything, you could just get a lot of good work done,” Howard said at the time.

Kevin Sussman with Rockhampton Millennium Collectables staff at Supanova Melbourne before his visit to Rocky.

Howard wasn’t the only television star to visit Central Queensland over the weekend.

Actor Kevin Sussman who plays Stuart Bloom in American sitcom Big Bang Theory had a store appearance at Rockhampton pop culture store Millennium Collectables Comics on Tuesday (April 25) and was spotted having dinner the night before at local Italian restaurant Pacinos.