26 NewZealandWoman’sWeekly
and insecurity, who before
every performance would
fretfully announce, “I go to die.”
His private life was also at
times chaotic, and though a
self-proclaimed family man, he
is captured on film candidly
admitting his failings as a father
and husband, having left his
first wife Adua and their three
daughters for his mistress
and eventual wife Nicoletta
Mantovani, 34 years his junior.
The fallout from the affair was
public and acrimonious, and
though both Luciano’s wives
and daughters appear in the
documentary, Ron admits
it wasn’t an easy feat.
“As much as the family
wanted to support the film and
bring his music to the masses,
emotionally it was very difficult,”
he says. “On the day of the
interviews in Italy, all of them
nearly baulked and declined to
be interviewed. Luckily, they
decided to participate and I
really respected their courage.”
It’s a sign of Ron’s ability to
coax performances out of even
the most difficult subjects.
Russell Crowe, who once
reportedly threatened to kill a
producer with his bare hands
on the set of Gladiator, had
nothing but praise for Ron
and his impressive work ethic
after they worked together
on A Beautiful Mind.
Even the notoriously prickly
diva Bette Davis was charmed.
One of Ron’s earliest jobs
behind the camera was directing
Bette in the TV movie Skyward.
Only in his mid-20s, and “a little
bit intimidated”, he recalls a
phoneconversationwiththe
screen legend prior to filming.
“She would call me Mr Howard
and so I said, ‘Miss Davis, please
just call me Ron,’ and she replied,
‘I will call you Mr Howard until
I decide whether I like you or
not,’ and then slammed the
phone down.”
On the first day of the shoot,
Ron went over to give Bette
directions and, acting startled,
Bette boomed, “I saw this child
and I thought, ‘What can this
child say to me that’s of any
consequence?’”
At the end of the day, however,
Ron complimented Bette on her
day’s work and was surprised to
hear her reply, “Okay, Ron, I’ll
see you tomorrow.”
“And then,” he says with a
grin, “she patted me on the ass.”
Ron has had to face far moreterrifying dramas in his own life,
but he downplays them.
In 1996, he directed Ransom,
starring Mel Gibson as a
millionaire out for blood when
his young son is kidnapped, a
film he now admits was inspired
by events in his own life when a
kidnapping threat was made on
his family.
“It was profoundly unsettling
and disturbing,” he recalls. “The
FBI became involved and once
the people they suspected
realised that we’d been tipped
off, they left the state.”
Ron says the terror eventually
died down and no arrests were
made, but he’s still clearly shaken
by the threat to his family. “I wasable to put many of the emotions
and feelings I had into the movie.
It made it very personal. There
was a child in jeopardy and
emotionally I had a very difficult
time directing those scenes.’’
For a man whose personal
worth is estimated at $220m,
Ron wears his success lightly.
Slightly built and casually
dressed for our interview in a
dark blue shirt and baseball
cap, he might have less hair
up top than he did as Richie
Cunningham, but at 65 is still
instantly recognisable from the
sitcom that turned him into a
worldwide star.
It also spawned some of the
unlikeliest of fans, includingdClockwisefromtopleft:With
firstwifeAduaanddaughters;
withPrincessDianain 1991;a
1995 shot taken at his villa at
Pesaro on the Adriatic Coast;
with second wife Nicoletta and
their daughter Alice after their
wedding in 2003; rehearsing
with Bono for Pavarotti &
Friends; with Nicoletta in 1998.Clockwise from top left: WithA LIFE LIVED FORTE