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

Ron Howard is 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 to Instagram that showed Jean painting an apartment hallway, which was part of a short film he made as a teenager. The Academy Award winner 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.

"Here she is restoring to the original color a borrowed apt hallway which she had hours before painted to help me out for a scene in a 16mm short film I was making as a teen," Ron noted in the caption. "Whether it was acting in a movie, behind the scenes of an equity waiver play, the PTA show or one of my shorts, she was all in, doing her part to bring the production to life. She lead by example and we owe her so much. Love you and miss you, Mom."

Related: Ron Howard's Wife Cheryl Catches Her Hair on Fire While Blowing Out Candles in Birthday Mishap Video

Jean, who died at 73 in 2000, was credited with 62 on-screen roles between 1956 and her death. A Los Angeles Times obituary 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, like Scrooged, Matilda and 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 series In Depth with Graham Besinger.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"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."

Related: Bryce Dallas Howard ‘Very Badly’ Wants to Work with Her Filmmaker Father Ron Howard: ‘Let’s Talk, Dude’

"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.

Read the original article on People