Sean Kanan Says He Helped Ron Howard’s Brother Clint Get Cast as an Unhoused Man on “The Bold and the Beautiful” (Exclusive)

Sean Kanan is recalling the serendipitous way that Clint Howard landed his role on The Bold and the Beautiful.

While Clint, 65, is the brother of Hollywood heavyweight Ron Howard, it was actually Kanan, 58, who hooked Clint up with the soap opera gig.

"I was at the Hollywood Show, which is kind of a memorabilia show, and Clint was there. We were talking, and it was great talking with Clint," the actor — who has portrayed Deacon Sharpe on Bold since 2000 — recounts exclusively to PEOPLE.

Related: Clint Howard, Brother of Ron Howard, Set to Make His Soap Opera Debut on The Bold and the Beautiful

He continues, "Then all of a sudden I looked up and I saw [Bold producer] Casey Kasprzyk and I said, 'What are you doing here?' He goes, 'Well, I'm actually looking for someone to play a homeless guy in a scene that you're doing.' I said, 'Stay right here. I've got the guy. You're not even going to need makeup.' "

Kanan went and retrieved Clint, who quickly prepared for the impromptu casting by messing up his hair and giving "this kind of crazy look."

"Casey's like, 'Oh my God. This is great,' " Kanan remembers.

Clint not only scored the part on the spot but ended up impressing producers so much that his role as Tom Starr, an unhoused man, was expanded following his April 26 debut.

"They brought Clint on for, I think, two shows, and he was so terrific that he wound up doing [13 episodes]," Kanan notes.

Kanan says he enjoyed working with Clint, whose résumé features more than 250 film and TV credits, including Arrested Development, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Pam & Tommy and Grand-Daddy Day Care.

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"It was just an amazing experience having Clint on the show," the Cobra Kai star tells PEOPLE. "He's a tremendous actor, and he's become a very good friend. That was really nice."

Clint's showbiz career first kicked off alongside his filmmaker brother Ron, 70, on The Andy Griffith Show when they were young kids. The siblings have since worked together on several movies, as well as their 2022 memoir, The Boys: A Memoir of Hollywood and Family, which became a New York Times best seller.

Related: Director Ron Howard Doesn't 'Go Back and Watch' His Own Movies — and Hasn't Seen Splash in a 'Long Time' (Exclusive)

Clint opened up about his relationship with Ron in 2022 while appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show. “I love my brother. He’s a great older brother," he said at the time. "He’s a hall-of-fame movie director and he’s a better big brother than he is a movie director.”

He noted that he discovered at a young age that Ron's job as director means he is the one in charge on set. “I learned my lesson early on. I was probably in ... my early 20s and yet I had to learn that ultimately, he’s the boss, he’s making the decisions," Clint said.

Ron added that working with Clint means he will get honest feedback. “When I do have the opportunity to direct Clint, it’s always a joy because … he also will tell me the truth," the Oscar winner said on The Drew Barrymore Show.

Clint has previously spoken about how his older brother has served as a mentor over the course of his career.

“Not only did I have a beautiful mentor in dad, but I had a great example in Ron," Clint said on The View in 2021. "Ron’s five years older than me, so he had already gotten into the business when, luck have it, I got into the business, and I saw by example how he was doing it all. It was beautiful and it gave me confidence.”

Read the original article on People