Happy 72nd birthday to Ron Howard! George Lucas’ American Graffiti (1973), starring Ron Howard George Lucas on how he had to reluctantly write the screenplay for his American Graffiti (1973): “When I was doing ‘American Graffiti’ (1973) I was still struggling with my ‘I don’t want to be a writer’ syndrome. I had some good friends of mine that I wanted to write the screenplay, but it took me like two years just to get the money to do a screenplay. And I got a little tiny amount of money and—which