3. Ron Howard
Having played Richie Cunningham on the hit TV series Happy Days for six years, Howard pursued his directorial aspirations with a number of television movies until he began to achieve success with films such as Night Shift, Splash and Cocoon, followed in the 90s by hits such as the firefighting drama Backdraft and the space docudrama Apollo 13, before winning the Academy Award for Best Director in 2001 with the Russell Crowe centric A Beautiful Mind. Though his efforts since then have been a mixed bag, ranging from the esteemed historical drama to Frost/Nixon to poorly received adaptations of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Angels And Demons and the best ignored 2011 'comedy' The Dilemma, 2013 could see a return to form for Howard as he takes the helm for Rush, a film that tells the stories of 1970's Formula One drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt.