This versatile stage-trained character player of the 1980s and 90s first registered with a role in the high-profile ABC-TV movie "The Day After" (1983), about the aftermath of a nuclear disaster. After several years of bouncing between low-budget features ("The Lightship" 1985) and TV-movies ("A Killer in the Family", ABC 1983), Howard registered with audiences with his portrayal of Cowboy, a gung-ho marine, in Stanley Kubrick's devastating Vietnam saga "Full Metal Jacket" (1987). He has since turned in some fine performances in features, including "Tequila Sunrise" (1988), as Mel Gibson's
