When he was in his teens this baby-faced leading man's career blossomed with his affecting performance as Ponyboy Curtis, the sensitive greaser with the soul of a writer, in Francis Ford Coppola's classic, "The Outsiders" (1983). Then, as quickly as his Tiger Beat status began, the bottom fell out after only a few years. Despite such minor hits as "Red Dawn" (1984) and "Soul Man" (1986), Howell's career descended into direct-to-video flicks and filler TV movies for the latter part of the decade, into the 1990s. Of the all-star cast of "The Outsiders," Howell's big screen success was later