Read George Clooney's sweet memory of Ken Howard

Veteran actor and Screen Actors Guild leader Ken Howard, known to fans for projects like The White Shadow, Murder, She Wrote, Melrose Place, Crossing Jordan, 30 Rock, and most recently, The Wedding Ringer and Joy, left an imprint on many. That group includes George Clooney. Following news of the 71-year-old's death on Wednesday, Clooney shared a story about how Howard once displayed kindness to a then-unknown struggling actor.

"There’s a story about how a young actor met Ken on the Fox lot in 1983 and told him what a fan he was of The White Shadow,' wrote Clooney in a statement. "Ken asked that actor what he did and the young man said, “well someday I hope to be lucky enough to work with you.”  Then he told Ken he had an audition all the way across town at Paramount but he wasn’t going to make it because all he had was a bike. So Ken put his bike in the trunk of his car and dropped him off at Paramount. Then Ken just waved goodbye and said good luck, 'I hope we do get that chance to work together.'

I didn’t get that audition, But I did get the chance to work with him years later. It was an honor. Today his obituary read that he was six foot six, but he was so much taller than that."