Henry Winkler on Happy Days, dyslexia and why he’ll always love The Fonz: ‘I’m grateful’

Henry Winkler was born in October 1945 in New York City. After moving to Boston for college to study child psychology in 1963, he became involved in student theatre productions and, in 1967, won a place at the Yale School of Drama. He became part of Yale Repertory Theatre company in 1970 where he appeared throughout the 1970-71 season before moving to New York to pursue roles on Broadway.

In 1973, his agent suggested a month-long trip to Los Angeles to explore new roles. In his second week, he auditioned successfully for the role of Arthur Fonzarelli in Happy Days. Winkler played The Fonz for the next decade, becoming one of the most beloved characters on US TV in the ’70s. Meanwhile, he took a host of film roles, including 1977’s Heroes and Happy Days co-star Ron Howard’s directorial debut, Night Shift – both of which earned him Golden Globe nominations.

Winkler continued working post-Happy Days but struggled after becoming typecast. That changed with a string of roles in hit films including Scream, The Waterboy and Little Nicky. In later years, Winkler has turned to comedy with a recurring role in the game-changing hit series’ Arrested Development and Barry.

In 2003, the first of Winkler and co-author Lin Oliver’s series of children’s books about the adventures of a dyslexic child, Hank Zipler, was published – the series would run to 17 books. Winkler and Oliver have also written books about a range of characters, including Detective Duck and Alien Superstar.  

Speaking to The Big Issue for his Letter to my Younger Self, Winkler reflects on getting started in acting, his wilderness years and the importance of gratitude.

At 16, my key mission was survival. Because I was so dyslexic. And so filled with shame. I could not do what every other student in my class was doing. But my passion was to do exactly what I’m doing now. I dreamed of acting 24 hours a day. I would daydream, I would night dream, I would dinner dream! My heroes were Spencer Tracy, Steve McQueen, Humphrey Bogart, Charles Bronson – acting was always there, I don’t even know how or why. It had eight tentacles, and they were wrapped around my imagination.  

I tried as hard as I could in every area. And I was not successful in most of them. By the early ’60s, I was in college, I was pretty good socially and I used my humour to infiltrate. But I still always felt ‘less than’. So I was torn. Because what the world saw was a very confident young man. And when I was back in my dorm room in college, I was like Jello before it congeals. I was sloshing all around in that bowl.  

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I did not just have your regular teenage miscommunication with my parents. They literally did not see me. They thought I was an extension of them. It was really hard, because I could never achieve their image of who they wanted me to be. They wanted me to go into the family business. I was supposed to import and export wood. But that was their dream, not mine – the only wood I was interested in was Hollywood.  

I was so awkward with girlfriends. I would call a girl from my apartment in New York City on the Upper West Side, and it was the summertime, it was August. But I went to the closet and got my winter coat and put it on because I was so nervous, I felt like I was freezing in the middle of a heatwave. So I’d be sitting in a winter coat at the desk in my living room trying so hard to be relaxed.  

I live by two words – tenacity and gratitude. My family escaped Germany. I’m sure that’s a major part of me. And whether or not I liked or could have a relationship with my parents – I swear they were from the planet Mizar – I was impressed by the tenacity of deciding to leave the country you were born in, starting a brand-new life and, for the most part, making it work. That tenacity is in my DNA. And without gratitude you are empty. It’s about what you are able to receive from the universe. If you are not grateful that somebody has helped you, that you have a beautiful sweater, then I don’t want to talk to you. 

I had no political awakening. I was so dyslexic that it affects your emotionality, which affects your point of view. So I would think, I cannot understand politics, I don’t know how to look at a painting. I was so focused on becoming a professional actor that nothing in the world got in my way – and I don’t mean that nothing stopped me, I mean I literally did not think of anything else. I understand now that to think about all of that gives me a better perspective on being an actor. But I was single-sighted. I would say it wasn’t until the late 1990s that I became aware of politics. Maybe religion got in there. Just the idea of spirituality. The idea that there has got to be somebody or something bigger than we are – because look at an orchid, look at an Edelweiss that only grows at 2,000 feet of elevation. Come on! There’s gotta be a bigger plan.  

When I was on Happy Days, I was fearless. The only place in my whole life until maybe 10 years ago thatI was fearless was in my work. I would do what came to my mind without thinking am I being great, am I hitting my mark? I would just do it.  

I swear to god if I tried to put this together it wouldn’t have worked, but last night, we were with Ron Howard, his wife Cheryl, their daughter Bryce – who is our goddaughter – and her husband Seth, who is an extraordinary actor, their two children, my daughter Zoe, her husband Rob and their three sons. We were all at the same table having chicken and pasta. I was over the moon. It was magical. Ron is very quiet, but last night, he said to me: “I watched how you had trouble reading the scripts around the table, but you would bring it alive through sheer instinct.” I thought, what? It took 50 years for you to tell me that!?  

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I loved The Fonz then and I love him now. He gave me the world. He gave me a roof over my head, he gave me food on the table, he gave me my children’s education, and he gave me opportunity. But then he took the opportunity away. Because there is such a thing as typecasting. I stupidly thought I could beat it, but for eight or nine years after Happy Days, I couldn’t work. I felt so defeated. Like my life was over. For the second time in my life, I couldn’t do the thing I wanted to do. Firstly, it was when I couldn’t do school plays because my grades were so low. Now I was typecast. That’s when I became a producer. 

I’m so grateful for the career I’ve had since Happy Days. I’ve worked with Garry Marshall, Wes Craven, Adam Sandler, Mitch Hurwitz on Arrested Development – which was so funny and complex. I was only hired for two episodes and stayed for five years. Then on Night Shift, The Waterboy with Adam Sandler, and then Barry – holy mackerel, I had no idea where that adventure would take me. And Lin Oliver and I have just written our 39th children’s novel – there are the Hank Zipzer stories which were then made for TV and I’ve got a children’s book called Detective Duck, who is very ecologically aware.  

I’m not the nicest man in showbusiness – that’s bullshit. Because it’s not a matter of being nice. It’s a matter of being grateful. I’m so happy to be here. I’m so happy to meet you. If I’m working on a studio lot, wow, I’m so happy to be there! There are lots of people who are not happy in this industry – as if they
think not being happy is more dramatic or cooler.  

I always said to my wife that I am going to be a different parent to my parents. I told Stacey the first thing I am going to do is to listen to what my children are saying. And I’m going to look at who they are. I’m going to really see them. Everything comes from that. I was not good at relationships when I was young. Relationships were horrible. But then, relationships are tied into how you were brought up. Now I’m very good. I’m very patient, I’m a good listener and if I don’t talk in too long sentences, I have good solutions. 

I have been asked many times about the definition of being cool. And I have finally defined it. Being cool is being your authentic self, not being who you think you should be. Just being true to yourself is magnetic.  

I would tell my younger self to buckle up. Because you have no idea about the incredible world that is going to open up to you – if you are open to it. I used to want to say, don’t be so nervous, it will work out. Now I say, if you visualise it, if you know what you want without ambivalence, you will be surprised by what is presented to you. We go out the door we came in. So buckle up. Know what you want and work towards it. Don’t expect it to come to you and you will be on a wonderful ride. 

But I wouldn’t want to whisper anything in my younger self’s ear. It’s better you don’t know what lies ahead. Because if you know, you might lose that spark. And you need that tenacity. I don’t think you can afford to relax when you are carving out your space on the planet. My 78-year-old self is in constant amazement at this life, so my younger self would have exploded like a balloon filled with Bolognese sauce all over the wall if he’d known what was ahead of him. I’m not kidding. He would have gone, BOOM… 

Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond is out now (Macmillan, £22). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

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