Henry Winkler Reflects on HAPPY DAYS’ 50th Anniversary: ‘Grateful’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Henry Winkler reflects on HAPPY DAYS’ lasting impact on his career as the show approaches its 50th anniversary since its debut on ABC.
“50 years? Where’s my walker?” Winkler joked while speaking with Fox News. “You know, it’s amazing I’m still standing, but I’m here, and I’m grateful.”
“The first day to the last day, what a wonderful experience that was,” he continued. “I just spoke to Ron [Howard], who’s making a movie in Australia, yesterday, we are as tight as a family.”
Debuting in 1974, HAPPY DAYS follows a group of friends living in the Midwest during the 1950s and 60s. The show was a massive success, launching the cast to the heights of stardom.
Winkler’s character, The Fonz, was among the most popular characters, as he became an American heartthrob. However, despite his rise to fame, the actor remained humble, thanks in part to his castmates.
“I was always careful never to flaunt anything that was happening to me on the sound stage in front of the cast members, including him. I’m lucky [my character’s popularity] was happening, but I was a member of an ensemble, which was higher than bragging,” Winkler told Fox News last October ahead of the release of his memoir.
Winkler, however, did allow his fame to carry him through the entertainment industry following the show’s end. Moving to offscreen work as a producer, Winkler won a Daytime Emmy in 1985 for a children’s afterschool special. His company also worked on the show MACGYVER, which he produced for seven years.
The actor, however, never gave up his craft and continues to appear in front of the screen when the project is right. Most recently, he was nominated for a Critics Choice Award as the Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on BARRY.
Movieguide® previously reported on Winkler:
Actor Henry Winkler portrayed a TV icon, The Fonz, in the hit series, HAPPY DAYS.
However, after years as Arthur Fonzarelli, Winkler questioned whether his career effectively used his “God-given talents.”
“Over the years Happy Days and all its characters and cast became like a real family to me. And yet, sometimes there were doubts in my mind about Fonzie,” Winkler reflected in an article from 1985. “I was trained as a classical actor at Yale Drama School, and I’d always meant to be a ‘serious’ actor—doing drama, not comedy. And there were times when interviewers asked me if I felt I was ‘compromising myself’ by playing a character like The Fonz.
“Well, I’d answer that every acting job is important if it’s conveying a worthwhile message and you adapt the part to your own talents and tastes. That it took every bit of my training and skill to make the character of Fonzie come alive on the home screen—and that it was more demanding to play comedy and bring it off successfully,” he added.
But Winkler conceded that at times, he had asked himself that very same question.
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