[By 1939], my father knew that it was time. He got a six-week visa from Germany to come and do work in New York but was expected to come right back. ... [He] was able to start a new life here, slowly but surely. I have the actual letters from the government each time my father requested to stay a little longer, and they would say yes. And I was born.
—Henry Winkler describing how his parents escaped from Nazi Germany. From an interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air in 2019.[3]
Winkler's parents, Ilse Anna Marie (née Hadra)[4] and businessman Harry Irving Winkler[4] were German Jews living in Berlin during the rise of Nazi Germany.[5] By 1939, rising hostilities against Jews led his father to conclude that it was time to leave Germany. He arranged to take his wife on a six-week business trip to the United States.[3][5] Although Winkler's uncle Helmut was supposed to join them, at the last minute he decided to leave at a later date, and was eventually murdered during the Holocaust.[3][6] Soon after arriving, his parents settled in New York City, where his father established a new version of his German company, which bought and sold wood.[3][7]
While growing up, Winkler had a difficult relationship with his father, who wanted him to continue the family business.[13][14][15] When his father grew frustrated with Winkler's focus on acting, he would ask his son why he had brought the business over from Germany to the United States. Winkler would respond: "Besides being chased by the Nazis, Dad, was there a bigger reason than that?"[5][16]
Difficulties in school
Winkler first attended P.S. 87 on West 78th Street, Manhattan,[17] and then the McBurney School on Manhattan's Upper West Side.[10][18] Although he was "outgoing" and "the class comedian" in school,[7] he also lived in a state of "constant anxiety"[10] over his struggles with schoolwork.[3][19][20][21] His parents were perpetually frustrated by his poor grades,[19][10] referred to him as "dummer Hund" (dumb dog), and repeatedly punished him for his inability to excel in school.[5][10] Winkler has said that this time period was "excruciating" as his "self-image was almost nonexistent".[19][21] In addition, his consistently poor academic performance made it difficult to be involved in the theater, as he was "grounded most of my high school career" and was almost never academically eligible.[10][15] However, he did manage to appear in two theatrical productions: Billy Budd when he was in the eighth grade and Of Thee I Sing in the eleventh grade.[7]
Although Winkler graduated from the McBurney School in 1963,[18] he was not allowed to attend graduation, as he had to repeat geometry for the fourth time during summer school. After finally passing the course, he received his diploma in the mail.[10][20]
1963–1967: Emerson College
Winkler applied to 28 colleges but was admitted to only two of them. He enrolled in Emerson College in Boston in 1963,[5][18] where he majored in theater and minored in child psychology, as he considered becoming a child psychologist if he did not succeed as an actor.[22] He was also a member of the Alpha Pi Theta fraternity,[23] and appeared in Emerson's production of Peer Gynt as the title character.[24][25] Winkler later recalled that he had nearly failed his first and second years but managed to stay for four years[5] and graduated in 1967.[24][26] In 1978, Emerson awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters (DHL).[27]
1967–1970: Yale School of Drama
During his senior year at Emerson, Winkler decided to audition for the Yale School of Drama. Although his then-undiagnosed dyslexia led to his forgetting the Shakespearean monologue he was supposed to perform, forcing him to improvise, Winkler was still admitted to the M.F.A. program in 1967.[5][28][29]
Out of his original cohort of 25 actors at Yale, Winkler was one of 11 who graduated[28] when he received his MFA in 1970.[31] Over two decades later, in May 1996,[32] he served as the Senior Class Day Speaker for Yale University's graduating seniors.[31][33]
In the fall of 1971, Winkler was invited to be a part of the play Moonchildren which would open at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.[28] Three weeks into rehearsals, director Alan Schneider fired him as Winkler had been hired to fill the space until the actor that Schneider really wanted was available.[28] At the time, Winkler was certain that because he had been fired, he would never be hired as an actor again.[28]
Winkler moved back to New York, and began to audition for plays, movies, and commercials.[28] He was able to earn a living through performing in commercials,[28][39] thus, he was able to perform with the Manhattan Theater Club for free.[19][39]
Winkler's first appearance on Broadway was as "John" in 42 Seconds from Broadway, a play that opened and closed on March 11, 1973.[19][40] He swore to himself that one day he would "make that right".[41] By 1973, he had roles in two independent films, The Lords of Flatbush[42] and Crazy Joe. He also performed with the improv group, Off the Wall New York.[39] He continued to feel anxiety, however, with the process of cold reading during auditions[21] and depended upon compensation strategies.[21]
By 1973, his agent told him that it was time to leave New York and explore possibilities in California. Although Winkler was initially resistant, thinking he was not a good fit for Hollywood, his agent was persistent. Winkler ultimately decided that he had earned enough money through his work in commercials to try Hollywood for one month.[39] He and his Lords of Flatbush co-star, Perry King, thus traveled to Los Angeles on September 18, 1973.[5][39] After meeting with his agency's west coast branch, and spending five days going to auditions, Winkler was hired for a small part on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, appearing in Season 4, Episode 10, "The Dinner Party".[39][43][44]
1973–1984: Happy Days and stardom
Winkler's character, "The Fonz" (pictured), became a breakout character by the middle of the second season.
During his second week in Los Angeles, Winkler auditioned for the part of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, better known as "Fonzie" or "The Fonz", on a new show called Happy Days.[43] Although he was an unknown and not the first choice for the role,[45][46] he was asked to return after his first audition for a second one in costume.[46] In costume, and with a different voice, Winkler said his six lines, threw his script in the air, and left the room.[5][39] He was offered the role on his birthday, and accepted it based on his condition that the producers would show who the character was when he took his jacket off.[5][47] Winkler appeared on the first episode of Happy Days in January 1974, and was with the series continuously until it ended in July 1984.[48][49]
"The Fonz" was initially written as a minor role[39] and developed as the foil for the central protagonist of the series, Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard). Winkler made his own interpretation of the character during the first episode, choosing not to comb his hair, chew gum, or keep a box of cigarettes rolled in his sleeve like actors typically did with this type of character.[39] Although he tried to explain this philosophy to the producers, he was told he had to follow the script and comb his hair. He thus stood at the mirror, motioned in a way that suggested "Hey I don't have to because it's perfect," and in doing so, created the seminal moment which defined the character.[39] ABC executives did not want to see Fonzie wearing leather, thinking it would imply that the character was a criminal. Thus, during the first season, Winkler wore two different windbreaker jackets, one of which was green.[3] Director Garry Marshall argued with the executives about the jacket, and eventually they made a compromise: Fonzie could wear the leather jacket, but only in scenes with his motorcycle. Marshall thus made certain that his motorcycle was written into every scene.[46] In reality, Winkler did not know how to ride a motorcycle. As he almost crashed it the first time he tried, he subsequently never rode the motorcycle during the series.[39]
By the middle of the second season in December 1974, "The Fonz" began his transition as a breakout character when he was featured as the central protagonist in the episode, "Guess Who's Coming to Christmas".[5] By the third season, he became the lead of the series, as the storylines shifted away from the original protagonist, Richie Cunningham, to "The Fonz". Winkler recalled in a 2018 interview that he directly addressed the issue with Ron Howard, who portrayed Cunningham. According to Winkler, Howard told him that although he "was signed on as the star, you did nothing except be as good as you could be. It's good for the show, we're friends."[5] In 2021, Howard reiterated these points by stating that Winkler had been "sort of a big brother" to him.[50]
In a 2018 interview with Winkler, journalist Michael Schneider suggests that it was at this point that the character "became the biggest icon on television" at that time.[5] Winkler responded by stating that he "went from somebody who had no sense of self" to a situation that was "scary".[5] He has also admitted that while he shares some characteristics with "The Fonz" such as loyalty to friends and an undercurrent of anger that he drew from his struggles with school as a child,[39] they were fundamentally different from one another.[3][51]
In addition, Winkler starred in An American Christmas Carol (1979),[57] and served as a co-host for the Music for UNICEF Concert (1979).[58] He also appeared as "Fonzie" on Sesame Street to promote the letter "A" (ayyyy), later recalling that it was "the only time I ever appeared as the Fonz on something else. I had a strict rule about that, but they asked me and it was my pleasure."[59]
Post Happy Days
After Happy Days ended in 1984, Winkler was typecast, and could not get acting roles until 1991.[60] He later stated that his "agent would put me out there and people would say, 'You know, he's great, he's a wonderful guy, really good actor. Funny, So funny. But he was the Fonz.'"[14][60] Winkler, who desired to be a working actor, felt "rudderless" during this period;[5][3][53] desiring to continue a presence in the industry,[14] he started the production company Fair Dinkum Productions in the late 1970s. The name fair dinkum was taken from Australian English slang, meaning something is "honest" or "authentic".[53][61] In 1987, he inked a new feature film and development pact with the studio.[61]
In 1996, he appeared in his friend Wes Craven's 1996 film Scream as foul-mouthed high school principal Arthur Himbry.[41] His role was uncredited, however, as the producers were concerned that he would only be seen as The Fonz, and thus distract from the film. After the screening, he received positive feedback for his role and was subsequently asked to participate in the publicity campaign for Scream.[41]
Winkler worked on a few projects with his longtime friend, actor John Ritter, whom he first met in 1978 at ABC's 25th anniversary party, when Winkler was still on Happy Days, and Ritter was Jack Tripper on the television series Three's Company.[41][83] He directed Ritter in the 1986 television movie A Smoky Mountain Christmas starring Dolly Parton,[84] and in 1993, they co-starred in the made-for-television movie, The Only Way Out.[85]
Later in 1999, Neil Simon gave Winkler the chance to be involved with his first theatrical production since 1973, when he asked him to do a read-through of The Dinner Party. Given the problems he had with cold-readings, Winkler initially panicked.[21][41] However, he asked for the script in advance in order to memorize it, and managed to get through the reading. Simon eventually contacted Winkler again, and asked him to be in the theatrical version he was staging, to which Winkler agreed.[41] He was also excited to be working with Ritter again.[41] Although their initial debut was not well-received, they were invited to perform the play in Washington, D.C. with a few casting changes, and it received positive reviews. The play then moved to Broadway, and again received positive reviews.[19][40][86]
In September 2003, he was slated for a guest appearance on Ritter's show, 8 Simple Rules. However, during the filming of the episode, Ritter became ill and had to be taken to the hospital, dying hours later.[41] The episode was never completed, and Winkler's role was dropped.[83][87][88]
Arrested Development is known for its "inside jokes".[92] In three episodes of the 2013 reboot, Winkler's son Max portrayed "young Barry Zuckerkorn" in flashbacks.[92] In addition, there were a number of references to Happy Days, such as in the season three episode "Forget-Me-Now", where Scott Baio joined the cast as the potentially new lawyer Bob Loblaw, stating, "look, this is not the first time I've been brought in to replace Barry Zuckerkorn." Vulture argues that this statement is "a nod to Happy Days, where [Baio] was brought on as Chachi, to be a new teen idol as Henry Winkler got older".[93] In addition, Barry's "hopping" over the shark on the pier in "Motherboy XXX" is a reference to Jon Hein's phrase jumping the shark. Hein coined the phrase in 1985, in response to a 1977 Happy Days episode in which Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water skis.[94][93]
2003–2019: Hank Zipzer
Winkler's career as an author began with the Hank Zipzer series of children's books about the adventures of a dyslexic child, which he co-wrote with Lin Oliver.[5] During the early 2000s, when Winkler experienced "a lull in [his] acting career",[5] his manager Alan Berger suggested that he write children's books about the difficulties he experienced as a child before he knew that he was dyslexic.[95] Winkler was resistant to the idea until Berger suggested that Winkler co-write the books with an experienced author.[95]
Berger introduced Winkler to Oliver, and the two met for lunch and created the character of Hank Zipzer.[95] Winkler chose the name Hank from the nickname for Henry, and Zipzer from the name of a neighbor in the apartment building that he grew up in.[96] Winkler and Oliver's writing process, which involved developing ideas during in-person discussions, drew upon their mutual background in television.[95] According to Winkler, the system drew upon his strengths as an actor, allowing him to work through ideas out loud.[97][98]
The original series spanned 17 books, published from 2003 to 2010.[20][18][79] Following that, Winkler and Oliver wrote a prequel series, Here's Hank (2014 to 2019), which explores Hank's life as a second-grader before he was diagnosed as dyslexic.[95][99][100] The Here's Hank series uses a dyslexic-friendly font called Dyslexie, marking the first time that this font was used in a book published in the United States.[101][95][97]
Winkler and Oliver also created the television adaptation Hank Zipzer, which ran for three seasons, from 2014 to 2016. The series appeared on the children's BBC Channel, as they could not find an American buyer for it.[102] After the series was successful on the BBC, it was broadcast on the Universal Kids Channel in the United States.[103][102] Winkler played the music teacher Mr. Rock, who was based a teacher at McBurney who encouraged Winkler.[99][104] They also produced the 2016 stand-alone television film Hank Zipzer's Christmas Catastrophe.[105]
Winkler was the focus of the Season 2 episode "Berlin: How Do You Say Roots in German?" as the group explored the city from which his parents escaped in 1939.[6][121] The journey culminated at the site of a brass memorial plaque, known as a stolperstein, embedded in the pavement in front of the workplace and home of his uncle, Helmut Winkler.[3][6][121][122] The discovery came as a complete surprise to Winkler, as Jeff Dye had secretly enlisted the help of Winkler's children, who planned the surprise.[6][121]
2018–2023: Barry
When Bill Hader developed the HBO comedy Barry with Alec Berg, he asked HBO if they could "get" Winkler for the part of acting teacher Gene Cousineau. According to Hader, he was "out of [his] mind" when HBO told him that Winkler was coming to audition for the role.[79][123][124] In addition, Winkler's son Max, who is a director, helped him to prepare for this audition.[89][123][125]
Work for the first season of Barry began in 2016.[126] Winkler has noted parallels between Barry and his time on Happy Days. He "was 27 when I did the Fonz, and now, I'm 72. I just flipped the numbers."[125] In his role as Cousineau, he wears Garry Marshall's tie as "a tribute to my mentor".[34] Cousineau was originally written to be "much darker, much colder—really cynical", but after Winkler added his own insight,[124] the character became more affectionate.[125] Portraying Cousineau allowed Winkler to draw upon decades of experience with acting teachers.[123][125] Winkler continued his lifelong habit of improvising when he forgot his lines, something he has "done my whole career—except I drove Bill mad".[5][123][125]
Winkler states that during his lifetime, he has worked with "five directing geniuses": Garry Marshall (Happy Days), Adam Sandler, Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development), Bill Hader and Alec Berg (Barry).[60]
After portraying Fonzie on Happy Days, Winkler evolved into a character actor,[5] with roles that include the high school principal Arthur Himbry in Scream, Coach Klein in The Waterboy, Barry Zuckerkorn in Arrested Development, Sy Mittleman in Childrens Hospital, Dr. Saperstein in Parks and Recreation, Mr. Rock in the Hank Zipzer BBC series, Eddie R. Lawson in Royal Pains, Fritz in Monsters at Work, Uncle Joe in The French Dispatch, Al Pratt in Black Adam, and Gene Cousineau in Barry. He is also the recipient of a Primetime Emmy,[54] two Golden Globe Awards,[52] two Critics Choice Awards,[130][131] and two Daytime Emmys.[63][132]
Philanthropy
Henry Winkler's video for COVID-19 relief fund, posted from the office of the Government of California (May 7, 2020).
Winkler met Stacey (formerly Weitzman; née Furstman) in a Beverly Hills clothing store in 1976,[19] and they married in 1978,[7] in the synagogue where he had his bar mitzvah.[19] They have two children, Max and Zoe,[19] and Jed Weitzman, Stacey's son from her previous marriage to Howard Weitzman, is Winkler's stepson.[19]
In 2018, almost 80 years after his parents had left Germany, Winkler returned to Berlin for the television show Better Late Than Never and shared their story on the Season 2 episode "Berlin: How Do You Say Roots in German?"[3][6][121]
Winkler continues to remain close with members of the Happy Days cast, telling the Hollywood Reporter in November 2021 that "I loved the people. They are still my friends."[34]
Dyslexia
Winkler speaking about his experiences with dyslexia in 2013
During his time on Happy Days, Winkler realized that he was dyslexic after his stepson Jed was diagnosed with a learning disability.[3][21][137] Previously, Winkler had known that aspects of reading and memorizing were difficult for him, but not why. He had developed coping mechanisms that allowed him to mask the difficulties he had with cold-reading scripts.[137] He later recalled that prior to learning about dyslexia, he frequently embarrassed himself in front of his fellow cast members as he would "stumble at least once or twice a paragraph".[18]
Additional books and legacy
Winkler's 2011 memoir I've Never Met an Idiot on the River explores his interest in fly fishing.[138] The next year, he and his writing partner Lin Oliver created the Ghost Buddy book series (2012–2013), about the friendship between the protagonist Billy and a "ghost buddy".[139]
A few years later they wrote the science fiction trilogy Alien Superstar (2019–2021).[43][79][98] The adventures of Alien Superstar's protagonist are loosely based on Winker's own experiences after arriving in Los Angeles.[140]
Winkler released a new memoir, Being Henry: The Fonz...and Beyond in October 2023.[141] He also began a new series of children's books with Lin Oliver in 2023 called Detective Duck.[142]
The Fonz and Hank Zipzer
TV Guide ranked "The Fonz" as No. 4 on its "50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time" list in 1999,[143] and a 2001 poll conducted by Channel 4 in the UK ranked him as 13th on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters.[144]
[For] kids growing up in the 1970s, there was one, absolute model of cool—not James Dean or Marlon Brando, but The Fonz.
Winkler would eventually be recognized for contributing to a greater understanding of dyslexia through the Hank Zipzer series. He was given the Key to the City of Winnipeg for "contributions to education and literacy" in 2010,[151] was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to children with special educational needs and dyslexia in the UK" by Queen Elizabeth in 2011,[152][153] was named one of the United Kingdom's Top 10 Literacy Heroes in 2013,[154] and was awarded the Bill Rosendahl Public Service Award for Contributions to the Public Good for his children's books in 2019 by the Los Angeles Press Club.[155]
Winkler, Henry (2011). I've Never Met an Idiot on the River: Reflections on Family, Photography and Fly-Fishing. Insight Editions. ISBN978-1-608-87020-2. OCLC1132359326.
Winkler, Henry (2023). Being Henry: The Fonz ... and Beyond. Celadon Books. ISBN978-1250888099.
^Blevis, Mark (January 21, 2008). "Interview with Henry Winkler". Just One More Book!!. Archived from the original on April 18, 2015. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
^Rooney, David (November 14, 2012). "Theatre Review: The Performers". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 6, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
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