Henry Winkler: ‘Happy Days,’ ‘Barry’ changed my life

Actor Henry Winkler discusses how the '70s and '80s show “Happy Days,” in which he starred as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, and the more recent show “Barry,” in which he played Gene Cousineau, changed his life.

Video Transcript

ETHAN ALTER: You've been a presence in my life, certainly, for many years, growing up watching "Happy Days" reruns and things like that. And it's great to see you go on and do things like "Barry" and things like this, where you really see the full range of everything you can do. It's really--

HENRY WINKLER: I think both shows changed my life. "Happy Days," when I was 27, threw me onto the world stage. And it was shocking, but incredible.

I mean, and we just had an incredible dinner with Ron Howard, Cheryl, Bryce, who is our goddaughter, her husband, their children, my daughter, Zoe, her husband, their children, all at the same table. It took 50 years. I met Ron before he was married. I was at their wedding. His redheaded daughter was born months before my redheaded daughter.

I'm telling you, it was emotional. It was emotional. It was phenomenal.

Yesterday night I was in Chicago speaking at a fundraiser. And people all over the airport, every age, oh, "Barry" is so great! And oh, it just-- it was just wonderful. It's just a wonderful affirmation.

I don't think I have the language to tell you how meaningful, on so many levels, the people, the writing, the opportunity, the response. I'm telling you, it changed my life, like "Happy Days." People had no idea that this character was in me.

They will-- it surprised everybody. Maybe not everybody, but a lot of them, mostly, everybody. It surprised me that this acting teacher, Gene, was in me so completely.

I remember the first table read we had. I was sitting next to Sarah Goldberg, who played Sally, a student in my class. And I told her what I thought of her performance, reading the script. And I slammed the table.

I said, you're full of whatever. And the man, the head of HBO, jumped. And later he said to Bill Hader and Alec Berg, the creators, he said, I didn't know that was in Henry Winkler.