Why Playing Fonzie On Happy Days Was A Curse For Henry Winkler

Although Henry Winkler has starred in countless movies and TV shows over the course of his long career, for most viewers he will always be known as The Fonz. Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, the most popular character from the ’70s sitcom “Happy Days,” was the breakout role that made Winkler a household name. It was also the role that ruined his life. Well, sort of; as Winkler explained in a 2023 interview with TODAY, there were some downsides to playing such a beloved character, and that was before his character invented the concept of “jumping the shark.”

“There were eight or nine years at a time when I couldn’t get hired because I was ‘The Fonz,’ because I was typecast,” Winkler said. “I had psychic pain that was debilitating because I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where to find it, whatever it was, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had a family. I had a dog. I had a roof. Oh. My. God.”

Winkler said this during an interview for the TV show “Barry,” where he played an old washed-up actor, someone who couldn’t get any parts today but who still held some level of respect on account of a big role he had in his youth. The character’s life story isn’t identical to Winkler’s — at least, we sure hope not — but it adds some fun extra meta-humor to the whole series. “Barry” is a show that’s partially about how Hollywood is a cruel and unforgiving place that’s nevertheless easy to get addicted to; before it drove Barry and Sally off the deep end, it did the same to the Winkler’s character. 

Despite the frustration that comes with being typecast as the Fonz, Winkler clarified that he considers it all worth the trouble. “I would not have traded it,” he said. “Not only that but also, I don’t know that I would’ve gotten here if I hadn’t gone through the struggle.”

As someone who was born 14 years after the “Happy Days” finale aired, I can honestly tell Winkler that when I see him in a new show or film, I do not think of the Fonz at all. Sure, I know of the Fonz, and I’ve watched a few “Happy Days” episodes from time the time, but the character does not hold the same weight to me as it does to older viewers. When I first watched “Scream” and saw Henry Winkler playing the school principal, I appreciated his performance entirely for its own sake. 

By the time I watched “Barry,” I was more familiar with Winkler’s work, but I still was not comparing his performance to “Happy Days.” Younger generations can watch Winkler act without any burden of expectations, to appreciate the character of Gene Cousineau on his own terms. And when it came to playing Cousineau in “Barry,” which is arguably Winkler’s most impressive role since “Happy Days,” Winkler seemed deeply grateful for the opportunity. “I mourn that that show is over,” he once said in a 2023 interview. He recalled his first table read on the show:

“I remember the first reading. The head of HBO was at one end of the table and I’m sitting next to Sarah Goldberg, who plays this aspiring actor Sally, who I had to berate. So I yelled, ‘Bulls***! You just make me nauseous’ and I slapped that table, and the man at the end of the table jumped. Afterwards everyone said: ‘I had no idea that was in Henry Winkler.'”