Henry Winkler

Infobox actor


imagesize =
caption = Henry Winkler, September 1990
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1945|10|30
birthplace = Manhattan, New York
othername =
homepage =
academyawards =
emmyawards =
goldenglobeawards=
1977, 1978 "Happy Days"
spouse = Stacey Weitzman

Henry Franklin Winkler (born October 30, 1945) is an American Golden Globe Award winning actor, director, producer, and author.

Winkler is best known for his role as Fonzie on the popular 1970s American sitcom, "Happy Days". "The Fonz", a leather-clad greaser and auto mechanic, started out as a minor character at the show's beginning, but had achieved top billing by the time the show ended.

Biography

Personal life

Winkler was born in Manhattan, New York, the son of Ilse Anna Maria (née Hadra) and Harry Irving Winkler, a lumber company executive. [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/25/Henry-Winkler.html Henry Winkler Biography (1945-) ] ] Winkler's Jewish parents emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1939, before the beginning of World War II. [ [http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800016888/bio Henry Winkler Biography - Yahoo! Movies ] ] Winkler attended the McBurney School and received his bachelor's degree from Emerson College in 1967 and his MFA from the Yale School of Drama in 1970. In 1978, Emerson gave Winkler an honorary doctorate of humane letters. Winkler has also received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Austin College.

Winkler has been married to Stacey Weitzman since May 5, 1978, and they have two children, Zoe and Max, and a stepson Jed from Stacey's previous marriage with Howard Weitzman. Winkler's cousin, Richard Belzer, is also an actor.

Charitable works which he is involved with include Annual Cerebral Palsy Telethon, the Epilepsy Foundation, the annual Toys for Tots campaign, the National Committee for Arts for the Handicapped, and the Special Olympics.

Career

Winkler started acting by appearing in a number of television commercials. In October 1973, he was cast for the role of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli (usually nicknamed The Fonz or Fonzie) in the TV show "Happy Days". The show was first aired in January 1974. During his decade on "Happy Days", Winkler also starred in a number of movies, including "The Lords of Flatbush" (1974), playing a troubled Vietnam veteran in "Heroes" (1977), "The One and Only" (1978), and a morgue attendant in "Night Shift" (1982), which was directed by "Happy Days" co-star Ron Howard. Winkler was also one of the hosts of the 1979 Music for UNICEF Concert.

For "Happy Days", director/producer Garry Marshall originally had in mind a completely opposite physical presence. Marshall sought to cast an Italian model-type male in the role of Fonzie, intended as a stupid foil to the real star, Ron Howard. However, when Winkler, a Yale MFA student, interpreted the role in auditions, Marshall immediately snapped him up. According to Winkler, "The Fonz was everybody I wasn't. He was everybody I wanted to be." [ [http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200802/20080226/slide_20080226_350_107.jhtml Remarks to Oprah Winfrey] on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," original airdate February 26, 2008]

Winkler's character, though remaining very much a rough-hewn outsider, gradually became the focus of the show as time passed (in particular after the departure of Ron Howard), a testament to Winkler's acting and Marshall's foresight. Another interesting note about the character was his early appearance. ABC executives did not want to see the Fonz wearing leather, thinking the character would appear to be a criminal. The first 13 episodes show Winkler wearing two different kinds of windbreaker jackets, one of which was green. As Winkler said in a TV Land interview "It's hard to look cool in a green windbreaker". Marshall argued with the executives about the jacket. In the end, a compromise was made. Winkler could only wear the leather jacket in scenes with his motorcycle, and from that point on, the Fonz was never without his motorcycle.

After "Happy Days", Winkler's put his acting career on the back burner as he began concentrating on producing and directing.

In 1979 Winkler appeared in the made for TV movie "An American Christmas Carol", which was a modern remake of the Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol". "An American Christmas Carol" was set in Concord, New Hampshire during the Great Depression. Winkler played the role of Benedict Slade, the Ebenezer Scrooge equivalent of that film. He produced several television shows including "MacGyver", "So Weird" and "Mr. Sunshine", "Sightings", and the game shows "Wintuition" and "The Hollywood Squares" (the latter from 2002–2004 only). He also directed several movies including the Billy Crystal movie "Memories of Me" (1988) and "Cop and a Half" (1993) with Burt Reynolds.

As the 1990s continued, Winkler began a return to acting. In 1994 he returned to TV with the short lived right-wing comedy "Monty" on FOX which sunk in mere weeks. In 1994 also,he co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in the holiday TV movie "One Christmas" (her last film).

He is good friends with horror movie director Wes Craven and played an uncredited role as a high school principal in Craven's 1996 movie "Scream" (1996). In 1998, Adam Sandler asked Winkler to play a college football coach, a supporting role in "The Waterboy" (1998). He would later appear in three other Sandler films, "Little Nicky" (2000)where he plays himself and is covered in bees, and "Click" (2006, as the main character's father), and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008). He has also played small roles in movies such as "Down to You" (2000), "Holes" (2003), and "I Could Never Be Your Woman" (2007). During this time, he also starred in the short-lived Fox sitcom "Monty".

Winkler recently had a recurring role as incompetent lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn in the Fox Television comedy "Arrested Development". In one episode, his character hopped over a dead shark lying on a pier, a reference to his role in the origin of the phrase "jumping the shark". After that episode, Winkler in interviews stated that he was the only person to have "jumped the shark" twice.

When Winkler moved to CBS for one season to star in 2005–06's "Out of Practice", his role as the Bluth family lawyer on "Arrested Development" was taken over by "Happy Days" co-star Scott Baio in the fall of 2005, shortly before the acclaimed but Nielsen-challenged show ceased production.

Winkler has guest starred on television series such as "South Park", "The Practice", "The Simpsons" (playing a member of a biker gang, he in one scene calls Marge "Mrs. S", a reference to Fonzie calling "Happy Days" matriarch Marion Cunningham "Mrs. C"), "", "Third Watch", "Arrested Development", "Crossing Jordan", "Family Guy" and "King of the Hill". The Weezer video for 1994's "Buddy Holly" featured Henry Winkler as the Fonz and featured Weezer performing in Arnold's restaurant.

Winkler's most recent appearances were on KTTV's "Good Day L.A.". One time when substituting for Steve Edwards, Winkler reunited with fellow "Happy Days" cast member Marion Ross. Winkler appeared in his first pantomime at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London in 2006, playing Captain Hook in "Peter Pan", replacing David Hasselhoff who pulled out when he was offered a TV role by Simon Cowell. He reprised the role in Woking, England for Christmas 2007. Winkler made a cameo appearance in the band Say Anything's video for "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too". Winkler also has critically acclaimed guest appearances on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson".Fact|date=May 2008

Since 2003, Winkler has collaborated with Lin Oliver on a series of children's books about a 4th grade boy, Hank Zipzer, who is dyslexic. Winkler also has the learning disability, and said this was an [http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/3103 unhappy] part of his childhood Winkler has published 14 books about his hero Zipzer, the "world's greatest underachiever." [ [http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grpress/index.ssf?/base/entertainment-2/120504699222730.xml&coll=6 Grand Rapids Press] ]

Honors

*In 1996, Henry was selected to be the Class Day speaker at Yale University, an honor usually accorded to distinguished Yale alumni.
*On August 3, 2008, Henry was chosen to be the guest conductor at the Boston Pops by the Sea Concert in Hyannis, Massachusetts
*On August 19, 2008 Milwaukeeans paid homage to their home town hero and unveiled a life-sized, bronze statue of Fonzie along the city's Riverwalk. [ [http://www.wdtimes.com/articles/2008/08/16/news/news3.txt Artist ready for unveiling of 'Bronze Fonz] . Watertown Daily Times. August 16, 2008. About the statue and artist Gerald Sawyer, of Milford, Wisconsin.]

References

Bibliography

* "Niagara Falls or Does It?" #1 (2003)
* "I Got a D in Salami" #2 (2003)
* "The Day of the Iguana" #3 (2003)
* "Zippety Zinger" #4 (2003)
* "The Night I Flunked my Field Trip" #5 (2004)
* "Holy Enchilada!" #6 (2004)
* "Help! Somebody Get Me Out of the Fourth Grade!" #7 (2004)
* "Summer School! What Genius thought That Up?" #8 (2005)
* "The Secred Life of a Pinball Wizard" #9 (2005)
* "My Dog's A Scaredy-Cat" #10 (2006)
* "The Curtain Went Up, My Pants Fell Down." #11 (2007)
* "Barfing in the Backseat" #12 (2007)
* "Who Ordered This Baby? Definitely Not Me!" #13 (2007)
* "The Life of Me" #14 (2008)

External links

*imdb name|id=0001857|name=Henry Winkler
*ibdb name|id=74273|name=Henry Winkler
* [http://www.hankzipzer.com/ Hank Zipzer]
* [http://www.theambassadors.com/newwimbledon/sp_p2673.html Peter Pan Pantomime with Henry Winkler as Hook]
* [http://www.justonemorebook.com/2008/01/21/interview-with-henry-winkler Interview with Henry Winkler about dyslexia and the Hank Zipzer book series]