<\/p>\n
Henry Winkler<\/strong> was one of the biggest stars of the 1970s due to his iconic role on Happy Days. The actor played Arthur \u201dFonzie\u201d Fonzarelli for all 11 seasons of the ABC<\/a>sitcom<\/a>, from 1974 to 1984, and the leather-jacketed auto mechanic\u2019s tough guy \u2018tude became an essential part of the show.<\/p>\n But early on, Happy Days struggled in the ratings\u2014to the point that showrunner Garry Marshall <\/strong>sent Winkler and his co-stars on the road to promote the sitcom.<\/p>\n During a recent appearance on Ted Danson<\/a>\u2019s Where Everybody Knows Your Name<\/a> podcast, Winkler shared, “In the beginning, the show was not doing very well. Happy Days was not doing very well. There were 100 shows. We were 48th. And in that calculus, we were not doing well. So, they sent us out into the world. They sent us to different cities to make personal appearances.\u201d<\/p>\n Winkler recalled a fan event at the Neiman Marcus store in Dallas, Texas, where an unbelievable 25,000 fans showed up to meet the Happy Days cast, which included Ron Howard,<\/strong>Anson Williams, <\/strong>and Donny Most<\/strong>. The actor shared that the massive crowd blocked the path for him and his co-stars to get into their limousine. When Most (Ralph Malph on the show) expressed fears that the group would \u201cdie\u201d getting out of there, Winkler stepped into Fonzie mode, complete with his signature tough guy voice.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I have never used the Fonzie\u2019s character offscreen. I turned to Donny, and I saw his panic,\u201d Winkler said as he segued into his signature Fonzie voice. \u201cI said, \u2018I will take care of this.\u2019 And I just looked at the crowd, and I said, \u2018All right, listen up. A lot of you. Four of us. You are now going to part like the Red Sea.\u2019 I swear to God.\u201d<\/p>\n But the money didn\u2019t stop there. While the fans obeyed Winkler\u2019s command, one heckler decided to make a comment about Winkler\u2019s height. The actor is 5-foot-5.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started walking. Now somebody said, \u2018He’s so short,\u2019\u201d Winkler recalled. \u201cI turned to where I thought I heard it and I said, \u2018F— you. I’m not short!\u2019 Then somebody else yelled, \u2018He’s so cool.\u2019 And then we got in the car and left.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED: Henry Winkler Addresses Rumors That \u2018Laverne & Shirley\u2019 Stars Were a \u2018Nightmare\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Winkler may not have been the tallest of the Happy Days guys, but his commanding voice and naturally cool style made him the perfect choice for the role.<\/p>\n The actor was 27 years old and a graduate<\/a> of the Yale School of Drama when he auditioned for Happy Days. But Winkler initially wasn\u2019t sure he was right for the Fonzie role as he read lines with a man named Pascal.<\/p>\n \u201cI only have six lines. And I don\u2019t know where it came from\u2026 I changed my voice,\u201d Winkler shared on the IMO With Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson\u00a0podcast<\/a> earlier this year. \u201cI\u2019m looking at him. I\u2019m a scared short Jew. I\u2019m playing a tall Italian. I threw the script up in the air. I walked out of the room.\u201d<\/p>\n During an appearance on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?<\/a>, Winkler shared that while Happy Days producers originally envisioned Fonzie as “a taller Italian kid,\u201d he ultimately wowed them during his audition.<\/p>\n He was offered the part on his 28thbirthday<\/a>.<\/p>\n “They got you know, this short Jew from New York, but all I did was change my voice,” Winkler recalled. “I introduce myself as Henry, and then as I started to do it, something overtook me … And I changed my voice like this, and it unleashed me.”<\/p>\n Related: \u2018Happy Days\u2019 Star Thought His Career Was \u2018Over\u2019 After Hit Sitcom Ended<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade<\/a> on Jun 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Henry Winkler was one of the biggest stars of the 1970s due to his iconic role on Happy Days. The actor played Arthur \u201dFonzie\u201d Fonzarelli for all 11 seasons of the ABCsitcom, from 1974 to 1984, and the leather-jacketed auto mechanic\u2019s tough guy \u2018tude became an essential part of the show. But early on, Happy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2467534,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[347452,328110,347450],"class_list":["post-2467533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-fonzie","tag-happy-days","tag-henry-winkler"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Henry-Winklers-Hilarious-Response-to-Heckler-at-Happy-Days-Fan.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2467533"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2467535,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2467533\/revisions\/2467535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2467534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2467533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2467533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2467533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}