Even though he is 80, Happy Days’ actor Henry Winkler isn’t yet retired yet. He discusses his hearth-robbing days and the upcoming TV show coming up next month in the Mirror.
He was playing a teenager but by the time he had finished starring as The Fonz in Happy Days, Henry Winkler was 37. Joking as if he were a zoo specimen, Henry, 80 today, says: “I was the oldest teenager in captivity!”
The Fonz-like swagger that made teenage hearts flutter in the US sitcom – which ran from 1974 to 1984 – is still present as he presents a quirky new Sky History show.
In Perilous Play, the first of eight episodes of Hazardous History starting on November 17, he examines shocking everyday activities and products that were once considered normal.
Winkler asks, “Did you know that a science kit was once used by children to play with radioactive material?” Do you recall playgrounds before safety standards? or when a blow torch was included with the newest toy?
We’ll never see these things again because we used to do them for fun, money, or perhaps out of boredom. They were they a threat, right? Yes . Deadly ? Occasionally . But boy, did it not excite you?
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The 60-foot enclosed waterslide in New Jersey with a 360-degree loop that would spit injured children out was one of the now-banned pastimes. Many children were trapped in a vehicle and needed to be rescued, while others suffered injuries like broken teeth. After a month, The Loop shut down.
A 1950s Atomic Energy Kit with uranium ore enabled kids to create their own miniature mushroom cloud. Production stopped after a year because it was still dangerous for children and cost the same as £450 today.
When using the first rollercoaster in America, which turned upside down, things were much worse in the 1880s. In 1880, Coney Island’s first-ever Flip Flap Railway station was built. It had to travel 45 mph for the entire loop to pass. When they went loop de loop, it didn’t quite make it, Whinkler claims. No safety bars or harnesses were present. People jumped out of the vehicles. You only once rode it!
Although Winkler believes children today are much safer, they may not be having as much fun. He says: “The younger generation, in my estimation, is missing out on using a lot of their imagination, on flexing those muscles. Everything is done for them now and you can Google yourself into oblivion these days.”
Winkler is a definite no-favor of AI, despite the fact that he is a major fan of the increasingly technology-dependent era. He asserts that “AI may be great in some medical discoveries, but eventually it will turn against the human being.” A Space Odyssey movie star asks the computer, “hey, would you open the door?” He replies, “I don’t believe so, Dave.” That’s how I see AI.
When asked if there was anything genuinely unsettling he had discovered while making Hazardous History, Winkler laughs. He claims that because a citrus soda was laced with lithium, it had the tagline “we will take the edge off” in 1927.
Despite a sizable body of acting in series like Law &, Order Special Victims Unit, and numerous other movies, Winkler’s most notable role was unquestionably that of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, who had the catchy phrase “ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! He replies, “I auditioned for The Fonz twice. My unibrow was removed, which I recall was very painful. They wanted a large Italian and a small Jew.
He became a household name after only a few lines in the first episode, making producers even offer to rename the series Happy Days With The Fonz or give him a new name. However, Winkler was content with the situation at hand.
In Grease, he turned down the role of Danny Zuko, which John Travolta had given him during his Happy Days run. He says, “I don’t know if turning down Grease was a wise decision because John Travolta bought a plane and I went home and had a 7UP.”
However, wonderful things did occur. In a Beverly Hills clothing store where Stacey Weitzman was the publicist, he met her. He calls her “a beautiful woman.” In 1978, they wed. He and his stepsons, Max and Zoe, both in their 40s, and seven grandchildren, Jed, from Stacey’s previous marriage, and their son, Max. Winkler struggled to leave typecasting and became a producer after earning the role of the recognizable Fonzie.
He claims that the 1990s were a lull in his career. However, with the release of Waterboy and Adam Sandler in 1998, he and Sandler established a successful partnership and friendship that they shared. He jokes, “Adam is now my relative.”
And he reprised his role in Barry Zuckerkorn, a competent attorney, in Ron Howard’s production of Happy Days in 2003. My Emmy Award went to Barry, and I took home. That is something that is constantly being discussed. It’s “Barry, Barry!” everywhere I go. “he says.
He was involved in helping finance Ron’s 1982 Golden Globe-nominated role in the Hollywood classic Night Shift, which he played Chuck. Winkler, the godfather of his pal’s four children, declares Ron and I to this day as very close friends. I had happy times and beautiful lifelong friendships thanks to Happy Days.
He continues to say, “He presented me with this idea of a show that’s not a cop show. ” All I can say is that! He does show some signs of age, even though his career is not slowed down. My knees are very clear about what it means to walk downstairs, Winkler says.
He has mentioned having to deal with dyslexia, a condition that lasts forever. You don’t lose it, but you learn to negotiate it, he says. Every young person has a lot of power, and you need to use it to achieve your goals. I was eight years old when I was growing up in New York, and I still have that dream. Never consider myself to be 80. I simply believe that I am having the best of times.
Source: Mirror
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