Alex Carson
Henry Winkler, the 75-year-old actor best known for his role as Arthur ‘Fonzie’ Fonzarelli on ABCs Happy Days seems to have been doing a great deal of soul-searching in the last few months. But it’s not his soul that he has been reflecting on. It’s the soul of the United States of America that Winkler is most concerned about.
On Saturday, July 3rd, Winker shared a Tweet expressing his belief that the US is currently so divided that it’s going to need some seriously drastic incident to happen in order for the country to unite. He said that only a ‘cataclysmic event’ could make us depend on one another once again.
While it’s very understandable why Winkler might feel this way considering the current socio-political climate. Some of Winkler’s followers and other users of the social media platform think that he isn’t giving enough respect to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, one user that goes by the handle BigLeeBronzer, says that the pandemic is exactly the kind of ‘cataclysmic event’ that Winkler says the country needs. In reply, Winkler responded by saying that the Pandemic only ‘pushed the world inside, creating a world apart’.
A pretty sarcastic reply, a podcaster and writer Named Shiv Ramdas criticized Winkler’s comments by comparing them to statements made by a character from the graphic novel, The Watchman.
In it, he reminded Winkler how ‘millions of people’ have already died as a result of the ongoing pandemic. Ramdas then asked Winkler just ‘how cataclysmic’ he was aiming for with his post. He then informed the actor that he is starting to give off ‘some serious Adrian Veidt vibes’ as he put it. Referencing the costumed former crime-fighter and villain, Ozymandias, from Alan Moore’s graphic novel series.
Ozymandias, in case you didn’t know, was the one that ended up decimating the world’s population to save the world at large.
The day before Winkler made his now-viral ‘cataclysm tweet. He also shared a vague yet clearly irate thought on the platform.
On July 2nd, Winkler made a post saying that ‘if there is no accountability then his anger will become ‘unmanageable’. It’s not exactly clear what he was talking about but one can infer that it probably has something to do with current events. Obviously, something is happening in the world today that is greatly upsetting Winkler. What that might be specifically, however, is anybody’s guess.
Winkler’s fans tried to cheer him up a bit. One user even sent him a picture of an adorable dog in a meadow. The pic must have had at least some kind of effect on Winkler’s disposition because he gave the fan a reply with a sincere – albeit brief. Response praising the dog for having a ‘loving face’.
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Henry Winkler’s 30 Year Feud With Tom Hanks
While we’re not entirely sure what’s got Henry Winkler in such a lousy mood as of late. For the last three decades he has called beloved actor Tom Hanks his enemy. The two stars have been feuding for years, but why? Hanks is one of the most well-loved celebrities in the world. What could he have possibly done to end up on Henry Winkler’s bad side?
Henry Winkler and Tom Hanks have been quietly feuding since 1989. The two were working on Truner and Hooch at the time with Hanks in the lead role and Winkler behind the camera. Both entertainers are two of the most universally loved celebrities in the world and have for quite some time. It’s nearly impossible to find anyone saying anything bad about either of them – that is except for each other.
The feud recently referenced during an interview and Winkler tried to act like he didn’t understand what the question was referring to. While Winkler never mentioned Hanks by name, it’s still pretty obvious who he was talking about.
Talking about the production on Turner and Hooch, Winkler complained that he had directing the film for just 13 days when he called into the producer Jeff Katzenberg’s office. And told to pack his things and go home. Hanks was already a star in 1989, but he wasn’t nearly as big as he is today. But even so, he still had quite a bit of pull back then. It’s rumored that Winkler held up production on the film over shooting locations. Which led to Hanks complaining to the producers.
While it’s never confirmed that Hank’s actions directly led to Winkler being fired, it sure looks like that’s what went down,
In 2014 Winkler sat down for an interview with Howard Stern. In it, he neglected to mention the movie or actor that he’s referring to but he did say that an actor that he once worked with threatened to walk from a project if he’s not removed.
When he asked about the situation in 1993 Winkler quipped that he got along better with Hooch than he did with Turner.
Tom Hanks has never publicly addressed the Turner and Hooch situation, but to be fair. It probably doesn’t keep him up at night. Hanks and Winkler worked together previously on an episode of Happy Days where ironically the Fonz and Hanks’ character had a long-standing feud going all the way back to grade school.
The two characters end up getting into a tussle although it’s really only Hanks’ character that does any of the actual fighting. He bust out some fancy Karate moves but all the Fonz did was walks away. And lets Hanks tire himself out.
It might not be directly relevant. But It’s believed that Ron Howard selected Hanks to play the lead in his film Splash after watching his performance on Happy Days.
Tom Hanks might not even be aware that this feud has been going on for as long as it has. At the end of the day, it could very well one-sided. But regardless of anything, let’s just hope that Winkler and Hanks can find a way to patch up their friendship. And let bygones be bygones as it were.
While Turner and Hooch might have a box office success in 1989. It definitely isn’t remembered as one of the best movies of all time. And it’s not even close to being one of Hanks’ best works, so perhaps Winkler is in the clear now.
Henry Winkler Has Struggled With Dyslexia For Years
While Henry Winkler has wrestling with his political views and his relationships with other Hollywood stars. He’s also had an invisible battle that he’s battling for many years now.
In his best-selling children’s book series Here’s Hank, the main protagonist is a dyslexic kid named Hank Zipzer. Winkler, who has dyslexia himself. Pulled from his own experiences while writing the series with the help of author Lin Oliver.
Winkler told NPR’s Michel Martin that he never dreamed that one day he would have his name on a book. When he was younger, he shared that he always thought that he was just stupid. People around him called him as such enough times that eventually he started believing it.
Winkler wasn’t aware that he had a learning disability until he was 31 years old. That’s when he got his stepson tested and evaluated for dyslexia. When his results came back, Winkler made the profound realization that he wasn’t stupid as he believed for so many years – nor was he lazy. What he had was something real – something that had a name.
The discovery came as a relief to him but it brought up some anger as well. As a young student, Winkler’s mother and father would often blame his underachievement on laziness that could simply be remedied by engaging in long hours of study.
Winkler claims that because of his diagnosed learning disability he spent the majority of his high school years grounded.
But it was because of those early trials and hardships that Winkler found motivation not only to succeed but to also appreciate his differences enough to write a book to help educate others. His struggles gave him the will to keep fighting. It instilled within him an understanding that there is not just one road to take you where you want to go. Everyone has their own unique path to follow.
After High School, Winkler went on to pave his own road for many years with the help of improv and memorization. Through those two things he was able to appear as if he was keeping up with his peers.
His reading disorder would increase the pressure that he would feel during auditions. He would memorize his lines as quickly as he could because he was incapable of reading the page and acting at the same time. So he improvised the rest, but when they told him that he’s not doing what written on the page. He replied by saying that he was giving them the ‘essence of the character’.
Humor proved to be another crucial coping mechanism that Winkler would use to combat his struggles. For years, he embarrassed by the fact that he couldn’t read what was on the page. So, he turned to humor to cover all the mistakes that he would make. At the time, he had no clue that something was wrong. He would just frequently trip over words and everybody around him would tolerate it.
Now that he knows exactly what he suffers from, Winkler has used his books to account for the many nuances of dyslexia. The condition can look very different for different people. For some sufferers, dyslexia impedes their ability to read, write and do math while other people end up writing backwards. With these unique challenges in mind, Winkler’s books contain ample white space on each page. And they are written in a special font created by Dutch designer Christian Boer to improve legibility for the dyslexic brain.
Winkler’s Parents Barely Escaped The Nazis
Henry Winkler may very well not even have been born if it weren’t for the fact that his parents narrowly escaped the Nazis back in World War II. Six years before he was born in Manhattan, his parents were German Jews living in Nazi Germany. It was 1939 and the greatest calamity to ever befall upon mankind was about to engulf the European continent. The second world war, when all things said and done, would claim the lives of 70 to 85 million people. Fortunately, Henry Winkler’s parents weren’t among those who lost their lives.
One day, Winkler’s father, Harry Irving Winkler, informed his wife, Anna Marie, that they were leaving Berlin on a business trip to the United States. But what he didn’t tell her was that they were never coming back.
His parents realized that their homeland was turning against people of their ethnic heritage. The streets overrun with Hitler’s Brownshirts who openly attacked the Jewish people. They knew that they had no future there if they stayed. So they escaped in just the nick of time.
Unfortunately, Henry’s uncle, Helmut, wasn’t so lucky. The day that Winkler’s parents fled the country, Helmut decided to stick around for another day to pick up a custom suit that he had commissioned tailored for himself. That evening he seized by the Nazis and taken away to a concentration camp. It was there that he eventually lost his life.
Henry Winkler is a remarkably complex and nuanced individual. While the majority of people probably just associate him with his iconic role on Happy Days. There is so much more about his life story that deserves to recognized. Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed learning a bit more about the former Arrested Development alum with us. Who knew that he had such a multifaceted and captivating back story?
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