'I called Paul McCartney 17 times. He never returned a single call'

It’s an interesting metaphor for the man who, it transpires, spent most of his life pretending, trying to cover up rampant insecurity and relying upon invention and artifice to get by. And thankfully, it’s the honesty in the actor that sets him apart, promising to offer an enthralling evening to a live audience in Edinburgh where he will talk about his life and highly complicated times.

Henry Winkler is prepared to tell it as it was. And right from his early days growing up in New York, we learn that little Henry had a battle on his hands. Harry Winkler, a German-Jewish lumber merchant, escaped Nazi Germany for America in 1939, realising his family would almost certainly be murdered (the relatives who stayed behind were indeed killed). Not surprisingly, Harry had high hopes for his family. But Henry struggled badly at school. Perhaps if dyslexia had been diagnosed at the time, Harry wouldn’t have labelled the little boy ‘dummer hund’, or ‘dumb dog.’ Or perhaps when his dad arrived home and felt the top of the TV warm (a sure indicator Henry had been watching rather than studying) he would have cut his son a little slack, rather than beat him.

Henry Winkler (Image: free)

The actor however doesn’t character assassinate his parents; rather, he explains their behaviour. “What I now know, as a parent, as a grandparent, (he laughs) – as a dog owner – is that a lot of those old mores were damaging because the child carries around this self-doubt or the feeling of not being good enough. For me, the sense of not being good enough was ever present.”

Interestingly, Henry Winkler would go on to defy his dyslexia and write three very successful children’s books, which has resulted in him talking to lots of little people.

“I go into lots of schools, and what I do is ask the class ‘Does everyone know what they are great at?’ And every child has an answer. You see, our job is to let them meet their greatness.”

Harry Winkler saw greatness for his son in the lumber business. The teenage Henry Winkler however determined to become an actor. Was it about an early escape into a world of performance? “You know, for the longest time I didn’t realise I was making an escape. My thoughts of becoming a working actor, of being able to work and put food on the table was so intense. It was only later (via therapy) I realised that my not being seen as a child may well have been part of the process.”

He adds; “When I was playing the class clown in school what I was doing was covering up all my foibles, my learning challenges and using improv to get me through that part of my life.”

On leaving school, Winkler applied to 28 drama colleges, with most rejecting him. Eventually he landed places at Emerson College and then Yale School of Drama. “You have to tackle the challenges, with tenacity,” he says. “It’s the only way to live.”

Did the tenacity emerge because of, or in spite of, being crushed by his parents? “I think it was in spite of. When I speak to people I always say ‘The child comes fully blown – and presents who they are. It’s up to the parents then to make sure they meet their destiny.”

Graduating in 1970, Winkler revealed an incredible determination to land a series of theatre plays, while also making a living appearing in commercials. In 1973 however, his agent coaxed the then 28-year-old into moving to Los Angeles to try his luck.

“The move scared the hell out of me,” admits the actor. “By this time, I was fighting two forces inside me. The first was ambition, telling me I really wanted to do this. The second was saying to me ‘Don’t kid yourself, Henry. They’re never going to let you do this. You’re not even tall enough. You’re not good enough. What the f*** are you doing?’”

Winkler couldn’t see how he could survive in the jungle that was Hollywood. “I wasn’t even talking about the cutthroat side of Hollywood; I wasn’t looking at that yet. I’m talking about this dense rainforest. How do you even get through it? You need a machete.”

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Incredibly, after landing a small part in the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Winkler’s second week in Tinseltown saw a major opportunity appear in the form of a new Fifties pastiche sitcom, Happy Days, starring former child star, Ron Howard.

Former Monkee Micky Dolenz also auditioned. And Winkler heard that Dustin Hoffman was also interested. Did this help, a little, knowing that Hoffman wasn’t the tallest actor in town? “No, as a matter of fact, I said to my agent ‘If Dustin is going up for it, I’m not even going in because I don’t have a shot.”

Winkler did audition. And in the process set himself apart from the hundreds of other wannabe Fonzies. Although the part was small, Henry Winkler refused to play the Fonz as a stereotypical Fifties greaser. So, he implemented certain character quirks in his approach. “One of them was that I was never going to comb my hair,” Winkler says. “In the script, it said ‘Fonzie’s going to comb his hair.’ So, I went to the mirror and realized I didn’t have to because my hair was already perfect.”

Henry Winkler says the character emerged once he came up with the voice. “Olivier liked to use a putty nose to get into character. I used my imagination.”

By Season 2 however, the show wasn’t performing too well, and ABC decided a shakeup was necessary to reverse a ratings slump. For the first time, the episode’s central character was going to be Fonzie; Fonz shocks everyone by announcing that he’s getting married – then Mr Cunningham recognizes the would-be Mrs. Fonzie as a stripper he encountered at a convention in Chicago, so Fonzie ends the engagement, and everything goes back to normal. Incredibly, the audience loved Arthur’s story and ratings rocketed. But Ron Howard wasn’t happy. He wrote later; “I was being marginalised by my own show.”

It was a feeling that would lead him to leave the series in its seventh season, while Winkler stuck it out to the finale. Was Henry Winkler aware there was resentment to his success?

Henry Winkler as the Fonz (Image: free)

“Yes,” he admits. “It is only normal that the other actors would shake their heads and go ‘Oh, what is this!’ But over the years they have admitted to me that I never pulled rank, I never overstepped myself, and the Fonz was good for the show. So, my success was helping everybody, including me.”

Did he and Ron Howard (who would go on to become a directorial giant, with films such as Apollo 13 and Splash) eventually make up?

“Ron and his wife and our children and grandchildren were all at our dining room table, at New Year,” he reveals. “He spoke of Happy Days and said that my (Fonzie’s) success hurt his feelings. But he said ‘Look, I know you were making the show better.’ It was really touching.”

There was an even more touching moment. “At one point, Ron told me of his plans to move East. But he said to me, ‘Henry, if anything happens to us will you look after the children?’ And he added, smiling, ‘You can bar mitzvah them if you want.’ I said, grinning; ‘You know I will.’”

During the Happy Days era, Ron Howard directed Henry Winkler in Nightshift, an under-praised gem of a mortuary comedy in which he starred with Michael Keaton. (Winkler broke with Happy Days type by playing a soft-spoken Richie Cunningham like virginal character.) But Henry Winkler’s lack of natural confidence revealed itself in his relationship with Keaton, who is said to have ignored his co-star.

“What happens in a movie shoot is you’re together for six months, and I then assumed we’d go on to have dinner, meet up on occasion. But it didn’t happen, and it hurt my feelings. But the lesson I learned from that was that people go about their busy lives. We’re just vagabonds. And then we meet again and work together and we’re back in it. But it was my immaturity, lack of understanding that this is the way the world turns.”

The divided self that saw Henry Winkler terrified of Hollywood saw him even more lost after Happy Days ended in 1984. Casting directors couldn’t see past the actor as the Fonz. Not surprisingly, Winkler turned down the role of Danny Zuko in Grease.

“I had no idea what to do next. By now I was married (he and Stacey had met in a store in 1976) and had three children, but I couldn’t get hired. My brain hurt. I was in psychic pain.”

There were times when he would spend all day waiting for the phone to ring. “I would call my agents and say, ‘Nothing?’, and they would say, ‘Nothing’, and I would be this ball of fear and sadness. I can’t explain the pain I felt in my brain at the time from not having a plan B. For about a year that continued, until my lawyer said he would start a company for me. And I was again scared out of my mind because I don’t know business. So, I had to learn to be a producer, moving into directing.”

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How did he keep his calm when directing the enormous bully that was Burt Reynolds (in 1993 film Cop and a Half)? “The first time I met him, in his Florida house, was at a party for the production people. Burt walked down the big stairs and the first thing he said to me was ‘Winkler, I just got off the phone with Ron Howard, (a co-producer) and he says I can fire you anytime you want!’”

Winkler grins. “I looked up at him and said, ‘Anytime, Burt. Just let me know because I’ve got my bag packed and another film to go to.’ And it shut him up.”

For the moment. “He would yell at me, throw bottles at my head. But the more he did that I just smiled.” He recalls how Reynolds consistently tried to make his life hell.

“He used to call me Thumper, the Disney bunny, because he could never get me angry.”

He grins. “Look, we’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead. But yeah, he was an asshole.”

Henry Winkler managed his Second Act in Hollywood. He began co-writing a series of successful children’s books. He landed roles in hit series such as the incompetent attorney Barry Zuckerkorn in Arrested Development.

Yet, the success has never been powerful enough to push aside the dummer hund assaults from his parents. That’s perhaps why he’s tried too hard to people please. Winkler once met Paul McCartney, for example, on a New York City Street, with the Brit legend passing his phone number on saying, ‘Let's hang out.’ The excited Winkler called McCartney ‘seven – or maybe 17 times’ left messages, all unreturned.

Henry Winkler talks to school children (Image: free)

A fragile ego? For sure. The actor once complained to ‘his saint of a wife’ that their daughter ‘really hurt my feelings.’ To which Stacey replied, ‘But Henry, she’s three.’ What does all this add up to? A man who’s vulnerable. But who has learned so much about himself and others over the years.

“Part of what I will talk about on stage is the need to put one foot forward, to say; ‘You will then be shocked at what can be accomplished.’ “I want to say that human beings are powerful. And you can’t let this power go unrecognised. Sure, there are times when you’ll be scared out of your mind, but you have to keep on going.”

He adds; “I am really grateful to be on the planet. But I figured to be authentically myself I finally had to discover what ‘really cool’ is. And that’s as close to being authentic as you can be.”

But of course being Fonzie is also ‘cool.’ Right? He laughs hard. “Yes. And I have done everything I’ve been able to do because of Fonzie.”

Henry Winkler appears at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, on Tuesday June 25