There are some aspects of the Fonz from Happy Days that you can easily recognize. Leather jacket, perfect hair, and that motorcycle that he loved driving. Remember when he quite literally jumped the shark with it? But according to star Henry Winkler, there is something he wasn’t necessarily the best at while playing the iconic character: riding his motorcycle. Winkler was speaking with PEOPLE about his new History Channel series, Hazardous History With Henry Winkler, when he began talking about his iconic Happy Days character.
Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli was the “bad boy” of the show and his motorcycle ended up becoming something of another limb for the character. So it is funny that Winkler was not really into the whole motorcycle part of the character. According to the actor, he struggled to figure out exactly how to ride the motorcycle and shared stories about how his dyslexia made it harder to learn how to ride on the iconic series. But also how his driving almost hurt everyone when filming the movie Heroes as well.
“I am so dyslexic. I couldn’t figure out what was the gas, what was the gear, what was the brake. And I nearly killed the head of cinematography on Happy Days,” he told PEOPLE. “In the movie Heroes, I raced a car around a track. I was surrounded by these wonderful stuntmen. I stepped on the brake too hard and spun out, and they all had to miss me.” But then Winkler said that it didn’t end well. “It wasn’t in the script. I did it by mistake, and they all screeched to a halt and ran over and said, ‘Do you understand that you could have just been killed?'”
Henry Winkler Himself Isn’t Jumping the Shark Anytime Soon
Despite the Fonz being willing to throw himself into danger, Winkler told the publication that he isn’t one to seek out the riskier things. “I am not a thrill seeker,” he said. He has done shows like Better Late Than Never, which has led him to explore new things his lastest series. “It’s just mind-blowing all the different subjects in every area,” Winkler said. “You could mail your child through the post office to his grandparents. One thing that so many people of the generation have mentioned to me as I talk to them are jarts [lawn darts]. Those land darts, the garden darts that you would throw high in the air, and they would land in your best friend’s foot.”
You can see Winkler on Happy Days.
Source: PEOPLE