Henry Winkler Hits Back at ‘Happy Days’ Insult

Henry Winkler said he still feels “cool” after his Happy Days character was insulted online.

Winkler played the cool greaser Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli—otherwise known as “The Fonz” or “Fonzie”—on all 11 seasons of the hit show, which ran from 1974 to 1984.

The 79-year-old actor took to X, formerly Twitter, to say he “can’t wait” to reunite with former cast mates Ron Howard, Anson Williams and Donny Most for a Happy Days reunion at MEGACON Orlando, a “large speculative fiction convention.” In response, someone retweeted his post to say, “Sorry Fonzie is no longer cool.”

Throughout his extensive career, Winkler has been dubbed the “nicest man in showbusiness” and the “essence of cool.” Because of this, some might expect Winkler to ignore the remark—but he proved he wasn’t going to take the criticism lying down.

Winkler reshared the man’s post and added: “I still feel so cool. Differences of opinion is neither hot or cold. Just human.”

Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Winkler for comment on Friday outside of normal business hours.

At the time of writing, the post had been viewed 1.3 million times, with many people commenting to share their support.

“The Fonz will be forever cool. Henry is a good guy, which is cool as well,” one person wrote.

“There are still some things we question and wonder about. But your coolness is empirical,” said another.

A third added: “You’re cool as heck Henry, and everybody loves you.”

This isn’t the first time that Winkler has dealt with criticism as he previously revealed he worked with an actor who was so mean that he told the Happy Days star he’d “rip” his head off.

During a previous episode of Kelly Ripa’s Let’s Talk Off Camera podcast, titled “Henry Winkler: Has Never Jumped the Shark,” the actor shared a story about the difficult person he worked with, but didn’t name names. He is evidently too cool to do that.

The episode title is a reference to a Happy Days episode in which Fonzie jumped over a shark while water-skiing. The phrase “jumping the shark” then became a way to describe shows that had gone past their peak, losing credibility by resorting to purely ratings-grabbing scenes.

On the podcast, Ripa asked the actor: “As, in my opinion, the nicest man in Hollywood, and certainly the nicest man in show business, when you’re dealing with somebody who is not nice—and in show business, there are a lot of not nice people—what is your approach for dealing with not nice people?”

Winkler said he treated those kinds of people as “sociological events,” adding: “Do not take it personally. I worked with an actor who called me ‘Thumper’ because he could not get me angry.

“I worked with an actor who was mean and overbearing, and no matter what he said to me—and he said to me at a moment in my working with him, ‘You are so lucky that you are short, or I would rip your head off your neck.’ And I said, ‘Let me say, I have never been so happy to be this short,'” he continued.