From the Fonz to Captain Hook
For the fifth time in eight years, Henry Winkler – indelibly associated with his most famous creation, Arthur ‘Fonzie’ Fonzarelli in global TV hit Happy Days – will be spending Christmas in the UK. He’s here again to bring us Captain Hook in the Richmond Theatre production of Peter Pan and he cannot wait. ‘It’s such fun,’ he says, ‘and such a privilege.’
Certainly, he takes it very seriously. Before each visit to these shores, Winkler drives up Topanga Canyon, high above the Pacific Ocean on California’s west coast, to sessions with his dialect coach. ‘I’m taught what I’d call approximate English,’ he says. Once here, the Lost Boys (and girls) take over. ‘They are the gatekeepers of my accent.’
In 2006 when he was first asked to essay the role in Wimbledon, he was nervous. ‘I’d be appearing on the outskirts of London. But was I up to the challenge? I could either play it safe and stay home or I could go on the ride of a lifetime.’ Winkler chose the ride.
‘And it has been the most exhilarating, the most demanding experience of my professional life. I’ve done regional theatre. I’ve played Broadway. But to deal with an auditorium of kids at a matinee takes every bit of concentration I can muster. And there are 12 two-hour shows a week. It requires huge discipline.’
Little wonder he chooses to spend Christmas alone (‘I’d be rotten company’); little wonder he sheds two inches from his waistline each visit.
This is his first time back in the UK as Captain Hook since Liverpool in 2009. ‘I grew up with The Beatles so it was a real thrill to perform there.’ With the exception of George, he met them all. ‘John brought his nine-year-old son, Julian, to the Happy Days set on one occasion. He struck me as a shy man until I happened to mention how much I liked his song, Mother, and then he opened up like a flower in the morning sun.’
Ringo also turned up one day in LA with Keith Moon, which must have made for a lively encounter. And then there was the occasion when Winkler was walking down Madison Avenue with his wife Stacey (they married in 1978) and who should be coming towards them but Paul Mc-Cartney. ‘We stopped, we chatted and then a woman came out of a florist’sand gave each of us a rose. “A Beatle and the Fonz,” she said, shaking her head. I don’t think she could quite believe it.’
Winkler and I meet in a diner in LA. At 68, even if his hair is now a snowy version of the Fonz’s luxuriant thatch, he’s instantly recognisable with that face-splitting smile and easy manner. Everyone loves Henry.
The huge aff ection in which he is held manifests itself in that very restaurant when a total stranger walks up to our table to tell him that he’s her favourite; that he’s brought her so much happiness. He must be used to this, heaven knows, but the effortless way in which he makes her feel special sends her off with the story of an encounter she will never tire of telling.
Henry Winkler (right) is Captain Hook and Dermot Canavan (left) plays Smee
Winkler and a partner have been writing children’s books for some years now, which is why he feels he understands a young audience. ‘In fact, this very day,’ he says, ‘my collaborator and I finished our 24th novel.’ Principal among those is his collection of Hank Zipzer books. And thereby hangs a tale.
Winkler didn’t know it at the time but, when he was growing up, he had the utmost difficulty in reading and learning to spell. His unforgiving immigrant parents, ambitious for their only son, regarded him as lazy and/or stupid. He was neither. Winkler suffers from severe dyslexia, something that he only discovered in his early 30s via his stepson Jed, who experienced similar diffi culties despite being smart in every other way.
‘Hank wouldn’t have existed,’ he says, ‘if I hadn’t struggled with what I now know is dyslexia. Every experience I had as a result of my struggle with reading has gone into a Hank adventure. So out of something bad has come something good.’
He co-wrote the first book in 2003. Now CBBC has been making a Hank Zipzer TV series in Halifax; it will be on-screen from January. ‘It’s mostly live action except when Hank’s brain gets confused and then it goes into animation. I get to play the music teacher, Mr Rock, based on the one person in my education who told me I was going to be OK. Everyone else told me I was going to fail.
‘I was in Halifax recently filming my scenes opposite Felicity Montagu, who plays Ms Adolf, Hank’s nemesis. It took 11 days to shoot my scenes.’
Winkler’s only adult book (so far) is one on fly-fishing for trout, one of his consuming passions. ‘In fact, while I was in Halifax, I fished from the banks of the River Wharfe in front of Bolton Abbey. It was glorious. I caught five trout.’
Hank Zipzer has also resulted in Winkler being awarded an honorary OBE. ‘I was told as a boy that I’d never achieve anything. So there are no words to describe my emotions when I got a call asking if I’d accept an award if the Queen decided to give it to me. Let’s just say I didn’t need asking twice.’
Winkler’s love of children starts with his own family, ‘my life’s proudest achievement’. Jed, 43, from his wife’s first marriage, who works in the advertising branding business, has two daughters: India, four, and Lulu who was born in July. Daughter Zoe, 33, has a boy called Ace who’s 19 months. Max is 30 and a TV director currently working on New Girl with Zooey Deschanel.
Then there’s profoundly deaf actress Marlee Matlin who won an Oscar for her role in Children Of A Lesser God and who is, says Winkler, like a second daughter to him and Stacey. He was recently in Houston with Marlee where they raised more than $500,000 for cancer research.
The Winkler/Marlee roadshow is well established, and addresses dyslexia and deafness respectively. ‘She was told as a girl that she could never become an actress because of her disability. I met her when she was 12 and she performed a beautiful dance to a piece of music she couldn’t hear.
‘I told her afterwards she could do anything she wanted. Like our daughter Zoe, she, too, married in our backyard. After she won the Oscar, she decided to remain in Hollywood, but had nowhere to live. So we invited her to stay for a week. She was still there two-and-a-half years later.’
Winkler’s charitable work, which includes touring schools and meeting enthusing pupils who are slow readers, wraps around his busy work schedule. He is currently featured in three TV shows: Arrested Development, an absurdist comedy called Children’s Hospital and as the father in Royal Pains.
The day after we met, he was due to be up at the crack of dawn and heading to Montana to speak at a fundraising event, followed by a book signing in Nashville the next day. But you won’t hear him complain.
‘You’re talking to a very contented man,’ he says, with very little prompting. ‘My family is well and so am I, even if my knees wake up a little after the rest of my body when I get out of bed. My work in America is fulfilling. And now I have my visits to Britain to appear in pantomime.
‘Retire?’ he asks, mildly scandalised. ‘Why would I ever want to do that? I’m having too much fun.’
Peter Pan runs until 12 January 2014 at Richmond Theatre, The Green, Richmond, Surrey: 0844-871 765 1, www.atgtickets.com
Certainly, he takes it very seriously. Before each visit to these shores, Winkler drives up Topanga Canyon, high above the Pacific Ocean on California’s west coast, to sessions with his dialect coach. ‘I’m taught what I’d call approximate English,’ he says. Once here, the Lost Boys (and girls) take over. ‘They are the gatekeepers of my accent.’
In 2006 when he was first asked to essay the role in Wimbledon, he was nervous. ‘I’d be appearing on the outskirts of London. But was I up to the challenge? I could either play it safe and stay home or I could go on the ride of a lifetime.’ Winkler chose the ride.
‘And it has been the most exhilarating, the most demanding experience of my professional life. I’ve done regional theatre. I’ve played Broadway. But to deal with an auditorium of kids at a matinee takes every bit of concentration I can muster. And there are 12 two-hour shows a week. It requires huge discipline.’
Little wonder he chooses to spend Christmas alone (‘I’d be rotten company’); little wonder he sheds two inches from his waistline each visit.
This is his first time back in the UK as Captain Hook since Liverpool in 2009. ‘I grew up with The Beatles so it was a real thrill to perform there.’ With the exception of George, he met them all. ‘John brought his nine-year-old son, Julian, to the Happy Days set on one occasion. He struck me as a shy man until I happened to mention how much I liked his song, Mother, and then he opened up like a flower in the morning sun.’
Ringo also turned up one day in LA with Keith Moon, which must have made for a lively encounter. And then there was the occasion when Winkler was walking down Madison Avenue with his wife Stacey (they married in 1978) and who should be coming towards them but Paul Mc-Cartney. ‘We stopped, we chatted and then a woman came out of a florist’sand gave each of us a rose. “A Beatle and the Fonz,” she said, shaking her head. I don’t think she could quite believe it.’
Winkler and I meet in a diner in LA. At 68, even if his hair is now a snowy version of the Fonz’s luxuriant thatch, he’s instantly recognisable with that face-splitting smile and easy manner. Everyone loves Henry.
The huge aff ection in which he is held manifests itself in that very restaurant when a total stranger walks up to our table to tell him that he’s her favourite; that he’s brought her so much happiness. He must be used to this, heaven knows, but the effortless way in which he makes her feel special sends her off with the story of an encounter she will never tire of telling.
Henry Winkler (right) is Captain Hook and Dermot Canavan (left) plays SmeeWinkler and a partner have been writing children’s books for some years now, which is why he feels he understands a young audience. ‘In fact, this very day,’ he says, ‘my collaborator and I finished our 24th novel.’ Principal among those is his collection of Hank Zipzer books. And thereby hangs a tale.
Winkler didn’t know it at the time but, when he was growing up, he had the utmost difficulty in reading and learning to spell. His unforgiving immigrant parents, ambitious for their only son, regarded him as lazy and/or stupid. He was neither. Winkler suffers from severe dyslexia, something that he only discovered in his early 30s via his stepson Jed, who experienced similar diffi culties despite being smart in every other way.
‘Hank wouldn’t have existed,’ he says, ‘if I hadn’t struggled with what I now know is dyslexia. Every experience I had as a result of my struggle with reading has gone into a Hank adventure. So out of something bad has come something good.’
He co-wrote the first book in 2003. Now CBBC has been making a Hank Zipzer TV series in Halifax; it will be on-screen from January. ‘It’s mostly live action except when Hank’s brain gets confused and then it goes into animation. I get to play the music teacher, Mr Rock, based on the one person in my education who told me I was going to be OK. Everyone else told me I was going to fail.
‘I was in Halifax recently filming my scenes opposite Felicity Montagu, who plays Ms Adolf, Hank’s nemesis. It took 11 days to shoot my scenes.’
Winkler’s only adult book (so far) is one on fly-fishing for trout, one of his consuming passions. ‘In fact, while I was in Halifax, I fished from the banks of the River Wharfe in front of Bolton Abbey. It was glorious. I caught five trout.’
Hank Zipzer has also resulted in Winkler being awarded an honorary OBE. ‘I was told as a boy that I’d never achieve anything. So there are no words to describe my emotions when I got a call asking if I’d accept an award if the Queen decided to give it to me. Let’s just say I didn’t need asking twice.’
Winkler’s love of children starts with his own family, ‘my life’s proudest achievement’. Jed, 43, from his wife’s first marriage, who works in the advertising branding business, has two daughters: India, four, and Lulu who was born in July. Daughter Zoe, 33, has a boy called Ace who’s 19 months. Max is 30 and a TV director currently working on New Girl with Zooey Deschanel.
Then there’s profoundly deaf actress Marlee Matlin who won an Oscar for her role in Children Of A Lesser God and who is, says Winkler, like a second daughter to him and Stacey. He was recently in Houston with Marlee where they raised more than $500,000 for cancer research.
The Winkler/Marlee roadshow is well established, and addresses dyslexia and deafness respectively. ‘She was told as a girl that she could never become an actress because of her disability. I met her when she was 12 and she performed a beautiful dance to a piece of music she couldn’t hear.
‘I told her afterwards she could do anything she wanted. Like our daughter Zoe, she, too, married in our backyard. After she won the Oscar, she decided to remain in Hollywood, but had nowhere to live. So we invited her to stay for a week. She was still there two-and-a-half years later.’
Winkler’s charitable work, which includes touring schools and meeting enthusing pupils who are slow readers, wraps around his busy work schedule. He is currently featured in three TV shows: Arrested Development, an absurdist comedy called Children’s Hospital and as the father in Royal Pains.
The day after we met, he was due to be up at the crack of dawn and heading to Montana to speak at a fundraising event, followed by a book signing in Nashville the next day. But you won’t hear him complain.
‘You’re talking to a very contented man,’ he says, with very little prompting. ‘My family is well and so am I, even if my knees wake up a little after the rest of my body when I get out of bed. My work in America is fulfilling. And now I have my visits to Britain to appear in pantomime.
‘Retire?’ he asks, mildly scandalised. ‘Why would I ever want to do that? I’m having too much fun.’
Peter Pan runs until 12 January 2014 at Richmond Theatre, The Green, Richmond, Surrey: 0844-871 765 1, www.atgtickets.com