{"id":44681,"date":"2025-06-05T15:02:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T19:02:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=44681"},"modified":"2025-06-13T08:46:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T12:46:52","slug":"ron-howard-reveals-how-he-really-felt-about-his-happy-days-co-star-henry-winkler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/06\/ron-howard-reveals-how-he-really-felt-about-his-happy-days-co-star-henry-winkler.html","title":{"rendered":"Ron Howard Reveals How He Really Felt About His &#8216;Happy Days\u2019 Co-Star Henry Winkler"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_44876\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-44876\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/06\/Ron-Howard_credit-taniavolobueva-Shutterstock-Inset-Public-Domain.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-44876\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/06\/Ron-Howard_credit-taniavolobueva-Shutterstock-Inset-Public-Domain.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-44876\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">taniavolobueva \/ Shutterstock.com | Inset: Public Domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ron Howard is revealing if it was a happy day when he met his co-star Henry Winkler.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1970s, Howard and Winkler starred in the ABC sitcom \u201cHappy Days\u201d as Ritchie Cunningham and Fonzie \u2014 \u201cThe Fonz\u201d to fans. Now, more than half a century since the show first aired, Howard is reflecting on their first meeting.<\/p>\n<p>In a new <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/ron-howard-reveals-whether-he-clicked-immediately-with-henry-winkler-exclusive-11744226\">interview<\/a>, Howard told <em>People<\/em> that the two actors \u201cclicked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although it began strictly on a \u201cprofessional level\u201d at first, Howard said he \u201clooked up to\u201d his co-star.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHenry\u2019s a few years older than I am. Yale-educated, and he looked at acting in a way that was \u2014 it wasn\u2019t Hollywood,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a little more intellectual. It was theater-based, and that was new to me. But more than anything, we just got along beautifully and worked well together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Howard also stated that Winkler stood out from others in the industry at the time. The camaraderie between the two may not have initially started jukebox magic, but it grew to a lasting creative partnership and friendship.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/ron-howard-on-how-happy-days-costar-henry-winkler-helped-launch-directing-career-exclusive-11739895\">a May 22 interview with the outlet<\/a>, Howard also credited Winkler with helping launch his directing career. While working on their sitcom, Howard was honing his craft \u2014 and after he left the series, opportunity knocked in the form of the 1982 film \u201cNight Shift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHenry was always so supportive of that. When Henry said yes to Night Shift, that\u2019s what got that movie greenlit,\u201d Howard reminisced. \u201cHe played a hand in helping my dream ultimately come true, which was to be a studio, Hollywood, feature director.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The article was written by Corey Townsend and originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/ron-howard-henry-winkler-happy-days-true-feelings_n_6838afece4b06ff5140d61b9\">HuffPost.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ron Howard is revealing if it was a happy day when he met his co-star Henry Winkler. In the 1970s, Howard and Winkler starred in the ABC sitcom \u201cHappy Days\u201d as Ritchie Cunningham and Fonzie \u2014 \u201cThe Fonz\u201d to fans. Now, more than half a century since the show first aired, Howard is reflecting on&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":630,"featured_media":44876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ron Howard Reveals How He Really Felt About His &#039;Happy Days\u2019 Co-Star Henry Winkler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Now, more than half a century since the show first aired, Howard is reflecting on their first meeting.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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