Henry Winkler
Appearances
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
We were invited by the USO and the Happy Days ball team flew to Germany and we played in all these small towns. And at that time there was the Cold War was still going on. And so these men and women were in these small towns at the border of Germany. we would play softball with them. I would like to really take this gardener.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Yeah. No, well, you know, he, yeah. But anyway, so, and then we played all over Germany. Here's the great thing. I'm walking through an airport and a young woman comes up to me with a stroller and said, I was my daughter's age when you came to Germany and played against my dad's team. Wow. Wow. What a circle. Yeah. Then we went to Okinawa. That's where Scotty was born.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Yes, and then we played in every major ball field in America. We would play exhibition games before the Mets, before the Giants. Who was on this team? The Dodgers, the Angels. Who was on the Happy Days team? Who was there? Ron Howard, a great athlete, believe it or not.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
He would play center field, shortstop. Okay, sure. Donnie Most. Great athlete.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
That is exactly right. And he went and he was good. He could catch. Okay. I couldn't catch. So I was the pitcher. They taught me how to pitch and that is all I could do. Ron Howard bought me a mitt. Anson bought me a bat, my first in my life. And so I got really good at pitching. But if the ball was hit toward me, I turned my body to the left and stopped the ball with my body.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
No, not in iambic pentameter. But I told the story. The monologue was Launce and his dog. I don't even remember what play it was from because I know my limitations. This was out of my purview. And I went, Lance and the dog. And then I said, went for a walk and I made it up. And they still let you in. Absolutely brilliant. Not only did they let me in, okay, so...
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
There are 25 actors started, 11 finished. I was one of three actors asked into the professional company. I now am making $172 a week. I am starting my dream. I am eight, thinking about being a professional actor. I am now being paid. I don't know. Then I got a $10 raise, went to one of the best repertory theaters in the country in Washington, DC. It was Moon Children. That was a cast.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Michael Tucker, Jill Eikenberry, Chris Guest, just on and on. Jimmy Woods.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Well, I was all just auditioning. It's just your ability to impress them as an actor.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
That is a good question. I'm not sure. My standard answer is if people were born to try and do something, I was born to try and be an actor.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Did you guys go see a lot of shows? My parents encouraged me, not an iota. And my father brought a lumber business over from Germany. He imported. And he wanted me to do the same. He wanted me to take over the business. And my joke is he said to me, why do you think I bought the business over here? And I said, besides being chased by the Nazis, Dad, was there like a bigger reason?
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Wow. My father asked his mother... and took my mother's jewelry, bought a box of chocolate, melted the chocolate, poured the chocolate over the jewelry, put it back in the box, put the box under his arm, and then got a work visa for six weeks. So when the Nazis said, are you taking anything of value? He said, no, open my bags, you check my pockets, I have nothing.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
And that box of chocolate started him on his new life because he pawned all of the jewelry until he was able to buy it back. And I have my great-grandfather's pocket watch that came out of jewelry encased in chocolate. Wow. That's pretty cool.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Yes, yes. And that chocolate, you couldn't eat it. You could not eat it. It always gave you herpes. It was a terrible thing.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I understand all of that. I swear. I do. I admire. They learned a new language. He started a business in a new country. He didn't know if he would be able to stay. But here it is, when you have a child and they're in front of you, they're not an extension of who you are. They're not there to make you proud.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
And if you see your child has got a problem, even if you don't know the name, if you don't understand it, your job is to make sure that that child feels comfortable enough not to lose their entire self-esteem, but to help them meet their destiny, not get proud of them when they figured out how to meet their destiny all by themselves.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
You don't lose it. Dyslexia is with you You just have to learn to negotiate it. And there are things I just can't do. And then there are other people who I depend on to do it. Right. You know, thank God, Stacy, my wife, is a brilliant speller. Right. But it's hereditary. I'm sorry.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Am I right about that? I did not know that that was going to happen. In 2001, I had just finished a Broadway play with John Ritter and Len Cariou. Right. It was a... A Neil Simon play. Oh my God. It was my dream. The first play I did open and closed in one night. This one ran for nine months. Wow. So I come home, can't get hired. I go to a friend and I said, I don't know what to do. I need help.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
He said, write books for children about your learning condition. I said, I can't do it because I've got a learning problem. He said, I'm going to introduce you to Lynn Oliver. And then, you know what I found out? The lesson is, there is not one way to do anything. There is your way. And your way is as valid as any other way.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I couldn't read. I couldn't read off a page. I couldn't spell. I still can't spell. Look, I have over my computer, I have words that I can't sound out. And so they're there because I use them so often, like the word schedule. And I just look up and that's how I spell it. Wow.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Can I just say something? Each one of you I know individually. I know, you know. I met the two of you, I met you at the first day of doing Arrested Development. Yeah. You were on the couch in the living room. I was your lawyer and not very good. And Sean, I met at Max Munchnik's party. And I was so overwhelmed by meeting him that I was a little out of body.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
And he looked at me, I said, I'm so, and he looked at me, he went, hello. And I thought, oh, I've completely screwed that up. Oh, God, no. I was probably dying inside. But that is... I'm so happy to be with you.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Well, you know, you're all invited. There is a seat at my table. I had the pleasure of having Jason and his incredible wife for dinner. And the only one who hasn't been here is Sean.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
He's so good, isn't he? He's incredible. I had a conversation with him outside maybe a— But he was an actor. He was a really good actor. He wanted to date my daughter. And I said, I just want to tell you, you better earn a living because this is not a easy person.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Yeah. And you know what? And so that was the conversation. So he then went to his father's friend, got a job because his father's friend is also a very good building company. And he started in the parking lot where the crew would come and he would move the cars around so they all fit in the small space of the parking for the day.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
And he met Brian, who was part of the crew, and together they have made this wonderful company.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
That's amazing. Hey, Sean. Sean, can I ask you a question? Yes. This has been on my mind for a long time. Are you going to bring... your Broadway award-winning show to LA?
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I want to tell you, for the listening audience who did not have the extraordinary experience of seeing Goodnight Oscar on Broadway, Shaun Hayes, first of all, disappeared. you know Sean and you saw nothing of the Sean you know on that stage. And then you find out he is a concert pianist and for 30 minutes plays the piano, concert ready, The audience jettisoned out of their seats.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
They leapt out of their seats. That's very sweet of you. It was electrifying.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
But if you did not win the Tony, there would have been something wrong with the universe.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Those are two really great questions. I, because I swear to God, I think I have to really give it to my dyslexia because there's an emotional component that goes on. Your lack of self, no matter how you appear on the outside, is churning on the inside.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
So people talking to me like I can walk on water, I keep looking over my shoulder because they can't possibly be talking to me because they don't know who I am. So I was able to keep grounded Then I met Stacy, which did an even better job. And then Jed came with the marriage. He was a gift with the marriage.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
And that, painting his face to look like Kiss, kept you focused on what is in the moment and has nothing to do with who you are. Right. Okay. I had the most amazing time. Now it comes. I have an office. I have a production deal. Fair dinkum. Because of Skip Rittenham III. And now I am not getting any calls or callbacks. And I'm having like psychic pain.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I'm telling you, there was a pain in my brain from not having any idea of what to do next. I had a plan A and I just lived it I had no plan B. And then I literally thought it's over. And I had the fear, what do I do? Will it match it? Could I ever match it? Same thing happened just now. We just finished Barry at the end of last year. Will I match it? Will I, thank you. Thank you. I'm standing.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I'm taking a bow. I could have, well, yeah. Okay. It was palpable. And then my lawyer, Skip, said, I'm going to start a production company for you. So here's another lesson I learned. I said, I can't do that. I know nothing about business. I'm dyslexic. He said, you'll learn. And you know something. So there were things about being a producer I could do.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
MacGyver was the first show that we ever produced. I had three different partners, writing partners, who were going to create the material to do my on-air commitments. At that time, they paid you not only compensation, but they gave you, if you brought them a show, like ABC, if you brought ABC a show they liked, they would put it right on. You didn't have to go through the process.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
The other one was with Jeff Tambor, where he played a blind English professor. So funny. It was called Mr. Sunshine. But we only did 13. It did not last. I remember. But it was great.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
The first iteration. And then we brought it back for five years. So it was a pretty terrific run.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I did. I think Will is unbelievable. But no, they did not reach out to me. Because it was owned by Paramount and ABC at the time. Right, right, right, right, right, right.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I thought I was just going to be a producer for a minute. And then it became a profession. And then we did sightings for seven years, studying all things paranormal. And then we did a wonderful show, which was a kid's show in So Weird. We produced it in Vancouver about a little girl, Mackenzie Phillips. This was her first job after cleaning herself up. And she was a rock star.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
On a bus, her manager drove the bus. Her daughter and the manager's son would go off when they were setting up the concerts and stuff and find paranormal experiences in whatever town they were in. It was called So Weird.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Do you know what I learned? And I've used this image a lot, but I see myself as that toy with sand at the bottom and you blow it up. And it was a cowboy at one time, probably now it's a Star Wars toy.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
figure and you punch it and it goes down yes yes and it comes right back to center right i saw myself like that that i would right and then eventually what i learned is for everybody who is listening a lot of people will say no But you just stay at the table long enough, somebody is going to say yes. And I did a movie for television, a real story about a father of two.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I love the grateful. I'm just grateful. And I sometimes I'm so filled with just being on the earth.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
His wife was in an accident. She was pregnant. And I could have an abortion and keep the child or she would have the child and I would lose my child. And the right to lifers took me to the Supreme Court not to save my wife. I mean, that was the story and he lived on Long Island.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
It was sort of a reset button. Yes. And then I did one of the worst movies made by a human being called Control Tower. And on that set, I got a phone call. Would I like to be in The Waterboy?
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I didn't know anybody and remember I was hired as your family lawyer for one or two episodes.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
It's so good. And the only actor in the universe who's jumped the shark twice.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I do. I have to say I'm in a moment in time right here as we're talking about be very careful what you wish for. Because my life, you know, I wrote a memoir last October. Yes, you did. Being Henry. Being Henry, I love that. So it was on the New York Times bestseller list. It was a New York Times bestseller for 11 weeks. 11 weeks. Wow.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Then I went to Australia to tour with the book, and it became number one. And now they're taking me to Ireland, Scotland, and England on a book tour.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
So, oh my goodness gracious me. That's so cool. That's so cool. Congratulations. I can't forget... We have to mention Detective Duck, because the new one is coming out in October, the second one. The children's book. There are gonna be four. That's more my speed.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
28 individual novels. Then we wrote Here's Hank when he was in the second grade. And here's Hank, I'll tell you is really interesting because we use a font that has never been used before, can you see? It makes it easier for the eye and the mind to connect. That's more spread apart, yeah. And a dad whose children were dyslexic developed it in Holland.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
It makes it so much easier, Sean, to actually read it. The words are weighted on the page because a lot of times if you have a learning challenge, the words float or letters float or you leave a word out. This allows you to anchor things. Your eyes.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
But I am, I'm not, it's not lost on me. that this is my incredible life. I'm not kidding.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
You know, what I didn't know is that this was only a voice podcast that we weren't recording it video. I could have been in my pajamas. Yeah.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Well, you know, I'll tell you something. You dream about it. You're told you will never achieve. Right. And then here I am in all these wonderful experiences. I'm overwhelmed. I'm over fucking well.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
She's not going to hear this, is she? No, she'll never hear this. She's in another room. I can say anything I want.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
It was a promise I made to Stacey. I never wanted to duplicate parenthood the way I experienced it. I'm just telling you that's true. And I made a promise that I would be a different father. And the lesson I learned there is a herd child is a powerful child. If they believe you're just listening, that they exist, It just helps them fly to the sun.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
See you. Just remember, there is a seat at our table for each one of you. I'm coming over. And Sean, your hubby.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
You know what? When you were here at our table and we had scooped bagels with melted cheese, they don't make that cheese anymore. No kidding. No. Altadena, stop making that cheese. And it's never been the same.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I used to do the limbo at high school dances. You know, it was the only way I got some self-esteem. And the wig slid right off.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Limbo the shit out of this party. I was the best in my high school. Is that true? I'll bet. Yeah.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Yeah. So my parents took me to see the Museev Folk Ballet at Madison Square Garden when I was in the sixth grade. And this is that athletic, jumping in the air, spread eagle doing the... And I was overwhelmed and taught myself a bastardized version of...
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I would ask, you know, there were so many episodes, I was asked to do all kinds of stuff. And they came up with this, how do you win the dance contest? And I said, well, I can do this. And they played Hava Nagila, and I was off and running.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
No, I had six lines. When I auditioned, I had six lines. And then I worked one day a week for the first year. And being anxious and short, I could not leave my apartment on a weekday. So I just sat in my apartment waiting for the day of work and then waiting for the weekend when I could finally leave.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
No, I wasn't afraid. I couldn't leave my apartment because, you know, I was so duty-bound, I couldn't play on a work day. Oh, gotcha. So I had all the fan mail delivered to my apartment, and so it was pretty much like a hoarder navigating my way through the boxes of... letters in crayon.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
No, no, no, it came to Paramount and Paramount had it delivered. All right, got it, good. And then I would get presents, you know? Sure, sure. I got a metal cutting that said, if you will it. It is not a dream, which became my watchword or my phrase for the rest of my life. Your mantra. If you will it, you can have what it is you want. I believe that 100%.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
And then I had it framed. Sure. And it's up on my wall in... That's pretty cool.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Sure. Jewelry. Little girls would send me their bears or their crucifixes.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Yes, and then people would come to the apartment and lift their shirt and ask me to sign parts of their anatomy. Sure.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
And of course I wouldn't because I was afraid that the ink would get into their bloodstream.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Oh, oh, oh. I was, I shouldn't, well, okay. So I'm sitting in my apartment. I have a Victrola because everything was vinyl. I went to Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. I bought Dan Fogelberg. And I was listening to Dan Fogelberg on my rented Victrola. The door knocks. I get up. There are three men with badges. And I said, oh no, you do not with the FBI. We're not here for that.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I was so happy that I was not being put in handcuffs. I didn't care what they did.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I was not a complete human being in my life. I could not connect my mind and my emotion. I was just being who I thought I should be.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I come from... Walking into my apartment was like walking into a minefield. You know, my short German parents were horrible. But so I- Oh wait, go back, what? Hey. We'll go back on that. I could somehow unleash myself Professionally. So I walk in to the audition and I changed my voice. I said, hi, my name is Henry.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I'm from New York City and I'm here to try out for the part of Fonzie, Arthur Fonzarelli. And then I looked at the guy who was reading with me. His name was Pasquale. And I don't know where it came from, but I was able to just go. I said, hey, don't you look at me like that. Vote your eyes, pal. And then I did six lines through the script in the air, sauntered out of the room.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
And on my birthday, when it was time for me to go back to New York, because I only had a month left, they called and said, would you like to play this part?
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
Well, I thought, I literally thought, well, I don't have any more money. I don't, I'm not getting much. Maybe it's, I'm not supposed to be here.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
I got confidence about last Wednesday. Okay. first time i literally i i've said this before but imagine that i am a bowl of jello before it congeals in the icebox in the refrigerator right i was my insides were shaking like i was at the rumba room
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
incredible gift that I was given in being introduced to the world. No matter where we went on the planet, somebody stopped me, invited me to their house for dinner. The Native Americans in the Hopi tribe, you have to lock your camera away because they think you're taking their soul. Sure.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
They invited me to get my camera when we took Jed, who is now 53, but at the time was in the third grade studying Native Americans. They invited me to get my camera so I could take a picture of the kachina dances What an honor. And that is the microcosm of my life at that time.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
With the Happy Days baseball team. Yeah, was that what it was? Gary Marshall, I miss him every day, was just a brilliant human being.
SmartLess
"Henry Winkler"
He created Happy Days and Mork and Mindy and Laverne and Shirley and The Odd Couple and on and on and on. And then went on to direct these great movies. Pretty Woman being one of them. Gary Marshall always wanted to own a sports team. And I think he bought a part of the Portland Beavers. So we played softball. Then...