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Henry Winkler Got Cast as Fonzie Because of His Height

The Fonz from Happy Days is one of essentially the most iconic tv characters of all time. It’s unattainable to picture anyone but even so actor Henry Winkler portraying Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, certainly the preferred character in the sequence. But it seems he only got the phase because he was quick.

Another well-known Hollywood superstar auditioned for the section. Allegedly, he got grew to become down because he looked too tall status subsequent to his castmates. Luckily sufficient, that wasn’t the case for Winkler.

Fonzie from ‘Happy Days’ portrayed a specific sort of individual

Though plenty of things about Fonzie are acquainted, the community didn’t need him to become a stereotypical persona all around. ABC pros insisted he couldn’t wear his signature leather jacket unless he was close to a motorcycle. This kept him from looking like an outlaw “hoodlum.”

“[Producer Garry Marshall] went again and mentioned to the writers, ‘Never write a scene without his motorcycle once more,’” Winkler recalled. “So I all the time stood next to my bike — inside, outside, in my apartment, in Arnold’s. Didn’t topic where, I used to be all the time with my motorcycle. And that’s how I got out of the golf jacket and into leather-based.”

Fonzie also never had a pack of cigarettes rolled in his sleeve and never combed his hair, which all become signature facets of his character.

Another actor auditioned for the part of Fonzie

Though Winkler performed the easiest Fonz, he nearly neglected out on it. Actor and musician Micky Dolenz, absolute best recognized for being a member of the rock band The Monkees, auditioned for the phase and almost nabbed it. The main reason why he got became down was his height, IMDb reported.

Dolenz used to be 6’ tall and towered over the other actors who were already cast on Happy Days. Marshall envisioned all of them being able to see eye to eye. So casting brokers got to work in search of shorter actors, which led them immediately to 5 foot 6 inch Winkler and his future.

But most probably the funniest phase of all is the height difference between Winkler and castmate Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) is identical as the one between Howard and Dolenz. Both are Three inches apart, simply in opposite instructions.

Henry Winkler remains one of the best parts of ‘Happy Days’

They say everything occurs for a reason or even Dolenz admitted that casting made the appropriate call once they picked Winkler to portray Fonzie.

Happy Days went thru ebbs and flows, ratings-wise, through the years ahead of literally jumping the shark (in a leather jacket) in season 5. However, many years later it remains an important phase of television nostalgia that recollects a simpler time.

The Fonz wasn’t originally written as the principle persona, however it quickly was glaring that Winkler’s depiction of the cool guy of the crowd made him a breakout megastar. And it’s all because of him having a short stature, it appears.

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Elina Uphoff

Update: 2024-06-16