Ron Howard<\/a> quit Happy Days.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Henry Winkler starred on the hit TV sitcom<\/p>\n
The 79-year-old actor played Arthur ‘Fonzie’ Fonzarelli on the hit sitcom, and he quickly developed a close relationship with Ron, his co-star.<\/p>\n
Speaking to People, Henry recalled: “When we worked together, there was something that happens out of the blue. We had a shorthand with the script. He went where I went, I went where he went, and it became something else.”<\/p>\n
However, Ron decided to quit the show in 1980, and Henry still has vivid memories of the day he found out.<\/p>\n
Henry shared: “There was a phone booth right by the front door of stage 19. They said, \u2018Oh, the phone is for you, Henry.'”<\/p>\n
\nRon – who has subsequently become one of the most successful directors in Hollywood – told his co-star at the time: “It’s going to come out in the press in about 10 minutes, but I wanted you to know first, I’m not coming back.”<\/p>\n
\nHenry was initially shaken by the news. However, he ultimately encouraged his showbiz pal to follow his long-term ambitions.<\/p>\n
\nHenry said: “My first thought was, ‘I’m going to die now’. My great acting partner on this show, my good friend is no longer going to be here. My life is over.<\/p>\n
\n“And that was in the first two seconds. Then I said, \u2018Ron, we’ve talked about this since the beginning. All you want to do is be a director. It’s in your DNA. Go and be the best you can be, and I cannot wait to see what you do.'”<\/p>\n
\nMeanwhile, Henry previously admitted that he struggled with his mental health after leaving Happy Days.<\/p>\n
\nThe actor confessed to struggling after the TV show ended in 1984.<\/p>\n
\nHe told the Today show: “There were eight or nine years at a time when I couldn’t get hired because I was ‘The Fonz’ because I was typecast.”<\/p>\n
\nDespite this, Henry doesn’t have any regrets about starring on Happy Days.<\/p>\n
\nHe explained: “I loved playing ‘The Fonz’. I love those people. I loved learning how to play softball. I loved travelling all over the world together with the cast. I would not have traded it.”<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"28 August 2025 Henry Winkler thought his “life [was] over” when Ron Howard quit Happy Days. Henry Winkler starred on the hit TV sitcom The 79-year-old actor played Arthur ‘Fonzie’ Fonzarelli on the hit sitcom, and he quickly developed a close relationship with Ron, his co-star. Speaking to People, Henry recalled: “When we worked together, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4725,7148],"class_list":{"0":"post-189615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-henry-winkler","9":"tag-ron-howard"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}