Henry Winkler Says He Still Thinks About Working With Ron Howard Again 46 Years After 'Happy Days'

Caption: Henry Winkler as Fonzie in Happy Days on October 26, 1976. Credit: ABC Television, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Henry Winkler is 80, and he still has not closed the door on working with Ron Howard again. At the Televerse Festival this weekend, the “Happy Days” partnership was back in the conversation, with Winkler saying he would gladly reunite with Howard on a project and that he still thinks about what the two could do together.

The Reunion He Says He Would Take

Winkler played Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli opposite Howard’s Richie Cunningham on the sitcom that made both men stars in the 1970s. Decades later, Winkler has been open that he would welcome another collaboration, even as he acknowledges he has no idea whether Howard thinks about an on-screen reunion the way fans do. No project pairing them has been announced.

The Call That Ended Their Run Together

Howard left “Happy Days” in 1980 to pursue his long-held directing ambitions. Winkler has recalled Howard phoning him before the news went public, and has said his first instinct was that losing his acting partner would be devastating, before he encouraged Howard to chase the goal they had discussed since the beginning. “All you want to do is be a director,” Winkler remembered telling him. “It’s in your DNA.” Howard went on to direct “Apollo 13” and to win the Best Director Academy Award for “A Beautiful Mind.”

The Partnership That Outlasted the Show

Winkler has called Howard “one of the best acting partners I’ve ever had in my career,” describing an on-set chemistry he says could not be faked. “Things would come to me during the show, and I would just do them,” he said. “And Ron went wherever I went.” Their working relationship did not end with the sitcom. It continued when Howard, early in his directing career, cast Winkler in the 1982 comedy “Night Shift,” a film Winkler has said the young director was “very nervous” to make.

The Door He Has Not Closed

More than four decades after Howard’s exit, the two remain close, and Winkler has kept the possibility of working together alive in interviews without a concrete project to point to. He describes Howard as “an old soul” with a wisdom that is “big.” What he has not offered is a reason to think he would say no. Forty-six years after they last shared the “Happy Days” set, the invitation, at least from Winkler’s side, still stands.

References: Parade | TODAY | Cheat Sheet