Henry Winkler had many interactions with fans during his 11 seasons on the ABC sitcom Happy Days, but in one case, he saved a struggling fan’s life—from halfway across the country.
In a new interview with Fox News Digital, the actor, now 79, revealed that during his Happy Days heyday, he received a call from police asking for help.
“We’re on the set of Happy Days, 50 years ago, and the phone all of a sudden rings… It is a police officer somewhere in the Midwest,” Winkler recalled. “There is a young man who’s 17 years old who is on the ledge wanting to jump, but before he jumps he wants to talk to me.”
“Where I got the nerve to talk to this guy, I don’t know,” Winkler admitted. “But I said to him, the first thing that came to my mind: ‘Do you have a record collection?’ He said, ‘I do.’ I said, ‘Look, just go inside and write on a piece of paper that you’re going to sign your record collection over to me.’ And then when he got inside, they stopped him from jumping.”
Henry Winkler Convinced the Fan That He Had Time to Make It as an Actor
Winkler was in his late 20s when he landed his life-changing role as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on Happy Days. The cool but kind character became a cultural icon, and Winkler went on to win two Golden Globe Awards for the role.
A 1976 essay from the New York Timesdescribed Fonzie as a “hero” on a show that “captured a sizable number of teenaged male viewers.”
“I try to show the other side of this tough guy,” Winkler admitted at the time. “That was part of my prerequisite for doing the role. Some people see him as a big brother, women see him as very attractive, kids like the fact that he’s got a heart of gold, but you still don’t mess with him.”
When he received the phone call from an Illinois state trooper trying to help a suicidal teen, Winkler stepped into Fonzie mode, he told late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in 2019.
“I have a 17-year-old kid on the ledge. And he is threatening to jump off, and he will only talk to you,” Winkler recalled the officer telling him.
Winkler revealed that the boy, named John, said he wanted to jump because he was struggling to find success as an actor. “I was 27 when I got the Fonz, John. I think you’ve got 10 good years to keep trying. How about that? Will you do that?” Winkler told the struggling fan.
The Happy Days star noted that he convinced the teen to will him his record collection, and he got off the ledge and went inside.
“I don’t know where I got the nerve to talk to him, and I just thought, ‘I’m gonna maybe take him in another direction,” Winkler said. “And I never got the records.”
