Overcoming a 10-year typecast

Press, 13 May 1987, Page 18

Overcoming a 10-year typecast

By

NANCY SPILLER

The Fonz no longer exists. The character with whom Henry Winkler is most intimately identified was retired by his creator in 1984. Now the hair that, for 10 years on the sitcom “Happy Days,” was constantly coaxed into a perfect pompadour, is on the longish side, uncombed and left to fall where it may. The chin the Fonz so carefully shaved when he was conducting seminars on teen-age ethics now often has a bristly growth, too long to be Don-John-son-fashionable and too short for a beard. “I never shave now unless I have to,” Winkler explains.

The look is California Unkempt, one of . the perks of having power in Hollywood, and Henry Winkler is getting more powerful by the minute. Having given up his attempts to overcome the phenomenal popularity of Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli and take on other acting roles, Henry Winkler these days is happily gaining ground as a director and producer. Down the road from Winkler’s modest offices on the Paramount lot, they are shooting episodes of ABC’s action- adventure show “MacGyver,” of which Winkler . is coexecutive producer with John Rich. During a break in the action on the “MacGyver” set, Winkler approaches the series star, Richard Dean Anderson.

“Everything was terrific; you looked great,” he says with a proprietary lean towards Anderson’s ear, “But you’ve got to get your hair cut.” Anderson assures him that he is getting it cut that day. "I’ll cut it a little,” he says with a sly grin. “You’ve got to cut it more than a little,” Winkler says. “I can’t get it cut too short,” Anderson insists, “I’ll look like a dork. My hair is thining, I’m getting older,” he pleads. The producer is sympathetic to the actor’s plight, but the extra length must go. “MacGyver” is the first

series Winkler has produced for A.B.C. that the network has invited back for a second season. Thought hot exactly a hit, it did finish a respectable 48 out of 96 shows in the prime-time ratings last season and broke into the top 10 last summer.

The show has earned a reputation for non-vio-lence. One teacher wrote to thank the producer for presenting “a hero who uses intelligence instead of a gun to overcome his obstacles.” “He used a gun once,” Winkler notes, “knocked out the barrel and used it as a wrench.” When a gun is aimed at MacGyver, he will try to reason with the bad guy —- or walk away, challenging the villain to shoot him in the back.

Winkler/Rich’s other show in last year’s A.B.C. lineup was a mid-season replacement, “Mr Sunshine,” a sitcom about a recently divorced, rather acerbic English professor, who also just happened to be blind. Though it never gained the audience needed for renewal, it was a further example of Winkler’s underpinning of social responsibility.

This has been evident through his work: an A.B.C. presentation of the Oscar-winning 1979 documentary, "Who are the Deßolts and where did they get 19 kids?’” a made - for - television movie, “Scandal Sheet”; his A.B.C. “After School Specials” and videos for children dealing with divorce and with child abuse.

Still, the 40-year-old Winkler shies from the label “Socially Responsible Producer,” a phrase he delivers in mock-seri-ous tones. “It’s as easy to take responsibility for what you believe in as it isn’t. I do what I am comfortable with.” He has said that much of his work is concerned with building the emotional and personal strength of children.

Winkler admits that his own childhood was not ideal. “I always thought everyone else was righter.

I wanted to have the confidence to be, like, Uhh-mare-ee-can. I wanted to be, you know, these people who just kinda walked around ...”

Here with appropriate forward shoulder shrugs, he slips into the Fonz’s character. “You know, they had it to-geth-er; they seemed to have it to-geth-er.” He slips back into the adult mode: “Maybe that’s why the Fonz was so strong out of me; he was my alter ego. He was who I wanted to be but couldn’t.” Winkler got a bachelor’s degree in drama at Emerson College and a master’s degree from the Yale Drama School. His film debut came with 1974’s “The Lords of Flatbush.” Featuring a Brooklyn gang, circa 1957, it gave Winkler the chance to try out his Fonzie character. Co-star Sylvester Stallone went on to “Rocky,” and Winkler was signed for “Happy Days.” “The timing was perfect for the Fonz,” “Happy Days” creator/producer Garry Marshall says.

“Everyone was messed up, coming out of Vietnam, Watergate. The counter-culture was falling apart, and along comes this character who is positive, sure of himself. He had no doubts. He stuttered on the word ‘wrong’.”

By popular demand, Fonzie eventually replaced Richie Cunningham, played by Ron Howard as the series’ pivotal character, becoming a teen icon of the age. "He was someone to look up

to,” Marshall says. “He was the first hero of the *7 Os.** Foozle’s face sold a record number of T-shirts and the screams of young girls would regularly bring the action to a halt when he walked on to the set during the taping of the show before a live audience. Soon Winkler became concerned that his acting career would be snuffed by the Fonz. "The fifth year I started to buy what everybody else was saying,” Winkler recalls: You’re going to be typecast; you are hot., going to be able to do anything else,’ and it made me crazy.” He tried to Identify himself with more highbrow pursuits, such as the network television special, “Henry Winkler meets William Shakespeare” — and like many actors who experience the white-heat glow of television stardom he tried to transfer his talents from the little screen to the big. The reception was lukewarm for his first two starring vehicles, the 1977 “Heroes,” in which he plays a crazed Vietnam vet pursuing a pipe dream and Sally Field, and 1978’s "The One and Only,” in which he plays a hammy actor who becomes a Gorgeous George-type wrestler. His role as the bumbling but sincere morgue assistant in “Night Shift,” directed by Ron Howard, was said to be his best work ever, but Michael Keaton, in his film debut,

is the one the movie helped establish as a film star. The experience was the lowest point in Winkler'S career. “Making the movies was great,” he says. “It is the reception that was so disappointing. I don’t have anger about it; it is just weird to me. It is still a frontier to conquer.” Many felt that the Fonz was just too strong a character for any- actor. 'to overcome. “Fbnzie was a definitve image of the period,” Marshall says. “It •wasn’t easy for Henry to go on and do other things. On that sign where it says ■Welcome 1 to Hollywood,* it also says ’The Town of Typecasting’.” Winkler grants that “the Fonz was in some ways limiting,” but he i$ not one to bad-mouth a buddy. “When you look at the enormous life' that this character was giving me, you sort of overlooked it I learned to go with the flow. Other things were happening, so I did that.” Henry Winkler has made one of the most difficult (transformations in the entertainment business, from actor to producer and director. And in the metamorphosis, he has managed to hang on to the part of Fonzie that knew right from wrong. * Winkler’s doing the kind of work these days his old alter ego would approve of. • J Copyright — Lbs Angeles Times Syndicate.