Henry Winkler: Part 1 of 5 - From Yale to the Fonz

Henry Winkler turned 81 on Oct. 30, 2026, but the road to Fonzie started long before television fame. Before *Happy Days* made him a household name, he studied theater at Emerson College and the Yale School of Drama, spent a year and a half with the Yale Repertory Theatre, and built an early career through commercials, stage work and small film roles. This first installment of NewsCubby’s five-part Henry Winkler career series follows the years that took him from Boston and New Haven to Los Angeles in 1973, where an audition built around six lines, a costume change and a tossed script changed his life.

What kind of training did Henry Winkler get before television?

Winkler’s formal acting path began at Emerson College in Boston. He enrolled there in 1963, majored in theater and minored in child psychology, and appeared in Emerson’s production of *Peer Gynt* in the title role. He stayed for four years and graduated in 1967. Emerson was his undergraduate base, but it was also the place from which he aimed at the next step.

During his senior year, he decided to audition for the Yale School of Drama. He entered the M.F.A. program in 1967 and completed it in 1970. The school operated in partnership with the Yale Repertory Theatre, linking graduate training with stage production in New Haven. That connection became central to Winkler’s early development, because his years there were not limited to classroom study. They included student productions, summer theater work and, after graduation, a place in the repertory company itself.

Winkler later credited his time at Yale as critical to his future success. That matters when looking back from Fonzie, because the public image of Winkler often begins with television. His story begins somewhere else: with a young actor who had already spent years learning repertory discipline, stage rhythm and ensemble work before *Happy Days* ever reached ABC.

How did a forgotten Shakespeare monologue change his path?

One of the most telling early moments in Winkler’s career came before he was even admitted to Yale. During his audition for the Yale School of Drama, he forgot the Shakespeare monologue he was supposed to perform. Instead of stopping, he improvised. He was still admitted to the M.F.A. program in 1967.

That story stands out because it shows two things already in place very early: nerves were real, but so was his ability to respond in the moment. At Yale, he went on to appear in *They Told Me That You Came This Way*; *Any Day Now, Any Day Now*; and *The Bacchae*, where he performed as a member of the chorus. During the summers, he and his classmates stayed in New Haven and opened a summer stock theater called the New Haven Free Theater. There, they staged various plays, including *Woyzeck*, in which Winkler played the title role, and *Just Add Water* for improv night.

While still a student, he also appeared in Yale Repertory Theatre productions including *The Government Inspector*, *The Rhesus Umbrella*, *Don Juan*, *Endgame* and *The Physicists*. He also appeared in *Sweeney Agonistes* and *Hughie*. Out of his original cohort of 25 actors at Yale, he was one of 11 who graduated in 1970. By then, the forgotten monologue had become less an embarrassing slip than an early example of the instinct that would later serve him well on auditions and on set.

What did Yale Repertory Theatre teach him?

After receiving his M.F.A. in 1970, Winkler was one of three students from his graduating class of 11 who were invited to join the Yale Repertory Theatre company. He joined on June 30, 1970, was paid $173 a week, and appeared throughout the 1970-71 season. The company work extended the Yale training into professional repertory practice.

His credits there included *Story Theater Repertory*, *Gimpel the Fool* and *Saint Julian the Hospitaler and Olympian Games*. He also appeared in *The Revenger’s Tragedy*, *Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?*, *Macbeth*, and *Woyzeck and Play*. He later appeared in a double feature of two works by Bertolt Brecht, *The Seven Deadly Sins* and *The Little Mahagonny*, during May and June 1971 and again from Jan. 20 to Jan. 29, 1972.

Taken together, those productions show how broad the work already was before he became associated with one television character. The Yale Repertory Theatre gave him sustained stage experience across different styles and playwrights, and he spent a year and a half there. That span helps explain why, when later opportunities came quickly in California, he did not arrive as a beginner. He arrived as a trained actor who had already spent years performing on demanding schedules.

How did he build an acting life in New York?

Winkler’s first years after Yale were not a straight line. In the fall of 1971, he was invited to be part of the play *Moonchildren* at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Three weeks into rehearsals, director Alan Schneider fired him because he had been hired to fill the space until the actor Schneider really wanted was available. At the time, Winkler thought the firing meant he would never be hired again.

Instead, he moved back to New York and kept auditioning for plays, movies and commercials. Commercial work became especially important because it let him earn a living. He was able to make money through commercials and, because of that, perform with the Manhattan Theater Club for free.

His first appearance on Broadway was as John in *42 Seconds from Broadway*, a play that opened and closed on March 11, 1973. It was a very brief Broadway run, but it still marked the milestone of a Broadway debut. By 1973, he also had roles in two independent films, *The Lords of Flatbush* and *Crazy Joe*. He performed with the improv group Off the Wall New York as well. In other words, the pre-Fonzie years were not empty waiting time. They were a working actor’s years, built out of auditions, commercials, improv, a short Broadway credit and the first film parts that would help carry him west.

Why did he head to Los Angeles in 1973?

By 1973, Winkler’s agent told him it was time to leave New York and explore possibilities in California. He was initially resistant because he did not think he was a good fit for Hollywood, but his agent stayed persistent. Eventually, he decided that the money he had earned from commercials was enough to let him try Hollywood for one month.

On Sept. 18, 1973, he and his *Lords of Flatbush* co-star Perry King traveled to Los Angeles. After meeting with his agency’s West Coast branch and spending five days going to auditions, he was hired for a small role on *The Mary Tyler Moore Show*. He appeared in season 4, episode 10, *The Dinner Party*.

That is an important stop in the timeline because it shows how fast the transition happened. Winkler did not spend years in Los Angeles before the break came. His first TV part and his *Happy Days* audition came almost immediately after his arrival. The move that he approached as a one-month tryout put him in the city at exactly the right moment for the role that would define his public image for decades.

How did the Fonzie audition unfold?

During his second week in Los Angeles, Winkler auditioned for the role of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, better known as Fonzie or the Fonz, on a new show called *Happy Days*. He was not the first choice for the role, and he was still an unknown. After the first audition, however, he was asked to return for a second audition in costume.

That second reading became one of the best-known stories of his early career. In costume, and using a different voice, Winkler said his six lines, threw his script in the air and left the room. He was offered the role on his birthday. He accepted it on one condition: the producers would show who the character was when he took his jacket off.

Created by Garry Marshall, *Happy Days* premiered on ABC on Jan. 15, 1974. The sitcom presented life in the 1950s and early 1960s Midwestern United States and starred Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham and Winkler as his friend Fonzie. It opened to mixed reviews but became successful and popular over time. For Winkler, the key point is that the part did not arrive as an established lead. It arrived as a secondary role on a new series that was still finding its form.

How did Winkler and Happy Days change together?

The first version of Fonzie was smaller than the one television history remembers. The character was initially written as a minor role and as a foil for Richie Cunningham. From the first episode, though, Winkler began making choices that shaped the role. He chose not to chew gum, not to keep a box of cigarettes rolled in his sleeve, and not to comb his hair the way actors typically did with that sort of character. When producers told him he still had to follow the script and comb his hair, he stood at the mirror and motioned that he did not need to, because it was already perfect. That became the seminal moment that defined the character.

The jacket took longer. ABC executives did not want Fonzie wearing leather because they thought it would imply that the character was a criminal. During the first season, Winkler wore two different windbreaker jackets, one of them green. Garry Marshall argued with executives and eventually reached a compromise: Fonzie could wear the leather jacket, but only in scenes with his motorcycle. Marshall then made certain that the motorcycle was written into every scene. In reality, Winkler did not know how to ride a motorcycle. After he almost crashed it the first time he tried, he never rode the motorcycle during the series.

The show changed around him too. *Happy Days* began as a moderate success, but the ratings started to fall during the second season. Marshall retooled the format, emphasizing broader comedy and putting more focus on the previously minor Fonzie. By the middle of the second season, in December 1974, Fonzie was the central protagonist of the episode *Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas*. He was promoted to front billing by the second season, and by season 3 Winkler was top billed in the opening credits alongside Ron Howard. By the third season, Fonzie had become the lead as storylines shifted away from Richie Cunningham.

The scale of the change was hard to miss. *Happy Days* became the No. 1 program on television in 1976-77. Fonzie became one of the most merchandised characters of the 1970s. Winkler said that at the height of his popularity he was receiving 50,000 fan letters a week. Part 2 of this series picks up with the leather jacket that began as a network compromise and later entered the National Museum of American History.

This article is part of NewsCubby’s five-part Henry Winkler career series. For more coverage, visit TV & Streaming, Movies, Entertainment, and find short videos on the Videos page.

Timeline

• **Oct. 30, 1945:** Henry Winkler is born in New York City.
• **1963:** He enrolls at Emerson College in Boston.
• **1967:** He graduates from Emerson College and enters the Yale School of Drama M.F.A. program.
• **June 30, 1970:** He joins the Yale Repertory Theatre company.
• **March 11, 1973:** His Broadway debut in *42 Seconds from Broadway* opens and closes the same day.
• **Sept. 18, 1973:** He travels to Los Angeles with Perry King.
• **Jan. 15, 1974:** *Happy Days* premieres on ABC.
• **Dec. 1974:** Fonzie is the central protagonist in the episode *Guess Who’s Coming to Christmas*.
• **1976-77:** *Happy Days* becomes the No. 1 program on television.

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*ARCHIVE PHOTOS: Henry Winkler in the 1967 Emerson College yearbook (left) and as Fonzie in a 1976 ABC press photo for Happy Days (right). Photos: Emerson College / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain (left); ABC Television / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain (right).*

*NewsCubby articles are produced with AI assistance and reviewed by humans.*