By Michaela Gordoni
HAPPY DAYS star Henry Winkler thought his life was “over” when his BFF Ron Howard said he was leaving the ’70s-’80s series.
“We just clicked as acting partners,” Howard told PEOPLE this month. “He was and is kind of like a big brother to me,” he said of Winkler, whom he’s been friends with for 50 years.
“Every time I see him, it’s like there is no time lost. We just pick up right as if I saw him yesterday,” Howard said previously.
“When we worked together, there was something that happens out of the blue,” said Winkler. “We had a shorthand with the script. He went where I went, I went where he went, and it became something else.”
Howard announced he was leaving the show in 1980 to become a movie director.
“There was a phone booth right by the front door of stage 19,” Winkler recalled. “They said, ‘Oh, the phone is for you, Henry.’ ”
Howard told him, “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.”
Related: Henry Winkler Reflects on HAPPY DAYS’ 50th Anniversary: ‘Grateful’
“My first thought was, ‘I’m going to die now,'” said Winkler. “My great acting partner on this show, my good friend is no longer going to be here. My life is over.”
“And that was in the first two seconds,” he adds. “Then I said, ‘Ron, 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.’”
Well, a few years later, Winkler got to see what Howard would do in NIGHT SHIFT. Howard called Winkler to play a part.
“He said, ‘Warner Brothers will give me $6 million to make NIGHT SHIFT if you are in it, and you can play either part.’”
“It was a huge pivot point in my career and we were not going to get that movie made,” said Howard. “It became an absolute no-brainer for the studio, if Henry would say yes.”
“I gave him the script. I said, ‘I could see you in either role. And I’d love to do it with you if this interests you. And if it doesn’t, I understand,’” he said.
Winkler says of his many wonderful life experiences, making that movie was one of his favorites.
Winkler said, “You absolutely knew and felt this man is to be trusted as a professional from his hair to his toes.”
“This was a giant step forward,” Howard recalled. “It was the first partnership with Brian Grazer and I, which would eventually lead to the formation of Imagine Entertainment.”
The director added, “That’s been one of the really great gifts of my adult life, is our friendship.”
In April, Winkler recalled when Howard told him he wanted to be a director.
“We’re standing at Arnold’s, we’re standing at the door to make our entrance, and Ron turned to me and he said, ‘Let me ask you a question. What do you think: I want to be a director, what do you think? Do you think I could do that?’” Winkler said.
“And I said, ‘Ron, knowing you’ — now he is 18, I am 27 — I’m the oldest teenager in captivity, and I said, ‘Ron, knowing you, if you were a brain surgeon, even if I didn’t need to, I would be a patient.’”
Now in their 70s, it’s safe to say that these actors will be friends for life through a bond that transcends the screen.
Read Next: HAPPY DAYS Cast Reunites for First Time in 50 Years
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +4Share:
– Content: +1