Henry Winkler is best known as “The Fonz,” the super cool greaser and iconic TV character on the ‘70s hit, “Happy Days.” But he’s also a director and producer.
And he’s found still another niche – as the author of fourteen children’s books about a bright boy with learning difficulties, Hank Zipzer: The World’s Greatest Under-Achiever.
“I’m (more proud) of these books than of anything I have done in my career,” Winker says.
The acclaimed books were inspired by Winkler’s early struggles with dyslexia. His first ten books have sold over two million copies and have made several best-seller lists. But what touches Winkler even more is “hearing kids laugh out loud” when they read his books and the thousands of letters he’s received from grown-ups and children alike.
“Parents tell me I couldn’t get my son to read,” until they discovered Hank, says Winkler, sixty-two, during a recent telephone interview from New York. One child wrote: “I laughed so hard my funny bone fell out of my body.”
Winkler’s currently on a national book tour to launch “The Life of Me (Enter at Your Own Risk),” the latest installment in the series. And he’ll be on the Cape August 3 as the celebrity guest conductor for the 23rd annual TD Banknorth Pops by the Sea concert on Hyannis Village Green.
The last time the star visited these sandy shores was in 1967 when he graduated from Emerson College in Boston “I’m over the moon,” he says about his Pops stint. But he’s not nervous. “I’m pretty positive they (the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra) are perfect whether or not a chicken is conducting them.”
Winkler’s taste in music is eclectic. A big fan of Bruce Springsteen, he also loves Irish and classical music and the Dixie Chicks. The actor memorizes his roles to music. “I pick something that is emotionally-connected to my brain,” he says.
But the subject closest to his heart is Hank Zipzer. “I never thought I’d write a book in my life, because I was told I was stupid,” he says.
Born on New York’s West Side, Winkler’s parents, Harry Irving and Ilse Anna Maria Winkler, were Jewish immigrants who left Germany in 1939. They didn’t understand why their only son was having trouble with schoolwork and were “severe,” Winkler says.
In school he was called stupid and lazy. “You feel so bad and never have confidence.” Winkler tried to cover his disability by being the class clown. Or winning a dance contest.
Yet he learned how to compensate and went on to study drama and psychology at Emerson and earn a master of fine arts degree from the Yale School of Drama in 1970.
Winkler didn’t realize he was dyslexic until he was thirty-one, when his stepson was tested and diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disability that affects the ability to read. “It was the first time I knew I wasn’t stupid,” he says. “All the time I was berated for nothing.”
His other two children are also dyslexic. Winkler used to tell his youngest son to turn off the radio when he was doing his homework. After that, his grades slipped. He later realized that the radio was helping to block out all the other distractions.
“I finally shut up,” he says.
Winkler has long worked with children’s welfare groups, such as Special Olympics, United Friends of the Children, the National Committee for Arts for the Handicapped and numerous teenage alcohol and drug abuse programs. He and his wife, Stacey, married since 1978, co-founded the Children’s Action Network, which provides free immunizations to more than 200,000 children.
The actor frequently talks to children’s groups and gives them an upbeat message: “The fact we learn differently doesn’t matter. You have greatness in you. It’s your job to figure out your gift and give it to the world.” It’s a lesson he knows well because he’s lived it.
In 2003, during a lull in his career, Winkler was introduced to writer Lin Oliver. The pair came up with the idea for the Hank Zipzer books. While Oliver writes on her computer, Winkler creates by walking around her office, sometimes doing the voices of the characters. They’re already working on the fifteenth book, in which Hank has to write the story of his life.
“Writing paragraphs for him is like climbing Mt. Everest,” Winkler says. “Hank’s smitten with a young lady for the first time. She’s the coolest.”
The biggest appeal of the books, he says, is that they’re funny. “This kid is resourceful. He gets into all kinds of trouble ... Everybody identifies with him. Hank’s their brother. Their friend. Even the Fonz reads Hank. He trips over a lot of the words,” he laughs.
Winkler knew he wanted to be an actor from the age of seven. He began doing commercials and got his first major film role in “The Lords of Flatbush,” playing a member of a Brooklyn gang. The struggling actor was in Los Angeles for a month, out of money and ready to head back home when he landed the role of high school dropout, Fonzie Fonzarelli, on “Happy Days.” Getting that role was “like your life exploding,” Winkler says. “I love the Fonz. He introduced me to the world.”
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