Henry Winkler has opened up about how his struggles with dyslexia left him feeling “humiliated” during table reads for his ABC comedy Happy Days.
Winkler, 77, appeared as sex symbol Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli in all 11 seasons of the show, from the age of 27.
In his new memoir, Being Henry: The Fonz… and Beyond, the actor writes about how it wasn’t until he was 31 that he realised he was severely dyslexic.
“Even in the midst of Happy Days, at the height of my fame and success, I felt embarrassed, inadequate,” Winkler writes, according to People.
“Every Monday at 10 o’clock, we would have a table reading of that week’s script, and at every reading I would lose my place or stumble. I would leave a word out, a line out. I was constantly failing to give the right cue line, which would then screw up the joke for the person doing the scene with me.
“Or I would be staring at a word, like ‘invincible,’ and have no idea on earth how to pronounce it or even sound it out.”
Winkler says he and his brain were “in different zip codes”, adding: “Meanwhile, the other actors would be waiting, staring at me: it was humiliating and shameful.
“Everybody in the cast was warm and supportive, but I constantly felt I was letting them down. I had to ask for my scripts really early, so I could read them over and over again – which put extra pressure on the writers, who were already under the gun every week, having to get 24 scripts ready in rapid succession.
“All this at the height of my fame and success, as I was playing the coolest guy in the world.”
Henry Winkler in ‘Happy Days’— (Henderson/Miller-Milkis/Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock)
Winkler was eventually evaluated for the disorder after his stepson was examined. He writes that, after finally being diagnosed, he was “so f***ing angry” because “all the misery I’d gone through had been for nothing”.
“All the yelling, all the humiliation, all the screaming arguments in my house as I was growing up – for nothing. It was genetic! It wasn’t a way I decided to be! And then I went from feeling this massive anger to fighting through it.”
In the years since, Winkler has worked to raise awareness about dyslexia.
Speaking to The Independent in 2016 about his years of visiting schools around the world, hoping to inspire those who might also be struggling, he said: “When I tell them that they have greatness inside them, and that they are not defined by academia, they all sit up, their bodies become alert, and they go: ‘Holy mackerel! Do you mean that even though I’m not good at geometry, I might still be a smart person?’
“I tell you, watching their reaction – it’s like a gift from heaven. I love it.”
Winkler’s memoir is published on 31 October.
