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By Billie Schwab Dunn
Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter
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Without naming names, Henry Winkler has said he worked with an actor who was so mean that he told the Happy Days star he'd "rip" his head off.
Winkler played the cool greaser Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli—otherwise known as "The Fonz" or "Fonzie"—on all 11 seasons of Happy Days, which ran from 1974 to 1984.
On Wednesday's episode of Kelly Ripa's Let's Talk Off Camera podcast, titled "Henry Winkler: Has Never Jumped the Shark," the actor shared a story about the difficult person he worked with.
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The episode title is a reference to a Happy Days episode in which Fonzie jumped over a shark while water-skiing. The phrase "jumping the shark" then became a way to describe shows that had gone past their peak, losing credibility by resorting to purely ratings-grabbing scenes.
Newsweek contacted a spokesperson for Winkler for further comment by email on Thursday.
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On the podcast, Ripa asked the actor: "As, in my opinion, the nicest man in Hollywood, and certainly the nicest man in show business, when you're dealing with somebody who is not nice—and in show business, there are a lot of not-nice people—what is your approach for dealing with not-nice people?"
Winkler said he treated those kinds of people as "sociological events."
"Do not take it personally. I worked with an actor who called me 'Thumper' because he could not get me angry," he added.
"I worked with an actor who was mean and overbearing, and no matter what he said to me—and he said to me at a moment in my working with him, 'You are so lucky that you are short, or I would rip your head off your neck.' And I said, 'Let me say, I have never been so happy to be this short,'" he continued.
When Ripa jokingly asked if it was Anson Williams, who played Warren "Potsie" Weber on Happy Days, Winkler said he and the other members of the cast were like family.
"It wasn't him. The members of the Happy Days cast that, bless them, are still alive are very much family. We see each other. We love each other. We take care of each other," he said.
Elsewhere in the episode, Winkler shared the moment he ran into Robert De Niro while with actor and director Ron Howard, his co-star on the hit show. The two men were walking down the street at Paramount, taking a break from rehearsing Happy Days.
"Leaning against the doorframe is Robert De Niro; he's doing a scene for Godfather II. I said to Ron, 'We've got to go and say hello.' The first movie I ever saw in Hollywood—like a screening; you know, you get invited to a screening—Mean Streets. Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel," he said.
"So we go up, and we say hello. And we're finished, and we're going to walk away, and I turn around, and I said: Mr. De Niro, I just have to tell you, you use the word f*** better than anybody on the planet.'
"Cut to 40 years later: He's in The Intern, directed by an acquaintance of ours, Nancy Meyers. We go to the premiere party, Stacy and I, and against the back wall: Robert De Niro wearing one of those Irish caps. I walk up to him. I turn. I face the—I stand against the wall. I'm looking at him, and I said, 'I have to ask you, like every fan has asked me, I need to take a selfie with you.'
"He said OK. I get my camera out. I'm taking the selfie, and he says, '40 years ago, you said I use the word f*** better than anybody.' I dropped the camera. I went: 'He remembers! Oh my God, I exist! Oh, this is the most amazing thing.' That's my great story."
Ripa and Winkler also discussed his book Being Henry: The Fonz … and Beyond, in which he said he "never jumps the shark."
"You just never disappoint. You never ever disappoint … You, pardon the pun, never jump the shark. You just keep giving and giving and giving," Ripa said.
"I've got to tell you, I got hooked by the beyond. I bought it for the Fonz, and I stayed for the beyond," she added.
Winkler said: "What a lovely way to say it. Thank you."
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