SECRET TO HAPPINESS

THE FAMOUSLY FRIENDLY STAR HID A LIFELONG STRUGGLE WITH DYSLEXIA AND SELF-DOUBT. IN HIS NEW MEMOIR, WINKLER COMES CLEAN ABOUT HIS JOURNEY TO JOY

- ANDREA MANDELL

Henry Winkler’s cup is so full he’s afraid to jinx it. “I don’t have enough buckets for the overflow,” declares the star as he sits in his sun-drenched family room in Los Angeles, a haven for his six grandkids. Under the TV, baskets overflow with toys, glass candy jars line a nearby shelf, and a giant, colorful couch is hemmed in by a neat row of tot-size recliners. It all reflects the rich life Winkler has cultivated offscreen with Stacey, his wife of 45 years, and their three children—Jed, 52, from Stacey’s former marriage, Max, 40, and Zoe, 43— since the star took his final bow as a scene-stealing greaser on Happy Days.

But none of what led to it—or what followed— came easily, as Winkler describes in his new memoir Being Henry: The Fonz...And Beyond. Leaving his hit 1950s-set sitcom, he was so determined not to be typecast he turned down Grease. The role went to John Travolta. “I was dumb,” says Winkler, who went on to feel artistically unfulfilled for years. “I spent most of my adult life being frightened, on the outside looking like I had it together and mostly being anxious.”

At 78, Winkler is ready to pull back the curtain on his difficult childhood, his experience with severe dyslexia and what he’s learned about himself through the highs and lows of his career. Those fallow years ultimately steered him toward new opportunities: He wrote children’s books, produced the original MacGyver series and embraced against-type characters. “The biggest lesson, looking back, is not only must you be tenacious, you have to take a leap of faith,” says Winkler, who in 2018 returned to Hollywood’s peak with his Emmy-winning turn as an insufferable acting coach on HBO’s dark comedy