Henry Winkler has revealed he once had an encounter with the law — none other than the FBI.
The actor, 78, appeared on the "SmartLess" podcast, and during Monday's episode recalled how the FBI once arrived at his door just to "meet the Fonz."
"So I'm sitting in my apartment. I have a Victrola because everything was vinyl," he said, according to People. "I went to Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. I bought Dan Fogelberg, and I was listening to Dan Fogelberg on my rented Victrola. The door knocks."
Winkler described getting up to be greeted by "three men with badges."
"And I said, 'Oh no, you do not smell what you think you're smelling. Oh my God,' " he said.
"And they said, 'We're with the FBI.' Mhmm. 'We're not here for that. We just wanted to meet the Fonz,' " he continued referencing his "Happy Days" character. "I was so happy that I was not being put in handcuffs, I didn't care what they did."
Winkler's former co-star Ron Howard previously shared that he almost exited the show because of the actor. Winkler was an instant hit among audiences as the rebellious "greaser" Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, and network executives wanted to cash in on that by diverting the attention of the show onto him. Howard was not happy.
"They did come to me and said, 'Well the network would kind of like to change the name of the show to Fonzie's Happy Days,' " he told Entertainment Tonight in 2019. "And I said, 'Well, I don't think I wanna be in that show. I wanna be in "Happy Days" and I think Henry should have, you know, every opportunity to do everything — that's fantastic — but you know, I signed on for this other thing and I just really don't wanna do that. I think I'd go back to film school.' "
The show's creator, Garry Marshall, then stepped in.
"The one producer who wasn't there was Garry Marshall," Howard continued. "In fact, he was standing outside and he said, 'How'd that go in there?' And I said, 'Well, I don't wanna upset everybody and disappoint everybody, and I love Henry and I love the show, but I just, I just don't feel good about that.' And he said, 'It's not gonna happen then.' And that was that."