Tom Hanks and Henry Winkler’s decades-long feud remains unresolved, according to the Happy Days star.
The two actors fell out when Winkler was recruited to direct the 1989 Hanks film Turner & Hooch, about a police officer partnered with a dog. Due to “creative differences,” Winkler was fired from the set after 13 days and replaced by Roger Spottiswoode.
“I got along better with Hooch [the dog] than I did with Turner [Hanks],” Winkler said in 1993.
On the latest episode of In Depth With Graham Bensinger, Winkler was asked about the inception of their falling out.
“I guess at that time, being insecure, I talked too much,” he said, explaining that he had notes for Hanks and Mare Winningham’s performances. “And I gave them direction — what I thought was my job — and I wanted to do it over again. And apparently, that pissed them off.”
Winkler’s time as director came to an abrupt end less than two weeks into filming. He recalled being summoned to studio executive Jeff Katzenberg’s office before returning to the set to collect his belongings. “I get my things, I drive home, I’m fired as a director,” he said.
“I don’t handle it well. I’m devastated,” he admitted.
Asked about the “genesis of any negative feelings” between the two of them, Winkler responded, “I don’t know,” before noting that Hanks was a guest star on Happy Days before he was a movie star.
Hanks guest-starred on Happy Days in 1982, playing Fonzie’s (Winkler’s) former classmate.
Winkler then revealed that Hanks later turned down an appearance in a televised tribute to the sitcom.
“We did a retrospective on Happy Days, and we wanted 60 seconds of Tom Hanks in his episode, and we did not get permission for that,” he said.
Bensinger asked, “What’s your perspective on it?”
“I am still working on my perspective,” Winkler responded. “I think his wife, Rita, was also a guest on Happy Days in the beginning.”
“Do you think that relationship ever repairs itself?” Bensinger asked.
“Sure,” Winkler said.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2020, filmmaker Ron Howard, who is friends with both Hanks and Winkler, described their feud as “disappointing.”
“I’m friends with them both and both men felt compelled to come to talk to me about it. It was just one of those unfortunate things where they really had a working style that did not fit. I know it was painful for both of them and I was able to lend an ear, if not offer any solutions,” he said.
Howard rose to fame as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days alongside Winkler and has directed Hanks in five films, including Apollo 13 and Splash.
Howard added that he has invited both men to his birthday parties, and claimed that there was no animosity between the two.
“It’s been a lot of years, two men with a lot of water under the bridge,” Howard said.
