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Henry Winkler And Marlee Matlin Inspire Opening of Centurion 2015 | February 11, 2015 (0 comments)
Scottsdale, AZ—Henry Winkler, best known for his role as Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli on the TV sitcom Happy Days, and actress Marlee Matlin, who won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in Children of A Lesser God, wowed the audience at Centurion Scottsdale 2015’s opening day breakfast.
Few in the audience were aware of the connection between Winkler, 69, and Matlin, 49. Though they seem an unlikely pair with their 20-year age difference, their paths crossed on many occasions, beginning when Winkler went to Chicago once with the Happy Days cast. While there, he visited a special theatre for both hearing and deaf children where a 12-year-old Matlin was playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
Both Winkler and Matlin struggled with disability: it’s well known that she is deaf, but few people know that Winkler is severely dyslexic and struggled throughout school. In the bottom 3% of his class, he was accepted to only two of the 28 colleges he applied to, attending Emerson College in Boston.
Winkler knew from age seven that he was born to be an actor, but he also struggled with unsupportive parents: German-Jewish immigrants who’d fled from the Nazis and built a business, but didn’t understand their son’s disability or his determination to do something they didn’t see as useful.
“They used to call me dummehundt (German for ‘stupid dog’)” says Winkler. They wanted him to go into the family lumber business, and didn’t approve of his dream to be an actor or of his choice to go to the Yale School of Drama after college. Nevertheless, he went on to Yale, and proceeded to New York where he worked in enough commercials to fund his way to Los Angeles and the fateful audition that landed him the part of Fonzie.
Matlin’s parents, meanwhile, were very supportive throughout her life. Through an interpreter, she told the audience her childhood could have been The Brady Bunch, and she credits her parents’ determination to raise her as normal as possible.
“I always envisioned myself as the beautiful Marcia Brady. But I really grew into Alice the maid,” she joked with the audience about her own family of husband and four children.
Actress Marlee Matlin, left, signs to actor Henry Winkler during their presentation at Centurion, Wednesday, Feb. 4.
“It was about me, not deaf me,” she says of her parents’ attitude. When the family doctor suggested she be sent to a boarding school for the deaf, her parents refused, saying, “But who is going to put Marlee to bed at night and say ‘I love you?’”
Her parents and her older brothers emphasized that she could do anything a hearing child could do, she just had to work a little harder at it. Her brothers defended her deaf accent to other children, saying she was the daughter of foreign spies, and she herself would tell playmates her hearing aid was really just bubble gum. She also was an avid reader, devouring many books throughout her childhood.
Young Matlin marched up to Winkler after her Wizard of Oz performance and told him she was going to be an actor, just like he was. Her parents, meanwhile, begged him to dissuade her—the only time they didn’t believe in any possibility for her—but having been tremendously impressed with the passion of her performance, he refused.
“That girl is more talented even than me,” he told her parents. At age 19, she landed the part in Children of a Lesser God. Winkler, reading about it in the movie trade Variety, contacted her with a bouquet of flowers. After she’d won the Oscar—and a particularly venomous columnist called it a pity award—she visited Winkler and his wife, Stacey, at home, confiding her doubts in herself.
They invited her to live with them and, for 2-1/2 years, she did. For her, Winkler became a mentor and teacher, while his wife, Stacey, “made the best brisket ever!” she laughed, citing their shared Jewish roots.
“It was great,” he joked. “All her dates were tall and could get stuff off high shelves for me.” Matlin’s wedding (to Burbank police officer Kevin Grandalski in 1993) was held at the Winklers’ home.
In addition to his acting career, Winkler also has written 28 children’s books, 17 of which star a fourth-grade boy character named Hank Zipzer, “the world’s greatest underachiever.” Hank of course is a nickname for Henry and Zipzer was the name of a woman who lived in the Winklers’ building when he was growing up, he told the audience. But the books, written in collaboration with Lin Oliver, have helped Winkler deal with his own history of dyslexia and also have helped many children with the disability learn to deal with it. He stars as the teacher, Mr. Rock, in a TV adaptation of the Hank Zipzer books, and in 2011 he was awarded an honorary officer of the Order of the British Empire for his work with dyslexic children and others with special learning disabilities. His latest book actually is written for younger children and has been printed in a special font designed to make reading easier for dyslexics.
During the question and answer session, many members of the audience revealed that they, too, were dyslexic or had deaf family members.
“No matter what barriers we face, everyone has a right to be included!” emphasized Matlin to the audience. With the help of her longtime interpreter Jack Jason, she led the audience in signing “Courage + Dreams = Success.”
“The three most important words are ‘I will try!’” Winkler told the audience. Both actors remained after the session for photos and meet-and-greet with audience members.