Henry Winkler loves the bronze statue of his famous “Happy Days” character, Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli, except for one aspect.
The legendary actor paid his most recent visit to the “Bronze Fonz” statue in Milwaukee on his 80th birthday in October 2025 and came away with a quibble.
“You know what pisses me off? He’s taller,” Winkler joked to Sheinelle Jones and Willie Geist on TODAY April 22. “He’s taller than I am. I don’t look him in the eye.”
The 5-foot-6 Winkler made Fonzie into one of television’s most legendary characters and an enduring symbol of cool during the run of “Happy Days” from 1974 to 1984.
The show about a group of adolescents growing up in the Midwest in the 1950s and ’60s was set in Milwaukee, which honored Winkler with the statue by artist Gerald P. Sawyer on the Milwaukee Riverwalk in 2008.
It depicts Fonzie in his classic black leather jacket, white T-shirt and jeans while giving his iconic “ayyyy” two thumbs up gesture. Winkler shared a photo with his doppelgänger to X in 2016, writing, “OH YES I visit when I’m in Milwaukee.”
“What a thing in your life,” Winkler said on TODAY. “People told me I would never achieve, and I have a statue. I mean, c’mon. And a cool one. A tall one.”
The grandfather of seven remains a television and film mainstay. His latest show, “Hazardous History with Henry Winkler,” airs at 9 p.m. ET Sunday nights on the History Channel. It tells the story of reckless moments in American life, when it was normal to use risky products like lawn darts and get swept up in crazes like cramming in phone booths and sitting on flagpoles.
Winkler also stars in the crime thriller “Normal” with Bob Odenkirk, which is in theaters now, about a remote Minnesota town concealing a dark secret.
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