How attacking Fonzie changed Tom Hanks’ career: “I kicked him through the stained glass window”
The film industry is full of coincidences, happenstances, and domino effects that end up changing the course of history, and one of them ended up serving as the catalyst for Tom Hanks‘ unstoppable rise from fresh-faced comedic talent to one of the most respected actors of his generation.
The success of Big and his first Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actor’ that came with it are credited for propelling the rising star onto the A-list. However, he’d already been working for a decade at that point, with Ron Howard’s fantasy comedy Splash marking him out as somebody with massive potential as early as his second-ever big-screen role.
If he hadn’t thrown hands with one of the small screen’s most iconic and popular characters, though, things could have turned out very differently. During his early years on-screen, Hanks popped up in a number of TV shows, including The Love Boat, Taxi, and Family Ties, but it was Happy Days that gave him a significant leg-up.
In the episode ‘A Little Case of Revenge’, Hanks appears as Dr Dwayne Twitchell, a former classmate of Henry Winkler’s Arthur ‘Fonzie’ Fonzarelli. Unbeknownst to the leather jacket-wearing beacon of coolness, his former acquaintance has been harbouring a grudge ever since they were youngsters and also happens to be both a doctor and a karate expert.
Seeking revenge, Hanks remains adamant that he was the first person in the history of Happy Days to inflict physical damage upon Fonzie, as he explained on The Jess Cagle Show. “I kicked Fonzie. I got dressed up in a judo karate outfit,” he said. “And I think I’m legendarily the first guy to actually strike Fonzie. I kicked him through the stained glass window of Al’s Drive-in.”
Although Howard had already left Happy Days as a cast member by that point to pursue a career in filmmaking, he was still a regular viewer who’d check in to catch up on the latest goings-on. At the time, he was trying to pitch a mermaid romance at a studio with no major names that were all that interested in working with. It led him directly to Hanks.
Hanks admitted that “no one wanted to work for Disney, and no one would take the job” of playing Allen Bauer in Splash until somebody said, “Hey, this guy who kicked Fonzie through a plate-glass window might be good.” He auditioned for the part, secured the role, and when Splash took off at the box office, his star was firmly on the rise.
The two-time Academy Award winner would go on to re-team with Howard on Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and Inferno, a fruitful partnership that may not have even existed in the first place had he not booted Fonzie through a window.
