The only director who couldn’t stand Tom Hanks: “It was painful for both of them”
Trying to find anyone in Hollywood with a bad word to say about Tom Hanks is pretty damn difficult. He has long been known as one of the nicest guys in the business, beloved by peers and colleagues as much as by audiences worldwide.
However, if you dig deep into the Forrest Gump star’s career, there is one unsavoury situation he’d probably rather keep buried. After all, it’s one thing to learn that a director hated working with him—but it’s another entirely when that director is also regarded as one of the nicest men in the industry.
In the late 1980s, Touchstone Pictures smashed one of its studio records when it paid $1million for a script by Dennis Shyrack, the screenwriter of the seminal Clint Eastwood western Pale Rider and the action flick The Gauntlet. This was the most the studio had ever paid for a screenplay – so it’s amusing that the script was about a detective who tries to solve the murder of his best friend with the help of his slobbery, misbehaving French Mastiff dog.
Hanks, riding high on Big and The ‘Burbs, signed up to lead the canine buddy comedy, and Henry Winkler was brought on board to direct. Winkler, best known for playing ‘The Fonz’ in Happy Days, had moved into directing in the ’80s, helming his debut feature film Memories of Me in 1988. He probably thought he and Hanks were a match made in comedy heaven. Unfortunately, they instead experienced 13 days of hell before Winkler was unceremoniously booted off the project and replaced by Roger Spottiswoode.
Part of what makes the story so fascinating is how completely it clashes with the public reputations of everyone involved. Hanks, Winkler and Howard have all spent decades cultivating images as some of Hollywood’s most affable and professional figures, which only added to the intrigue surrounding the production. In an industry filled with notorious feuds and oversized egos, the idea that two famously likeable people simply could not make a project work together feels strangely refreshing in its ordinariness.
It also speaks to how fragile creative chemistry can be on a film set, particularly in comedy, where timing, tone and collaboration are everything. Even talented people with the best intentions can discover that their instincts fundamentally conflict once production begins.
The fact that neither Hanks nor Winkler has ever publicly escalated the disagreement likely explains why the incident has remained more of a Hollywood curiosity than a lasting scandal, especially given the enormous success both men enjoyed afterwards.
For years, nothing was known about what went on in those 13 days, aside from rumours that Winkler and Hanks had clashed. The star has always kept his powder dry about what happened, but Winkler has let a few things slip over the years. In 1993, he told People magazine, “Let’s just say I got along better with Hooch than I did with Turner,” and in 2020, he told Watch What Happens Live, “I got along great, great, with that dog. Love that dog.” When host Andy Cohen asked if he ever watched Turner & Hooch after getting fired, he deadpanned, “I don’t even remember the title of that movie.”
Interestingly, there was one person who this falling out hurt more than either Hanks or Winkler themselves. In 2020, Ron Howard – who worked closely with Winkler for years on Happy Days and the movie Night Shift and also directed Hanks in five movies – revealed it was “disappointing” that his two close pals couldn’t get along.
“I’m friends with them both, and both men felt compelled to come to talk to me about it,” Howard revealed to The Guardian. “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.”
As for whether either man held a grudge, both Winkler and Howard have dismissed the idea. Winkler claimed in 2020, “I don’t have a feud with Tom Hanks. What everybody says and what is true are two different things. I just saw him at our SAG Awards. It was beautiful.”
Similarly, Howard revealed that both men have been at several of his birthday parties and not felt compelled to relitigate the mysterious 13 days that shall not be named.
“It’s been a lot of years,” Howard nodded. “Two men with a lot of water under the bridge.”
