Key Points
-
Ron Howard said he wore disguises during the height of Happy Days‘ popularity.
-
The actor-director said he felt he had to “lay low” in public places.
-
Howard starred on the sitcom from 1974 to 1980.
Being on a show as popular as Happy Days came with challenges bigger than who to take to the sock hop.
Ron Howard, who played central character Richie Cunningham on the retro sitcom between 1974 and 1980, recalled at the 2026 Hamptons International Film Festival that it became a little toobeloved for the cast’s comfort.
“It did get to the point, the show was so popular that — it sounds a little ridiculous, but you’d sort of have to wear little disguises and things,” Howard said. “If you wanted to go to a mall or go to Disneyland or go out to the movies even, you had to lay low.”
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.
For Howard, whose character was squeaky clean and wholesome, that meant attempting to take on a look that was more like the one rocked by Henry Winkler’s character, the leather jacket–clad Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli.
“I had kind of a leather jacket that was tough. Not a Fonzie leather jacket, but this ’50s motorcycle cop kind of thing,” Howard said. “And I would let my hair grow out a little bit and what I could grow of a mustache or something like that and wear shades. I tried to look tough. My disguise was simply to try to be a little bit tough.”
He noted that the chaos he encountered “was another thing that pushed me to want to get behind the camera.”
Howard has, of course, gone on to direct movies such as 2001’s A Beautiful Mind, for which he won Best Director at the Oscars; 1985’s Cocoon; 1991’s Backdraft; 1995’s Apollo 13; 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas; and 2008’s Frost/Nixon,among many others.
He’s said Winkler helped boost his behind-the-camera credits when he agreed to star in Howard’s 1982 comedy Night Shift, which starred Michael Keaton and Shelley Long.
Howard, at that point, had just a handful of directing credits on his resume, including mostly shorts and TV movies.
“When Henry said yes to Night Shift, that’s what got that movie greenlit,” Howard told PEOPLE in May 2025. “He played a hand in helping my dream ultimately come true, which was to be a studio, Hollywood, feature director.”
Several of the surviving cast members are still friends, and the fans, well, they’re still watching reruns.
“The fact that the show endures… it kind of blows my mind in an interesting way,” Howard said. “There’s something about that that doesn’t age. It was nostalgia when it was made.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
