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Henry Winkler, 80, has just posted one of the most genuinely joyful photos of his career. The Happy Days star met his idol, Anthony Hopkins, 88, this week, getting together with their wives for a sunny afternoon and a photo that Winkler immediately shared on X. His caption was simple and completely sincere: "Stacey and I met my idol today!!! And his fabulous wife Stella." Fans quickly noticed the beautiful painting in the foreground. Winkler confirmed Hopkins painted it himself. "Anthony is an artist and a composer," he wrote.
Hopkins has been painting seriously for decades and has composed classical music performed by orchestras. The man Winkler has spent 50 years wanting to become turns out to be three artists in one.
The photo shows Winkler in a blue shirt and beige jacket, beaming. Hopkins is in a Hawaiian shirt and purple trousers. Their wives, Stacey Weitzman and Stella Arroyave, are beside them. Everyone is smiling. Hopkins is 88 and still making films. Winkler is 80 and still working. Between them they've got over a century of creative life, and neither one looks finished. It's the kind of photo that doesn't need a caption, but the caption makes it better anyway.
Henry Winkler has been one of the most beloved figures in American television for 50 years. He played the Fonz on Happy Days for eleven seasons. He won his first Emmy at 72 for his role as Gene Cousineau in Barry, the HBO comedy that gave him the most critically acclaimed performance of his career. He's written a series of children's books about a kid with learning differences, drawing on his own dyslexia that went undiagnosed until he was an adult. He's delivered commencement addresses and built one of the most complete careers in entertainment. He's 80 years old.
And he still says he hasn't become the actor he wants to be.
In 2023, Winkler sat down with Entertainment Weekly as Barry concluded and named Hopkins as an idol. "Some of my idols in acting are Jack Nicholson and Anthony Hopkins, where there's no distance between their soul and their character," he said. "You can't even put a sheet of paper between the two. There is something so magnificent about that. And I have been working to try to get there."
He said the same thing to NPR that same year. "I want to be the most talented actor. I want to be Anthony Hopkins. But I could never have played Gene Cousineau without this latter part of my life journey. And that's not even hyperbole. I want to say, definitively, that is true."
That's someone still doing the work.
Gene Cousineau, the washed-up acting teacher Winkler played so brilliantly in Barry, is a man whose delusions of grandeur mask genuine and complicated talent. There's something quietly extraordinary about Winkler playing a man who couldn't see his own gifts while privately saying he wanted to be Anthony Hopkins. He became a better actor after 70. He still says he hasn't arrived.
The Fonz wants to be Hannibal Lecter. That sentence contains the whole story.
From His First TV Appearance to His Greatest Idol
In February 2026, Winkler reposted a memory on X that stopped a lot of people. He shared a tribute to The Mary Tyler Moore Show and added above it: "My first TV appearance in Hollywood."
It was 1973. Season four, episode ten: "The Dinner Party." He played Steve Waldman, Rhoda's coworker who'd just been fired. Rhoda brings him to Mary's dinner party to cheer him up. He was uncredited. The following year he became the Fonz.
Fifty-three years later, he's posting photos with Anthony Hopkins and calling him his idol.
In May 2026, Winkler delivered the commencement address at Emerson College, his alma mater. Emerson announced it'd name its first stage production of each season in his honor. "You are powerful," he told graduates. "And in you is a great gift. Your job is to figure out what your gift is. Because this world needs every single one of you."
A man who still has idols is out there telling the next generation to find theirs.
Henry Winkler appeared on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1973 as a man who'd just lost his job. He became the Fonz the year after. He won his first Emmy at 72. He's 80 now and he just met the man he's spent decades saying he wants to become.
After 50 years, he's still reaching. That's not the Fonz. That's better.
