HENRY WINKLER TO DELIVER COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

Henry Winkler, actor, director, producer and children’s author, will deliver this year’s commencement address to New England Tech graduates on Sunday, May 7, 2006. Winkler became one of the most recognizable actors in the world with his portrayal of the ultimate 1950’s cool guy Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli” on the hit TV show Happy Days which is still being shown on cable TV thirty years after its original run. Winkler has most recently starred in the CBS series Out of Practice. In June you’ll be able to see him co-starring in the movie Click with Adam Sandler.
    Playing the role of “Fonzie” gave Winkler his first big break in show business. The leather-jacket clad auto mechanic with the perfect hair and cool wisdom was supposed to be a bit part, but Winkler turned it into much more, and in so doing endeared the character to generations of television viewers.
     Winkler says, “I loved the Fonz. As a matter of fact he introduced me to the world. He’s been shown in 126 countries and wherever I go, I’m invited to dinner.” Winkler says playing the role of Fonzie gave him confidence, a way to earn a living and support his family and motivation to push himself past the typecasting that followed his successful and long running portrayal of the character.
    When Fonzie hung up his leather jacket, which is now on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., Winkler took a break from acting to produce and direct television programs and feature films. He focused on creating quality children’s programming and won the prestigious Humanitas Prize for his first venture, a documentary called Who Are the DeBolts and Where Did They Get 19 Kids?, a program about Dorothy and Robert DeBolt and the physically and emotionally challenged children they adopted. He went on to win an Emmy award for a program on teenage drunk driving called All The Kids Do It.
    Eventually Winkler returned to his first love, acting, and sought roles very different from the infamous Fonz. He starred in Down To You with Freddie Prinze, Jr and has appeared in numerous movies including Waterboy and Little Nicky with Adam Sandler. He has been in dozens of television shows including The Practice, Arrested Development, and Saturday Night Live. He also made a return to Broadway, starring in Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party.
    The coolest role Winkler ever played may just be that of himself. He’s made it his life’s work to improve the lives of kids and give them an easier time in childhood than he had.
    Winkler is the last person many thought would achieve success. As a child he was often labeled stupid and lazy and says he spent much of his childhood “grounded” for not trying harder. It wasn’t until he was 31 years old that he found out he was dyslexic. “First you get angry, second you realize ‘oh my goodness this is so great. I’m not stupid, I’m not lazy, there’s something else,’” says Winkler.
    Dyslexia is like a short circuit in the brain that makes reading and writing difficult. Words and numbers look different, sometimes incomprehensible to those with dyslexia, causing a huge source of frustration to the often brilliant people who live with the affliction.
    Winkler used humor to get by when he was a kid and as he became a successful actor. He now uses it to write books for kids that are based on his life as a dyslexic child. It’s an approach that works well. Winkler’s tenth book in a series called Hank Zipzer, The World’s Greatest Underachiever comes out in August. He’s already at work on his eleventh book. Winkler co-writes the books with Lin Oliver. He paces the room, she uses the computer as they collaborate on books about a young boy who gets in all sorts of trouble, but is resourceful about finding a way out of it. More than a million and a half of the books have sold. They are read by teachers in grade school classrooms across the country.
Winkler has received letters of appreciation from many teachers and parents, but those that stand out are the letters that come from young readers who identify with the main character and want to know how Winkler “knows them so well.” Through his books, Winkler wants kids to know that they are not alone. “They are incredibly great,” says Winkler. “They have greatness in them and they are resourceful.”
    Winkler says his greatest sense of accomplishment in life, next to being a good Father to his three children, has been creating the book series.
    Beyond the books he’s written and the programs he’s produced, Winkler has worked with numerous children’s charities and outreach programs. He and his wife teamed up with director Steven Spielberg and his wife, along with other families in the entertainment industry, to create the Children’s Action Network. The organization has provided immunizations for 200,000 children under the age of three, and feeds about 8,000 children each year.
    New England Institute of Technology will present Henry Winkler with an honorary doctor of humane letters in recognition of his life’s achievements.
    The topic of Winkler’s speech to New England Tech grads is If You Will It, It Is Not a Dream. It follows a theme that’s resounded in his own life, that of achieving success through sheer will and determination.
    Commencement begins at 11 a.m. at the Rhode Island Convention Center in downtown Providence.