Since pretty much forever, Tom Hanks has been widely regarded as the nicest guy in Hollywood.
Perhaps due his success in lovable roles such as Forrest Gump, Big, Castaway, or as Woody in Toy Story to name just a few, or perhaps due to the heartwarming stories of encounters with the actor when he’s out and about, the idea Tom Hanks is the nicest guy in Hollywood is often accepted as gospel.
It turns out, however, not everyone thinks so, and the 63-year-old actor has apparently been harbouring a secret feud since the late 1980s.
The ‘feud’ is apparently between Tom Hanks and Henry Winkler, aka The Fonz in Happy Days, Gene Cousineau in Barry, Barry Zuckerkorn the inept lawyer in Arrested Development, and Coach Klein from The Waterboy, among many others.
Appearing on an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Winkler was asked to address the rumours he doesn’t get along with Hanks, which apparently all started on the set of Hanks’ 1989 cop and dog buddy movie Turner and Hooch.
On the show, a call comes in from a fan who asks: ‘What was the real reason why you and Tom Hanks didn’t get along on the set of Turner and Hooch, and did you ever wind up seeing that movie?’
To which host Andy Cohen responds: ‘Is that a thing?!’
Winkler at first responds by jokingly putting his hand to his ear and saying: ‘What did you say?’
He then explains:
I was directing that movie for 13 days, and then I was called into [former Walt Disney Studios chairman] Jeff Katzenberg‘s office and he said “Do you have everything with you? Go home.”
He adds:
I got along great, great… with that dog. That dog… love that dog.
You can watch it here:
Since the film’s release thirty years ago, it was rumoured but never confirmed Hanks and Winkler frequently argued on set, with Hanks being responsible for Winkler’s firing. The former Fonz was then replaced by British-Canadian director Roger Spottiswoode.
In 1993, Winkler told People: ‘Let’s just say I got along better with Hooch [a canine] than I did with Turner [Hanks].’
Winkler seems pretty good at keeping up his end of the rumoured feud though, as when he’s asked whether he ever saw the film, he says: ‘I don’t remember the title of that movie.’
It’s Turner and Hooch, Henry, and I’d recommend it, it’s a classic.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.