In the 1970s, Ron Howard was one of the biggest stars on television, playing Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. And during the height of the ABC sitcom’s success, the actor would sometimes dress in a disguise to throw fans off when he was out in public. But it sounds like it was more of a Fonzie look than something Richie would wear.
During a recent panel at the 2026 Hamptons Film Festival, Howard, 72, said it got to the point that “the show was so popular that …you’d sort of have to wear little disguises and things” when out in public.
“If you wanted to go to a mall or go to Disneyland or go out to the movies even, you had to lay low,” he said, according to People magazine.
“I had kind of a leather jacket that was tough,” Howard shared. “Not a Fonzie leather jacket, but kind of this ‘50s motorcycle cop kind of thing. 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.”
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Howard wasn’t the only Happy Days star that had to deal with massive fandom at the time. He and co-stars Henry Winkler, Anson Williams and Don Most routinely went to fan meet-and-greets where they were overwhelmed by the large crowd turnouts.
During an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Winkler, who played tough guy Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli for all 11 seasons of Happy Days, said the group once went to a fan appearance in Dallas where 25,000 people were waiting to meet him and his co-stars.
Winkler also once shared that his future wife Stacey Weitzman got a look at his massive fame firsthand when they went on their first date in the mid-1970s—and he didn’t disguise himself.
“She wanted to go to the movies,” he told People. “And I told her that might be difficult. She wanted to know why. I said, ‘I don’t know how to describe it to you.’ When we got to the theater, I told her we should sit in the back. She didn’t understand, so we sat in the middle of the theater. And the entire theater came over and said hello. And Stacey said, ‘Oh!’”
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