Henry Winkler had no inner conflict with the characters he played. Winkler's Happy Days role, Arthur Fonzarelli, became greater than the television series he was born on, possibly even bigger than Winkler himself.

Still, Winkler never resented the character he made famous; rather, he held him in high regard.

"I like him and I love him," Winkler said of the Fonz during an interview with the Miami News. "I don't like being called The Fonz, but I don't hate him. That's something the press has made up."

While Winkler was aware of The Fonz's fame, he wasn't interested in merging fiction into reality.

"Fonzie is a fantasy," said Winkler. "There is no way that I could be like that man and I don't consider it a tribute that they confuse me with him...It's just that I leave Fonzie in my dressing room after the show and become who I am, Henry Winkler. I don't mind talking about the show at all, it's just that I don't want to be The Fonz."

Winkler, a very talented actor, has enjoyed a long career, full of wonderful roles. He admitted sometimes playing The Fonz felt limiting, though he found his own ways to develop the character.

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"I have been frustrated by being one character," said Winkler. "Actually, I have taken The Fonz a long way in the five years that I have been playing him. He changes in different ways every year. He's more verbal now; he laughed for the first time last year and he almost cried in public for the first time in three years."

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