Drew Barrymore Shares How Henry Winkler Completely Changed Her Life

Drew Barrymore has all the love in the world for Henry Winkler.

On Thursday, the talk show host had the former “Happy Days” star on Global’s “The Drew Barrymore Show” and opened things by revealing how Winkler changed her life forever.

“I wish that I was there to give you a hug because when I met you when I was young you actually changed my life forever, because The Fonz, the most important man on the planet, was nice,” she said. “I was like, ‘Then everybody has to be nice because The Fonz is nice.’ And you always, everyone around, I would clock the way you treated people and there was something about your kindness that made me know that that was like the marching order of life.”

“Wow, that is one of the most wonderful compliments I have ever gotten,” Winkler told her. “I never think of being nice, I think of being grateful. I think I am so happy that I get to do what I dreamt of doing and it has grown over the years. You talk about The Fonz, I got The Fonz on my 27th birthday, and I got ‘Barry’ on my 72nd birthday. And in a very few days I’m going to be 75, which is really hard to say because inside you don’t feel it but my knees are 75.”

Barrymore laughed, “Yes, my lower back is like 89. It’s true you get older and your number starts going up and what you thought seems like an older number doesn’t.”

Winkler added, “It’s true because when I was younger I would think 75, I don’t know what they are, but here I am and I have this wonderful, knock on wood, full life. I have a beautiful family. I get to do the work that I love to do. I also get to work with Lin Oliver and here it is, I can’t even tell you that my name is on a book, let alone many, is insane to me.”

Also on the show, Winkler talked about his first acting job on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”.

“I would tell you the first time when I came from NY to Hollywood, the first job I had, I had four lines on ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show,’ which was the ‘Friends’ of its time,” he said. “And they said, ‘Lunch,’ and all these big stars they all went to lunch and I was just in the middle of the soundstage and I had no idea where to go, no one had told me.”

He continued, “I felt really alone and I swore I would never let anybody on a set I was on feel that way ever again. No matter what show I do, if there is a guest, I take that guest man or woman by the hand and show them where they can get anything done during the day.”