Henry Winkler Revealed A Big Mistake In His Life That Made John Travolta Famous: 'Damn Fool'

The actor told an episode that could change the fate of the movie “Grease”.

“Every day someone asks me about it, so I think about it every day. grease. It was a gift, a huge joy to be in that movie,” he told her. Olivia Newton-John a Clarion in 2016.

The English-Australian actress, who died on August 8 at the age of 73, will always be remembered as the Sandy of the successful 1978 film, that Broadway musical that was adapted for the cinema and in which she starred alongside John Travolta.

The one who shouldn’t remember that movie fondly is actor Henry Winklerone of the beautiful faces of Hollywood in the ’70s.

Winkler sat down with Chris Wallace in an interview for CNN and revealed that it was a “damn fool” for passing up the iconic lead role of Danny Zuko in “Grease”.

After a decade of playing the legendary character from Arthur Fonzarelli, Fonzie, in “Happy Days”, from 1974 to 1984, Winkler did not receive many offers for other high-profile roles.

Henry Winkler starred in the unforgettable "phoenix" in Happy Days, one of the great comedies in the history of television in the United States.

Henry Winkler starred as the unforgettable “Fonzie” on Happy Days, one of the great comedies in American television history.

But in ’77, while working on “Happy Days,” Winkler was offered the lead role in “Grease” about John Travolta, but turned it down for fear of being typecast.

“I’m a bloody fool” the 77-year-old actor now said. “I only found out years later,” he acknowledged.

Henry Winkler humorously made his terrible decision not to accept the leading role in the film “Grease.”

And he left a sentence for the story: “I’m going home and I’ll have a Diet Coke. John Travolta, who made the movie, goes home and a plane is bought“.

“Grease”, the phenomenon where Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were almost left out

Both Travolta and Olivia Newton-John were about to be left out of the “Grease” casting. She herself would tell years later that in 1970 she had filmed a musical, toomorrowthe group he was a part of at the time, and which had been a failure.

Plus, she was too old to play that innocent teenager: he was 28 years old, while Travolta was 23.

Both were friends and the actor, who was already known for always banking his friends and at that time already had a certain badge due to the fury of Fever Saturday night (1977), he played it for her.

“I couldn’t have done the movie if I hadn’t met John, because I wasn’t sure I was going to do it. He talked me into it,” Newton-John revealed in a Clarin interview at the beginning of 2018.

“John Travolta wanted it to be me, and we did a screen test and it was really good. And then I accepted”detailed in that same note.

August 15, 2018: Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta dance on the red carpet for the 40th anniversary of the premiere of “Grease.” AFP photo

The truth is that Newton-John’s career skyrocketed after starring in grease. And at the same time, like any unprecedented phenomenon, it would not repeat such a success.

Not only was the film the highest-grossing movie of 1978, but its soundtrack spent 12 non-consecutive weeks at number one and placed three singles in the Top 5 of the charts: platinum You’re the One That I Want -with John Travolta-, Hopefully Devoted to You and the gold summer nightsalso with Travolta and the rest of the film’s cast.

Just as in greasetheir characters Sandy Olson and Danny Zuko fall in love for one summer, Newton-John and Travolta remained friends for more than 40 years. A whole story that perhaps would have been different if Henry Winkler had said: “I accept”.