WINKLER STILL 'FONZ' OF HIS OLD ROLE.(TV Magazine)

Byline: Cynthia Robins

I n 1974, a young Yale-trained actor appeared in the opening credits of an ABC sitcom called Happy Days. He played your basic '50s street hood - greased-back duck tail and black leather jacket, and he had his "dese, dem and dose" patois down to a science. As he lifted his comb to his Vitalis-slicked hair, he gazed in the mirror, shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "You can't improve on perfection," and nodded to his image.

In those brief moments, one of television's most indelible and beloved characters was born. The Fonz, aka Arthur Fonzarelli, aka Fonzie, became not only the series' sex symbol but its focal point and its conscience. The actor who played Fonzie was Henry Winkler. And now, 12 years after that narcissistic minuet in the mirror, Winkler has forsworn The Fonz and acting for his second and third careers - producer/ director.

The Fonz's alter ego is 41 years old now. And if …