- - ‘Happy Days’ Star Henry Winkler Reveals Why He Refuses to Stop Working at 80

Victoria MillerDecember 29, 2025 at 4:34 AM

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Photo by Gilbert Flores on Getty Images

Henry Winkler says he has no plans to retire anytime soon. In a new interview, the beloved Happy Days star, who turned 80 in October, told the IMO With Michelle Obama & Craig Robinson podcast that he feels “grateful” for his long career and has no desire to call it a day.

“I'm very grateful,” Winkler said in the interview posted in December 2025. “You know, people keep asking me, Am I gonna retire? Or ‘Have you retired?’ And I think that is like the furthest thing from my imagination. I will retire when I am not able to do, again, more. You know, I just, I think that it is deadly.”

“I need, I work a lot,” the Fonzie actor added. “I have several jobs. I do a wonderful show on the History Channel called Hazardous History, which, when they presented it to me, I just loved the facts of it. I thought, ‘This is outrageous.’ And it did so nicely because people watched. We were now picked up for thirty [episodes]. Our newest children's book came out on September 30th. This is the fortieth. We have 40 children's books. The newest one is Detective Duck.”

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Winkler, who won his first Emmy Award in 2018 for his supporting role as Gene Cousineau in HBO’s Barry, previously told People magazine that retirement was not on his mind. "I have no license for that," he said in 2023. "I just have that feeling. I will stop when I have to stop."

While he’s still going strong at 80, Winkler admitted that he needs a few extra minutes in the morning to get himself acclimated for a long day.

“I deserve new knees,” Winkler joked on Obama and Robinson’s podcast. “I get out of bed, and I go make a cup of coffee. And then I have to go back to bed and invite my knees to come with me. You know. They're still lounging.“

Despite the knee lounging, Winkler recently surprised fans with an Instagram video of him ziplining over the holidays. “Still zipping at 80,” he captioned the clip that showed him gliding through the woods.

This story was originally published by Parade on Dec 29, 2025, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”