Ever since Henry Winkler won his first Primetime Emmy last fall, walking through the airport just hasn’t been the same.
“I’ll tell you where the validation comes,” he tells The Post. “It’s in the airport that you know whether or not what you’re doing is having an effect because there are people going and coming from every part of this country in every shape, size and age . . . saying, ‘Oh, my God, I love ‘Barry’! You’re so great on “Barry!” ‘I can’t wait for the second season of “Barry!” ‘”
They don’t have to wait long. “Barry,” an HBO dark comedy, returns for its second season on Sunday with Bill Hader as the hitman-turned-aspiring actor Barry Berkman. Winkler plays Barry’s affected acting coach, Gene Cousineau — and it’s that outsize, outrageous performance that finally won him the trophy that’s eluded him for the past 40-odd years.
Now 73, the native Upper West Sider — a graduate of both PS 87 and the McBurney School — has been around Hollywood long enough to know its ins and outs. Winkler’s first big break was starring opposite Sylvester Stallone in the ’50s homage film “The Lords of Flatbush.”
Winkler played the Brooklyn gang’s smart aleck, Butchey Weinstein.
“I loved Butchey,” he says. “That movie took a year to make, and I made $2,000 that year, and I made friends with Sly. We finished filming on Sept. 16 or 17, 1973, and the next day I was on a plane with enough money for one month to see if I could make my way in Hollywood.”
It didn’t take long. Within a year, he’d been cast in the career-making role of Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli, the cool cat of “Happy Days,” which kept him busy — and famous — for the next decade.
But there were dozens of movies, too: “Night Shift,” “The Waterboy” and “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” among them. And then there was his post-“Happy Days” TV work: as hapless lawyer Barry Zuckerkorn in “Arrested Development,” obstetrician and investor Dr. Saperstein in “Parks and Recreation” and the rogue-ish, estranged father in “Royal Pains.” On the NBC reality series “Better Late Than Never,” Winkler traveled the world for two seasons with William Shatner, George Foreman and Terry Bradshaw.
But it wasn’t until September that Winkler — who won two Daytime Emmys for his work on children’s TV and had been nominated for the Primetime Emmys five times — finally won for Best Supporting Actor in “Barry.”
When his name was announced that night, the silver-haired actor looked genuinely shocked.
“That was a great moment,” he says. “I’d been in that chair, I had been nominated many times before, but I had never gotten out of that chair. I had two Daytime Emmys, and those are proudly displayed [at home], but the elusive nighttime Emmy finally came into my house because of ‘Barry’ — and that was a wonderful moment, I must say.”
Winkler says Cousineau is based on the “14 or 15” acting teachers he’s had throughout his career.
“He’s a conglomeration of all those acting teachers, men and women, and people I’ve heard about from other actors and then my imagination,” he says. “You put that all together, and it comes out in a gelatinous blob known as ‘Gene Cousineau.’
“In the real world,” Winkler continues, “Gene reads for [the role of] ‘The man in the back of the line,’ but in his theater, he’s the king. There are posters on the walls of Gene’s office: ‘Produced by Gene Cousineau.’ ‘Written by Gene Cousineau.’ ‘Directed by Gene Cousineau.’
“There’s one of Gene as Peter Pan. It’s him flying as Peter, except that he didn’t dye his hair. He’s got the green hat with the feather but gray hair. That’s my favorite.”
Nor has it been lost on him that he first played the Fonz at age 27 and started as Gene at 72.
“Just flip the numbers,” he says. “Now, that is something to celebrate.”