10 Actors Who Were Too Scared To Accept Movie Roles

5. ...And Henry Winkler Was Scared Of Being Typecast By Grease

Fonzie Happy Days
CBS Media Ventures

Like Applegate, Henry Winkler was freaked out at the thought of being typecast, which resulted in him turning down one of the most iconic movies ever.

The role of Danny Zuko in 1978's Grease made a legend out of John Travolta, but at one point, the gig was offered to Winkler, who didn't hesitate in saying no.

At the time, Winkler was a small-screen regular on the ABC sitcom Happy Days, with his character "The Fonz" ranking as the most popular figure in the show - and it was this popularity that prompted him to pass on playing Zuko.

Because he was already known for playing a bad-boy greaser on Happy Days, Winkler feared that, if he accepted the Grease role, he would inevitably become typecast as this one particular persona. Given the clear similarities between Zuko and Fonzie, you can understand where he's coming from!

Winkler's reluctance left the door open for Travolta to swoop in and nab the part, and we can only imagine that he cries himself to sleep each night for missing out on this one.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!