10 Ridiculous Actor Stories You Won't Believe Are Real
9. Tom Hanks Was Cast In Splash After Kicking Fonzie
Had the actor not showed up on Happy Days back in 1982 and kicked one of the most iconic sitcom characters of all time's ass, who knows whether Tom Hanks would have gone on to become the household name he is today.
According to the iconic Toy Story, Big, Forrest Gump, and Saving Private Ryan star in a fairly recent interview on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show (via EW), it was actually that ridiculous karate kicking moment with the Fonz that strangely led to him being cast in what would ultimately become his breakout role in Splash.
On top of being possibly the first person to ever strike Fonzie, booting him through a stained glass window in the show, Hanks was also brought in to audition for Ron Howard's incoming movie after Happy Days, and Splash writers Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz and the director all agreed "this guy who kicked Fonzie through a plate-glass window might be good."
That's one way to get on someone's radar.
And he was "good", with Hanks going on to bag what would become his first-ever leading role in a big-screen feature. He didn't do too badly in the years that followed either...