Actor Henry Winkler has revealed more details about an apparent decades-old feud with fellow star Tom Hanks.

The rancour between two of Hollywood’s “nice guys” dates back as far as the 1989 movie Turner & Hooch – which starred Hanks.

It was to be directed by Winkler, but he was fired just 13 days into filming and replaced by Roger Spottiswoode.

This week, Winkler told the In Depth With Graham Bensinger podcast that he didn’t think he was “suited” as the film’s director, but was specifically chosen by Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg.

“I went completely against my tummy, and it hit me in the face with a 2×4,” he said. “I now meet the puppies, and I meet with Tom [Hanks] … and I, at that time being insecure, I talked too much and I gave them direction.”

Winkler, 80, said his overdirection didn’t go down well.

“I [did] what I thought was my job, and I wanted to do it over again and apparently that pissed them off,” he said.

He was called into Katzenberg’s office.

“He said, ‘It’s not in the dailies’. I then go to the set. I get my things. I drive home. I’m fired as a director… I don’t handle it well. I’m devastated,” Winkler said.

Turner & Hooch tells the story of a police officer (Hanks, as Scott Turner) who ends up with custody of a clumsy giant French mastiff (Hooch). It earned mixed reviews but was a box office success that spawned a franchise, including a TV movie sequel and a sequel TV series.

“I got on better with Hooch than I did with Turner,” Winkler has apparently said.

He made his name as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on Happy Days, which ran from 1974 to 1984, The show also starred Ron Howard (a frequent collaborator of Hanks’) as Richie Cunningham and followed a group of friends and the Cunningham family in midwest America in the 1950s and 1960s.

Tom Hanks (left) and Henry Winkler in a 1983 episode of Happy Days. Photo: IMDB

Hanks, now 70, also had a guest role on Happy Days. Perhaps ironically, he played a black belt karate expert who has nursed a grudge against Fonzie since school and returns to take revenge.

“Tom, before he was a movie star… he was a guest star on Happy Days. And I don’t know,” Winkler said. “We did a retrospective of Happy Days, and we wanted 60 seconds of Tom Hanks in his episode and we did not get permission for that.”

Bensinger asked Winkler for his “perspective” on his and Hanks’ relationship now.

“I am still working on my perspective,” Winkler said.

“I think his wife, Rita [Wilson], was also a guest on Happy Days in the beginning.”

Asked if the years-old feud might “repair itself”, Winkler said: “Sure.”

He also revealed he still has a signed model plane Hanks built during their short spell working together on Turner & Hooch.

“It was a model plane… While we were having meetings he built a plastic Piper Cub or something like that. Yeah,” Winkler said.

Henry Winkler accepts his 2018 Emmy for Barry. Photo: AAP

Winkler also addressed the beef in comments to TMZ in 2020, giving a slightly different version.

“I don’t have a feud with Tom Hanks. What everybody says and what is true are two different things,” he said.

He said he’d seen Hanks at the Screen Actors Guild Awards that year.

“It was beautiful,” he said.

Winkler earned four Emmy nominations for his role as Fonzie and won an Emmy in 2018 for his role on Barry as acting coach Gene Cousineau.

Hanks has gone on to become one of Hollywood’s biggest names. He has won two Academy Awards for acting and starred in a list of acclaimed films such as Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan and Philadelphia.