How kicking Henry Winkler made me a movie star

Hollywood may never have known Tom Hanks without TV’s “Happy Days.”

The “Cloud Atlas” star, 66, noted on a recent visit to SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” that his guest spot on a 1982 episode of the sitcom led to him booking the 1984 film “Splash.”

“I kicked Fonzie,” he said of knocking out Henry Winkler’s character Arthur Fonzarelli.

The Oscar winner continued: “I got dressed up in a judo karate outfit. And I think I’m legendarily the first guy to actually strike Fonzie. I kicked him through the stained glass window of Al’s drive-in.”

The 1950’s era-inspired ABC series starred “Splash” director Ron Howard and Hanks’ work on the episode titled “A Little Case of Revenge” caused the former to cast him in the fantasy rom-com.

In the 10th season’s fifth episode, the “Elvis” star played a rival of Fonzie who has held a grudge against him since grade school.

Evidently, Hanks’ moves on the Fonz caught the attention of a few Disney executives.

Meanwhile, Howard left the Garry Marshall-created series in 1980 to pursue directing, and “Splash” became the first flick to be released under Disney’s new imprint Touchstone Pictures.

“Ron Howard had already left the show, and he was directing, and they had written this movie called ‘Splash,’ ” Hanks continued.

“And it was at Disney, and no one wanted to work for Disney, and no one would take the job. And eventually, they said, ‘Hey, this guy who kicked Fonzie through a plate-glass window might be good.’ And so I ended up auditioning for that.”

Alongside Hanks, the romantic comedy starred Daryl Hannah, as a mermaid who washes ashore and falls in love with his character, with support from comedians John Candy and Eugene Levy.

The “Forrest Gump” actor seems to be taking a look back at his career lately. In a recent episode of the “ReelBlend” podcast, he groaned about one movie of his that “no one” talks about.

“For one reason or another, no one references ‘Road to Perdition,’ and that was an incredibly important movie for me to go through,” Hanks said of the Sam Mendes crime drama, based on the 1998 graphic novel by Max Allan Collins. The Depression-era film also starred Jude Law and Daniel Craig, following a mobster and his son who seek vengeance on the man who murdered their family.

He added that watching movies set in a certain time period can be “moving.”

“When you watch those movies and it’s crackerjack and it’s incredibly moving, all I can think of is, ‘I’m so glad this movie lasts forever, so I got a chance to revisit it now.’ That might be the case with ‘Road to Perdition,’ ” he said.