Marlee Matlin had just split from her abusive boyfriend, William Hurt, and was fresh out of rehab with nowhere to live when she turned up on Henry Winkler’s doorstep.
What was supposed to be a weekend stay morphed into a two-year residence in the late ’80s with the “Happy Days” alum and his family, she exclusively tells Page Six.
Winkler and his wife, Stacey, treated Matlin as one of their own, telling her “to clean my room every day” and having her at family meals alongside their kids, Jed, Max and Zoe.
“I call Henry my second dad,” Matlin tells us. “I mean, who gets to say that about Henry Winkler? [He’s] probably one of the most famous American icons ever.”
She adds, “But honestly, he’s very genuine and he’s been a huge mentor in my life.”
Matlin, 59, met Winkler, 79, when she was around 12 years old while performing on stage at the Chicago Center on Deafness.
“We invited him and sure enough he showed up, which is amazing,” the “CODA” star explains. “Here he is, the Fonz! And I had been a fan of his for a long time.
“But we stayed in touch after that, and I didn’t anticipate that we would be staying in touch. And we stayed friends.”
Her friendship with the “Barry” star blossomed, and she even had her wedding to Kevin Grandalski at the Winkler home. The couple shares four children and one granddaughter.
Matlin became a huge star when she became the youngest Oscar winner in the best actress category in 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God,” in which she starred opposite Hurt.
The pair began dating during filming and has since alleged that Hurt was physically and verbally abusive throughout their two-year relationship.
Matlin confesses that she “wasn’t necessarily familiar in terms of even the language used to describe what I was experiencing” and was unaware that “I could reach out for help, not knowing that there was a name for what I was going through.”
Hurt died at age 71 in 2022.
The one good thing that did come out of her turbulent relationship with Hurt is that he inspired her to enter rehab.
“He went to rehab, and I was able to see what it did for him,” she says in the documentary, “and I knew that checking in there would do me great.”
Matlin went to the Betty Ford Center, the first deaf person to do so, and was forced to pay for an interpreter out of her pocket.
Many of the indignities and cruel questions Matlin has been asked over her career are included in the documentary. The film’s director, Shoshannah Stern, who is also a deaf actress and a longtime pal of Matlin, says that she wanted to garner a strong reaction from the audience.
“You should be uncomfortable as a viewer,” Stern explains. “It was important for me to kind of treat the media, also, as a character without making a comment about it…You have to feel uncomfortable for change to actually happen. And to understand.”
Matlin’s long career, which includes a memorable “Seinfeld” episode and many guest appearances, recently saw her returning to the Oscars for the 2021 movie “CODA,” which won best picture and best actor for deaf actor Troy Kotsur.
She admits to being disappointed at not being able to speak on stage when the cast gathered for best picture.
“But it is what it is,” she says. “So I fortunately had the opportunity to then say what I wanted to say backstage. And that’s when I said, ‘I’m not alone anymore.’ That’s what I wanted to say out in front, in front of millions of viewers watching the Oscars. That’s all, I just wanted to say. Simple as that.”
The Oscar winner hopes that after watching the documentary, people “leave with a greater sense of empathy and understanding for the deaf community, as well as a greater understanding of why it’s so important to not exclude us.”
And yet, the exclusion seemingly continues as Stern notes that Matlin has not worked since “CODA.”
“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” will be in theaters June 20 in NY, June 27 in LA, and will then expand nationally.
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