The Pitt’s Noah Wyle has revealed that Henry Winkler once wrote him a letter of recommendation for a college application.
Wyle, who currently leads Max’s hit new medical drama, made the surprise admission during a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Asked about the “urban legend” by Colbert, the ER alum, 53, confirmed that Winkler did indeed pen him a letter of recommendation years ago.
“You got The Fonz to say, ‘ayy,’?” the host added, giving two thumbs up in reference to Winkler’s Happy Days character Fonzie. “How? Did you know him?”
“I did, I do [know Winkler]. He did [write the letter]. I’ve never seen the contents of the letter; I did not get into that college,” Wyle responded, with Colbert quipping: “So it’s Henry’s fault!”
“Possibly!” Wyle joked. “But I love that man dearly. And I did grow up very good friends with his stepson, Jedd — who is still a dear friend — and I got to watch Happy Days in the Fonz’s house, which was an atypical upbringing.
“And I’m watching him have this second act in his career off Barry, and I’m so happy for him,” he said of Winkler.
Wyle, who has returned to the medical genre as Dr Robby Robinovitch on The Pitt, additionally shared that his mother was a nurse for 20 years.
“She loves [The Pitt],” he said, “and she told me this last particular episode that aired was triggering in a way she didn’t anticipate. And she actually remembered a lot of people that passed on her table as she was watching it, and it was the first time she and I have ever had that conversation. And I recognized that, wow, I work among doctors and nurses all day long, and I’m very conscious of the toll that it takes on those practitioners. I didn’t even realize how close it was in my own house until Sunday.”
The Pitt, which debuted in February, has become a hit with viewers. It follows a group of ER nurses, doctors, and interns working a 15-hour shift at an underfunded Pittsburgh hospital. Each episode spans an hour of the shift.
Along with Wyle, the series features Tracy Ifeachor, Patrick Ball, Katherine LaNasa, and Supriya Ganesh as his team of doctors and Isa Briones, Shabana Azeez, Ludwig actor Gerran Howell, and Taylor Dearden, the daughter of Bryan Cranston, as the class of medical students.
The season finale of The Pitt airs Thursday 10 April at 9 pm EST on Max.
