Which Beloved Actor Calls Kim Kardashian ‘the Same Wonderful Person’ Now As She Was in High School?
Everyone loves Henry Winkler. The actor is in the midst of a late-career renaissance thanks to his incredible work in Barry as Gene Cousineau. But Winkler’s long had a reputation for being one of the nicest people in the entertainment industry. Kim Kardashian’s actions may give her critics many reasons to dislike her, but Winkler only has fond memories of their interactions over the years. The relationship between the two families goes deeper than seeing each other at random events in Hollywood. Kardashian is very good friends with one of his children.
Henry Winkler has known Kim Kardashian for years and still thinks highly of her
Winkler’s Barry performance was nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series category at last month’s Primetime Emmy Awards. Before the ceremony, he was interviewed for Entertainment Tonight. And one of the reporters mentions seeing Winkler and Kardashian together at a recent event.
Winkler stops the interview to make time to praise the divisive entrepreneur for remaining true to herself since she was a teenager. “Kim Kardashian honestly has been in our backyard since high school, and I want to tell you she is the same wonderful person that she was back then,” he says.
This wasn’t the first time that Winkler spoke highly of Kardashian. In an interview with Naughty But Nice Rob in 2014, he explained that he met the Kardashians through his daughter, Zoe Winkler Reinis. She became friends with them at school and thought of them as “very charming, warm, respectful, lovely people.”
Kim Kardashian has been friends with Henry Winkler’s daughter for decades
Despite hailing from different areas of the entertainment world, the billionaire reality star and the renowned actor have at least a few things in common. Besides their zip code, they both care about charitable causes.
Kardashian attended the This Is About Humanity gala in August that took place at Winkler’s home. The organization was co-founded by Winkler Reinis to raise awareness about separated families at the U.S.-Mexico border and help them find shelter, provide living essentials, access to legal services, and mental health checkups.
Zoe Winkler Reinis shared she felt compelled to get involved after empathizing with the pain the families are forced to endure.
“I just saw myself in the moms. And in the children, I saw my own children. That really was all it took. That was the only thing that separated us, was where we were born. There was literally nothing else,” she told Today. “I just knew that I had to do something.”
Another future star also lived in the area
The Winkler home was also welcoming to another noted future figure and friend of Winkler’s son, director Max Winkler.
“I spent 48 percent of my youth here,” said Jonah Hill to The New York Times about the Winkler home in 2009. “They were like parents to all of our friends. We got parents and then we got the Winklers.” Hill’s gifts as a performer became apparent to the masses thanks to his early work in blockbuster comedies. But anyone who was at the Winkler residence back in the day witnessed the earliest examples of his considerable talent.
“Jonah Hill was in my house starting from the 5th grade,” recalled Winkler. “I’m so proud of him. You know he makes prank calls. He is the king of prank calls and has made them before and after he was a star from my living room and I’m telling you it is something to behold because as brilliant as he is on-screen you cannot breathe when he’s on the phone.”
