Year 1979 (MCMLXXIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Henry Franklin Winkler (Hon.OBE, born October 30, 1945) is an American actor, director, producer, and author.

Winkler is best known for his role as Fonzie on the 1970s American sitcom Happy Days. "The Fonz," a leather-clad greaser and auto mechanic, started out as a minor character at the show's beginning but had achieved top billing by the time the show ended.

Henry Winkler was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of Ilse Anna Maria (née Hadra) and Harry Irving Winkler, a lumber company executive. Winkler's Jewish parents emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1939, before the beginning of World War II.

Winkler attended the McBurney School, received his bachelor's degree from Emerson College in 1967, and earned his MFA from the Yale School of Drama in 1970. In 1978, Emerson gave Winkler an honorary doctorate of humane letters. Winkler has also received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Austin College.

Winkler started acting by appearing in a number of television commercials. He also appeared in an episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In October 1973, he was cast for the role of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, nicknamed "The Fonz" or "Fonzie", in the long-running 1970s television series Happy Days. The show was first aired in January 1974.

Glenn Ford (May 1, 1916 – August 30, 2006) was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades. Despite his versatility, Ford was best known for playing ordinary men in unusual circumstances.

Born as Gwyllyn Samuel Newton Ford at Jeffrey Hale Hospital in Quebec City, Ford was the son of Anglo-Quebecers Hannah Wood Mitchell and Newton Ford, a railway conductor. Through his father, Glenn Ford was a great-nephew of Canada's first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald. Ford moved to Santa Monica, California with his family at the age of eight, and became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1939.

After Ford graduated from Santa Monica High School, he began working in small theatre groups. Ford later commented that his railroad executive father had no objection to his growing interest in acting, but told him, "It's all right for you to try to act, if you learn something else first. Be able to take a car apart and put it together. Be able to build a house, every bit of it. Then you'll always have something." Ford heeded the advice and during the 1950s, when he was one of Hollywood's most popular actors, he regularly worked on plumbing, wiring and air conditioning at home. At times, he worked as a roofer and installer of plate-glass windows.

Mel Ferrer (August 25, 1917 – June 2, 2008) was an American actor, film director and film producer.

Ferrer was born Melchor Gastón Ferrer in Elberon, New Jersey, of Cuban and Irish descent. His father, Dr. José María Ferrer (1857–1920), was born in Cuba, was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City. His American mother, the former Mary Matilda Irene O'Donohue (1878–1967), was a daughter of coffee broker Joseph J. O'Donohue, New York's City Commissioner of Parks, a founder of the Coffee Exchange, and a founder of the Brooklyn-New York Ferry. An ardent opponent of Prohibition, Irene Ferrer was named, in 1934, the New York State chairman of the Citizens Committee for Sane Liquor Laws.

Ferrer had three siblings. His elder sister was Dr. M. Irené Ferrer, a cardiologist and educator, who helped refine the cardiac catheter and electrocardiogram. His brother, Dr. Jose M. Ferrer, was a surgeon. His other sister, Teresa (Terry) Ferrer, was the religion editor of The New York Herald Tribune and education editor of Newsweek. The family is not related to actors José or Miguel Ferrer.

Lance James Henriksen (born May 5, 1940) is an American actor and artist best known to film and television audiences for his roles in science fiction, action, and horror films such as the Alien film franchise, and on television shows such as Millennium. Henriksen is also a voice actor; he is noted for his deep, commanding voice.

Henriksen was born in New York City. His father, James Henriksen (born as Jim Marino Henriksen in Tønsberg 1910), was a Norwegian merchant sailor and boxer nicknamed "Icewater" who spent most of his life at sea. His mother, Margueritte, struggled to find work as a dance instructor, waitress, and model. His parents divorced when he was two years old and he was raised by his mother. As he grew up, Henriksen found himself in trouble at various schools and even saw the inside of a children's home. Henriksen left home^{[not in citation given]} and dropped out of school at the age of twelve;^{[not in citation given]} he would not learn to read until he was 30, when he taught himself by studying film scripts. Henriksen's grandmother from Norway was of Sami origin.^{[citation needed]}