'Happy Days' star Linda Purl recalls Henry Winkler's emotional meeting with a terminally ill child as Fonzie

Linda Purl is starring in the new drama "Paul's Promise." It's based on the real story of Paul Holderfield, a firefighter-turned-pastor during the Civil Rights movement of the '60s.

"This one little boy was 11 years old – terminally ill," the star recalled. "His wish was to meet the Fonz." Stephanie Nolasco covers entertainment at Foxnews.com.

"Our habit was to get out of costume and makeup, completely put on our robes and our schleppy things, go over to the commissary, have dinner together and go back into hair and makeup. Henry would get out of the pompadour, out of the jacket. He would get into whatever he’d come to work in that day. This little boy was coming, and he was going to have dinner [with us]… And Henry comes in, but not as Henry but as the Fonz."

"I thought, ‘Well, that’s silly. What’s the deal? Just be yourself.’" the 67-year-old said. "What I failed to realize until I saw it in action was that Henry knew that this young boy was not coming to meet Henry. He wanted to meet the Fonz. And Henry was very clear on the difference between the two. So, we all had dinner with this darling boy and his father. And in this case, Henry had sprung for the rest of the family to be flown out at his own expense. He didn’t even tell us this, but we learned this later."