Information AboutHenry Fonda |
|
Henry Jaynes Fonda ( May 16 , 1905 – August 12 , 1982 ) was a highly acclaimed American Film , Stage , and Television Actor , best known for his roles as plain-speaking idealists. Fonda's subtle, Naturalistic acting style preceded by many years the popularization of Method Acting . He was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including son Peter Fonda , daughter Jane Fonda , granddaughter Bridget Fonda , and grandson Troy Garity . Fonda was born to William Brace Fonda and Herberta Jaynes. From his humble upbringing in a Nebraskan Christian Scientist family, Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor, and made his Hollywood debut in 1935 . Fonda's career gained momentum after his Academy Award -nominated performance in 1940 's '' The Grapes Of Wrath '', an Adaptation of John Steinbeck 's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl . Throughout six decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a versatile career and a concrete screen image in such classics as '' The Ox-Bow Incident '', '' Mister Roberts '', and '' 12 Angry Men ''. Later in his life, Fonda moved both toward more challenging and lighter roles in such epics as '' Once Upon A Time In The West '' and family comedies like '' Yours, Mine And Ours ''. He earned a Tony nomination for his role in 1974's ''Clarence Darrow'' (having previously won a Tony in '' Mister Roberts '' in 1948), and finished his career with a critically-acclaimed performance in '' On Golden Pond '' in 1981 , for which he won the Academy Award For Best Actor . Fonda was also honored with "Lifetime Achievement" Academy Awards , Golden Globes , and Tony Awards . He died in 1982, leaving behind a legacy of classic performances, many of which are considered the finest examples of the " Golden Age Of Hollywood ." LIFE AND CAREER Family history and early life He was born in when his mother's friend Dodie Brando , mother of Marlon Brando , needed a young man to play the lead in '' You And I ''. He went East to perform with the Provincetown Players and Joshua Logan 's University Players , an intercollegiate Summer Stock company and incubator of rising stars, where he worked with Margaret Sullavan , his future wife, and began a lifelong friendship with Jimmy Stewart . Early career '']] Along with Stewart, Fonda headed for New York City , where the two were roommates and honed their skills on Broadway . Fonda appeared in theatrical productions from 1926 to 1934, and earned his first film appearance (1935) as the leading man in 20th Century Fox 's screen adaptation of '' The Farmer Takes A Wife .'' He reprised his role from the Broadway production of the same name. When Fonda joined Stewart in Hollywood , Fonda shared Stewart's house, and the two young glamorous stars gained a reputation for womanizing. {Link without Title} Fonda's film career blossomed, as he followed up with an appearance in '' history, Fonda was edged out by Jimmy Stewart, who won the award for his role as "Macaulay 'Mike' Connor" in '' The Philadelphia Story .'' World War II service Fonda played opposite Barbara Stanwyck in '' The Lady Eve '' (1941), and was acclaimed for his role in '' The Ox-Bow Incident '', but he then enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II , saying, "I don't want to be in a fake war in a studio." {Link without Title} Previously, he and Stewart had helped raise funds for the defense of 3rd Class on the Destroyer USS ''Satterlee'' ; he was later commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and won a Presidential Citation and the Bronze Star . {Link without Title} {Link without Title} Post-war career After the war, Fonda appeared in the film '' Fort Apache '' (1948), and his contract with Fox expired. Refusing another long-term studio contract, Fonda returned to Broadway, wearing his own officer's cap to originate the title role in '' Mister Roberts '', a comedy about the Navy. He won a 1948 Tony Award for the part, and later reprised his performance in the national tour and 1955 film version opposite James Cagney , continuing a pattern of bringing his acclaimed stage roles to life on the big screen. On the set of ''Mister Roberts'', Fonda came to blows with John Ford and vowed never to work for him again. He never did. Career in the '50s and '60s After a six-year break from Hollywood, Fonda returned in the critically acclaimed '' Mister Roberts '', as Lt. Douglas Roberts, a role he had originated in the play. He followed this success with a string of classic films, the first being the big-budget Paramount Pictures production of the Leo Tolstoy epic '' War And Peace '', in which Fonda played Pierre Bezukhov opposite Audrey Hepburn . Fonda worked with Alfred Hitchcock in 1956, playing a man falsely accused of murder in '' The Wrong Man ''. in ''12 Angry Men'']] In 1957, Fonda made his first foray into production with '' 12 Angry Men '', based on a script by Reginald Rose and directed by Sidney Lumet . The intense film about twelve jurors deciding the fate of a young man accused of murder was well-received by critics worldwide. Fonda shared the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations with coproducer Reginald Rose and won the 1958 BAFTA Award For Best Actor for his performance as the logical "Juror #8." Henry Fonda vowed that he would never produce a movie ever again. After a series of ordinary Western Movies , Fonda returned to the production seat for the NBC series ''The Deputy'', in which he also starred. The Sixties found Fonda in a number of war and western epics, including 1962's '' The Longest Day '' and '' How The West Was Won '', 1965's '' In Harm's Way '' and '' Battle Of The Bulge '', and the 1964 suspense film '' Fail-Safe '', about possible nuclear holocaust. He also returned to more light hearted cinema in 1963's '' Spencer's Mountain '', the inspiration for the television program '' The Waltons '', and 1968's '' Yours, Mine, And Ours ''.'']] He appeared against type as the villain "Frank" in 1968's '' Once Upon A Time In The West ''. After turning down the role, he was talked into it by actor Eli Wallach and director Sergio Leone , who flew from Italy to the United States to persuade him to play the part. Fonda had planned on wearing a pair of brown-colored Contact Lenses , but Leone had worked important close-up shots of Fonda's blue eyes into the film. Fonda's relationship with Jimmy Stewart survived their disagreements over politics—Fonda was a Liberal Democrat , and Stewart a Conservative Republican . After a heated argument, they avoided talking politics with each other. In 1970, Fonda and Stewart costarred in the Western '' The Cheyenne Social Club '', a minor film in which the two humorously argued politics. Previously, they had appeared together in '' On Our Merry Way '', a 1948 comedy featuring Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer which also paired actors William Demarest and Fred MacMurray . {Link without Title} Marriages and children Henry Fonda was married five times. His marriage to and remained with her for seventeen years, until his death in 1982. His relationship with his children has been described as "emotionally distant." In Peter Fonda's 1998 autobiography ''Don't Tell Dad'', he described how he was never sure how his father felt about him, and that he did not tell his father he loved him until his father was elderly and he finally heard the words, "I love you, son." {Link without Title} Jane Fonda rejected her father's patriotism and his friendships with Republican actors such as John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart , and as a result the father/daughter relationship was extremely strained. Jane Fonda also reported feeling detached from her father, especially during her early acting career. Henry Fonda introduced her to '' in the 1960s, asked Henry Fonda about Method acting: "I can't articulate about the Method," he told me, "because I never studied it. I don't mean to suggest that I have any feelings one way or the other about it...I don't know what the Method is and I don’t care what the Method is. Everybody's got a method. Everybody can’t articulate about their method, and I can't, if I have a method—and Jane sometimes says that I use the Method, that is, the capital letter Method, without being aware of it. Maybe I do, it doesn’t matter." {Link without Title} Fonda's daughter shared this view: "My father can't articulate the way he works." Jane said. "He just can't do it. He's not even conscious of what he does, and it made him nervous for me to try to articulate what I was trying to do. And I sensed that immediately, so we did very little talking about it...he said, 'Shut up, I don't want to hear about it.’ He didn’t want me to tell him about it, you know. He wanted to make fun of it." {Link without Title} Late career Despite approaching his seventies, Henry Fonda continued to work in both television and film through The Seventies . 1970 found Fonda in three films, the most successful of these ventures being '' The Cheyenne Social Club ''. The other two films were '' Too Late The Hero '', which did not feature Henry Fonda in a very important role, and '' There Was A Crooked Man '', about Paris Pitman Jr. (played by Kirk Douglas ) trying to escape from an Arizonan prison. Fonda made a return to both foreign and television productions, which provided career sustenance through a decade in which many aging screen actors suffered waning careers. He starred in the ABC television series ''The Smith Family'' between 1971 and 72. 1973 's TV-movie ''The Red Pony'', an adaptation of John Steinbeck 's novel, earned Fonda an Emmy nomination. After the unsuccessful Hollywood melodrama, ''Ash Wednesday'', he filmed three Italian productions released in 1973 and 74. The most successful of these, ''Il Mio nome è Nessuno'' (''My Name Is Nobody''), presented Fonda in a rare comedic performance as an old gunslinger whose plans to retire are dampened by a "fan" of sorts. Henry Fonda continued stage acting throughout his last years, including several demanding roles in Broadway plays. He returned to Broadway in 1974 for the biographical drama, '' Clarence Darrow '', for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Fonda's health had been deteriorating for years, but his first outward symptoms occurred after a performance of the play in April 1974, when he collapsed from exhaustion. After the appearance of a heart arrhythmia, a pacemaker was installed and Fonda returned to the play in 1975. After the run of a 1978 play, ''First Monday of October'', he took the advice of his doctors and quit plays, though he continued to star in films and television. In 1976, Fonda appeared in several notable television productions, the first being ''Collision Course'', the story of the volatile relationship between President Harry Truman (''. Also in 1976, Fonda starred in the World War II blockbuster '' Midway ''. Like many aging actors, Fonda finished the seventies with a number of Disaster Movies , which cashed in on big names to drive box office sales. The first of these came in 1977 with the Italian killer Octopus thriller ''Tentacoli'' (''Tentacles'') and the mediocre '' Rollercoaster '', which found Fonda cast with Richard Widmark and a young Helen Hunt . He appeared once again with Widmark, Olivia De Havilland , Fred MacMurray , and José Ferrer in the killer Bee actioner ''The Swarm''. With the disaster genre's popularity fading, Fonda filmed two last films; first the global disaster, '' Meteor '', with Natalie Wood and Martin Landau ; and then the Canadian production, '' City On Fire '', which also featured Shelley Winters and Ava Gardner . As Fonda's health continued to suffer and he took longer breaks between filming, critics began to take notice of his extensive body of work. In 1979, the Tony Awards committee gave Fonda a special award for his achievements on Broadway. Lifetime Achievement awards from the Golden Globes and Academy Awards followed in 1980 and 1981, respectively. Fonda continued to act into the early eighties, though all but one of the productions he was featured in before his death were for television. These television works included the critically acclaimed live performance of Preston Jones ' ''The Oldest Living Graduate'', the Emmy nominated '' Gideon's Trumpet '', and 1981's ''Summer Solstice'', which teamed Fonda with Myrna Loy . This is the last film that Henry Fonda is credited for, and work began on it after the release of '' On Golden Pond ''. Before ''Summer Solstice'' was made, however, 1981 brought Fonda's last cinematic film, an adaptation of Ernest Thompson 's '' On Golden Pond ''. The film, directed by Mark Rydell , provided unprecedented (and, as it turned out, never-to-be-repeated) collaborations between Fonda, Katharine Hepburn , and Fonda's daughter, Jane . When premiered in December 1981, the film was well received by critics, and after a Limited Release on December 4th ''On Golden Pond'' developed enough of an audience to be widely released on January 22nd. Thanks to eleven Academy Award nominations, the film earned nearly $120 million at box office, becoming an unexpected blockbuster. In addition to wins for Hepburn (Best Actress), and Thompson (Screenplay), ''Pond'' finally brought Fonda his first, and as fate would have it, his only Oscar for Best Actor (it also earned him a Golden Globe Best Actor award). After Fonda's death, some film critics called his ''Pond'' performance "his last and greatest role". Indeed, his performance was the most critically acclaimed of all his roles. Death and legacy featuring Henry Fonda.]] Fonda died at his Los Angeles home on August 12 , 1982 , at the age of 77 after suffering from both Heart Disease and Prostate Cancer . Fonda's wife Shirlee and daughter Jane were at his side when he died. In the years since his death, his career has been held in even higher regard than during his life. He is widely recognized as one of the Hollywood greats of the classic era. On his 100th birthday, May 16 , 2005 , Turner Classic Movies honored him with a marathon of his films. Also in May of 2005, the United States Post Office released a thirty-seven cent Postage Stamp with an artist's drawing of Fonda as part of their "Hollywood legends" series. {Link without Title} Major Major Major Major A character in Joseph Heller 's Absurdist novel, Catch-22 , Major Major Major Major 's resemblence to Henry Fonda caused him great difficulty when trying to be absorbed by the enlisted men. FILMOGRAPHY ''For a detailed filmography, see: Henry Fonda Filmography '' From the beginning of Henry Fonda's career in 1935 through his last projects in 1981 , Fonda appeared in 106 films, television programs, and shorts. Through the course of his career he appeared in many critically acclaimed films, including such classics as '' 12 Angry Men '' and '' The Ox-Bow Incident ''. His roles in 1940 's '' The Grapes Of Wrath '' and 1981 's '' On Golden Pond '' earned him Academy Award nominations (he won for the latter). Fonda made his mark in Westerns and war films, and made frequent appearances in both television and foreign productions late in his career. BROADWAY STAGE PERFORMANCES
AWARDS SEE ALSO REFERENCES NOTES |
|
|