Henry Fonda was a soft-spoken man who was born in Grand Island, Nebraska in 1905. Following high school, he attended the University of Minnesota and studied journalism. At the age of 20, Fonda began acting at the Omaha Community Playhouse. After becoming a part of the Cape Cod University Players Fonda moved to New York and began working on Broadway. He worked on Broadway through 1934. The last play he did was “The Farmer Takes a Wife.” When this was made into a film he got a role. For the next fifty years, he made some of the most important movies of their era. Fonda worked across all genera.
Henry Fonda is remembered for so many movies it is hard to summarize. In 1939, Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) and Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) were released. The next year Fonda struck gold with his portrayal of Oakie Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). He received an Oscar nomination for this role. He excelled in westerns starring in The Return of Frank James (1940), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) where he played a man trying to stop a lynching, My Darling Clementine (1946), Fort Apache (1948), Warlock (1959) in which Fonda was an evil gunfighter, Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) where he plays a more evil gunfighter, and The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) where he was not evil at all.
However, Fonda’s work in other genera’s is even more impressive. These films include Mister Roberts (1955) the story of a man wanting to do more in the war, 12 Angry Men (1957) in which Fonda’s character changes the minds of 11 other men, The Longest Day (1962), Advise & Consent (1962), Spencer’s Mountain (1963), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Fail-Safe (1964) where he tried to stop a nuclear war at a great personal price, Battle of the Bulge (1965), In Harm’s Way (1965), The Rounders (1965), A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966) which was a western comedy grafter movie, Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) a light-hearted comedy with Lucille Ball, Sometimes a Great Notion (1970), Midway (1976), The Swarm (1978), Meteor (1979) a disaster film, and On Golden Pond (1981) where Fonda played an old poop. He received an Oscar for Best Actor for On Golden Pond (1981).
As successful as he was on screen he was as unlucky in love. Fonda was married five times. From his marriage to Frances Seymour he would have two children; Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda. Both of these children became actors and both have won Oscars. Fonda was in a film with each, briefly in Wanda Nevada (1979) with Peter and in On Golden Pond (1981) with Jane. Bridget Fonda is his granddaughter.
Fonda died in Los Angeles on August 12, 1982, from cardiorespiratory arrest.
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