Born May 16, 1905, Henry Fonda was a shy child who nevertheless excelled as a Boy Scout. When he was 14, his father took him to observe the lynching of a young black man accused of rape. The occurrence so enraged him that the keen social awareness of prejudice he developed from the incident never left him.

He made his acting debut at the Omaha Community Playhouse at twenty under the direction of Dorothy “Dodie” Brando, Marlon’s mother. Three years later he moved to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he joined the Cape Playhouse, where he met his future wife, Margaret Sullavan, lifelong friend James Stewart and future director Joshua Logan.

He moved on to Broadway along with Sullavan, Stewart and Logan, briefly marrying Sullavan for a two-month period at the end of 1931.

Fonda made his screen debut opposite Janet Gaynor in 1935’s The Farmer Takes a Wife, reprising his Broadway role. He won rave notices for 1936’s The Trail of the Lonesome P9ine, the first outdoor technicolor film in support of Syvlia Sidney and Fred MacMurray and starred opposite former wife Margaret Sullavan in the same year’s The Moon’s Our Home. A sensation in Fritz Lang’s You Only Live Once in 1937, he was handpicked by Bette Davis to be her co-star in 1938’s Jezebel. It was during the filming of Jezebel that daughter Jane was born to Fonda and second wife Frances Brokaw. Son Peter would be born in 1940.

1939 proved a banner year with three major starring roles in John Ford’s Young Mr. Lincoln and Drums Along the Mohawk as well as Henry King’s Jesse James in which he played Frank James to Tyrone Power’s Jesse. His next film, Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath is generally considered his best film.

Other 1940s successes followed such as Frtiz Lang’s Return of Frank James; Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve; William A. Wellman’s The Ox-Bow Incident and following war service three big ones for John Ford: My Darling Clementine; The Fugitive and Fort Apache. After that it was a return to Broadway for a long stretch as the Tony Award winning star of Mister Roberts.

Fonda’s second wife died in April, 1950 and in December of that year he married wife number three, Susan Blanchard. He returned to Los Angeles and the big screen for the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts. Initially directed by long time friend and collaborator, John Ford, the two had a falling out and Ford was replaced by Mervyn LeRoy.

Divorced from Blanchard in 1956, Fonda married fourth wife Afdera Franchetti in 1957. That marriage would last until 1961.

During this period Fonda made such notable films as Alfred Hitchock’s The Wrong Man in 1956; Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men in 1957 and Anthony Mann’s The Tin Star.

Between his divorce from Franchetti and his fifth and final marriage to Shirlee Fonda in 1965, Fonda made such well regarded films as Otto Preminger’s Advise & Consent; Franklin J. Schaffner’s The Best Man and Sindey Lumet’s Fail-Safe.

His later roles were mainly as part of large ensemble casts or in borderline supporting roles. One of his best was in a rarer villainous role in Sergio Leone’s 1968 epic, Once Upon a Time in the West. After that it was more of the same until daughter Jane bought the rights to the Broadway smash, On Golden Pond for her father and convinced Katharine Hepburn to co-star. Jane played the supporting role of their estranged daughter.

In the interim the Academy decided it was time to give the ailing Henry Fonda a lifetime achievement award in the form of an honorary Oscar, which they did at the 1980 Academy Awards. The following year On Golden Pond was released and the film, both Fondas and Hepburn were all nominated for Oscars. Hepburn won her fourth, still record, Best Actress award and Henry Fonda finally won his first competitive Oscar, which was accepted by Jane on behalf of her dying father.

Long regarded as one of Hollywood’s staunchest liberals, along with Robert Ryan and Gregory Peck, Fonda and best friend, albeit political conservative, James Stewart had a knock down, drag out fight discussing politics in 1948. The two vowed never to discuss politics again and never did, nor would they discuss each other’s views publicly or privately. Fonda was known to hate most Republicans, especially Richard Nixon and Stewart’s friend Ronald Reagan, who was President at the time of Fonda’s death.

Henry Fonda passed away on August 12, 1982 at 77 a few moths after his long overdue Oscar win.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940), directed by John Ford

Fonda’s best performance bar none. For forty-one years the only film he he recieved an actign nomination for, despite his long and varied career as one of Hollywood’s greatest actors. The hardships encountered by Fonda’s character, Tom Joad, in Ford’s film of John Steinbeck’s classic of the Great Depression are universally felt and understood. The actor conveys the desperation of the character and the times with little dialogue and depths of expression that make him an Everyman for the ages. Fonda’s scenes with John Carradine as Preahcer and Jane Darwell as his mother are especially moving. It’s not only the best performance Fonda ever gave but one of the best performances of any actor before or since.

THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1939), directed by William A. Wellmanl

This classic western gave Fonda another Everyman character to play, that of the conscience ridden cowboy who becomes a reluctant member of a lynch mob that inadvertently hangs three innocent men. The entire production is first rate with many strong supporting performances, but Fonda’s character is the one you hopefully identify with. An extra special treat is the appearance of the usually saintly Jane Darwell as a vile, venonous old harridan who goads the lynch mob into hanging the suspects.

12 ANGRY MEN (1948), directed by Sidney Lumet

Fonda recived a a Best Picture nomination for co-producing this classic courtroom drama with writer Reginald Rose. Mimicked many times, but never bettered, Fonda is the questioning jury member who slowly, but conclusively, convinces the other eleven members of his jury that the seemingly guilty defendant is actually innocent. It’s one of his best virtuoso performances, backed by a strong supporting cast that includes Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warden adn E.G. Marshall all actign at full throttle.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968), directed by Sergio Leone

Fonda played a rare bad guy role in Sergio Leone’s deeply felt revisionist western that outclases his string of classic spaghetti westerns of earlier in the decade. Although there was some speculation that Fonda would receive a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 1969, the year of the film’s U.S. release, the consummate actor was once again passd over while his daughter Jane was nominated for Best Actress for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and his son Peter was nominated as one of the three writers responsible for the screenplay of Easy Rider.

ON GOLDEN POND (1981), directed by Mark Rydell

Fonda saved his best for last, or his near best anyway, as nothing could top his Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. Brilliantly paired opposite Katharine Hepburn for the first time in thier careers, the two played off each other as though they really were the elderly couple they were playing who had been together for a lfietime. Jane Fonda played their daughter and the emotional tug-of-war between the two Fondas betrayed somewhat their long and turbulent off-screen releatinship. Hepburn gifted Henry Fonda with a hat that belonged to her longtime companion, Spencer Tracy. Fonda wore it throughout the film. That Henry Fonda would win his long overdue Oscxar was no surprise, but Hepburn winning her fourth certainly was, making his win (announced after hers) something you could bet the old retirement home on.

HENRY FONDA AND OSCAR

• The Grapes of Wrath (1940) – Nominated Best Actor
• 12 Angry Men (1957) – Nominated Best Picture (with co-producer Reginald Rose)
• Honorary Award (1937) – Oscar in recognition of his brilliant accomplishments and enduring contribution to the art of motion pictures.
• On Golden Pond (1981) – Oscar – Best Actor