Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 - August
12, 1982) was an acclaimed American film actor beloved for his roles as plain-speaking men of
humane decency.
He was born in Grand Island, Nebraska to William Brace Fonda and Herberta Krueger Jaynes, and
started his acting career at age twenty at the Omaha Community Playhouse when his mother's
friend Dodie Brando needed a young man to play the lead in "You and I".
Fonda, an Academy and Tony Award-winning film and stage actor who appeared in nearly 90 films,
finally won the Oscar for his performance in On Golden Pond - in which his daughter Jane
co-starred. His son Peter is also an actor, as is his grand-daughter Bridget. Henry Fonda died
of cancer and heart disease at his home in Los Angeles just months after his Oscar win, with
wife Shirlee and daughter Jane at his side.
Marriages:
1965-1982 Shirlee Mae Adams
1957-1961 Afdera Franchetti
1950-1956 Susan Blanchard
1936-1950 Frances Ford Seymour committed suicide in 1950
1931-1932 Margaret Brooke Sullavan - committed suicide by drug overdose in 1960
Some notable roles:
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), in the title role
The Grapes of Wrath (1940), as migrant Tom Joad, the iconic migrant Okie
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), as a cowboy trying to prevent a lynching
My Darling Clementine, as Wyatt Earp
Fort Apache (1948), as a Custer-like cavalry commander
Mister Roberts (1955), in the title role of a battle-eager officer on a WWII supply ship
12 Angry Men (1957), as the lone doubter in a jury convinced of the defendant's guilt
Warlock (1959), as a gunman hired to calm the town of Warlock
Fail-Safe (1964), as the U.S. President facing a nuclear crisis
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), in an atypical role as a brutal gunman
Midway (1976), as Adm. Chester Nimitz
On Golden Pond (1981), as a retired professor approaching his 80th birthday
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wiki/Henry_Fonda
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