Henry Fonda
Acting
Biography
Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor who had a career that spanned five decades in Hollywood. Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in several films now considered to be classics, earning one Academy Award for Best Actor on two nominations. Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor and made his Hollywood film debut in 1935. His film career began to gain momentum with roles such as Bette Davis's fiancee in her Academy Award-winning performance in Jezebel (1938), brother Frank in Jesse James (1939), and the future President in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), directed by John Ford. His early career peaked with his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, about an Oklahoma family who moved to California during the Dust Bowl 1930s. This film is widely considered to be among the greatest American films. In 1941 he starred opposite Barbara Stanwyck in the screwball comedy classic The Lady Eve. Book-ending his service in WWII were his starring roles in two highly regarded westerns: The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and My Darling Clementine (1946), the latter directed by John Ford, and he also starred in Ford's western Fort Apache (1948). After a seven-year break from films, during which Fonda focused on stage productions, he returned with the WWII war-boat ensemble Mister Roberts (1955). In 1957 he starred as Juror No.8, the hold-out juror, in 12 Angry Men. Fonda, who was also co-producer, won the BAFTA for Best Foreign Actor. Later in his career, Fonda moved into darker roles, such as the villain in the epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), underrated and a box office disappointment at its time of release, but now regarded as one of the best westerns of all time. He also played in lighter-hearted fare such as Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball, but also often played important military figures, such as a Colonel in Battle of the Bulge (1965), and Admiral Nimitz in Midway (1976). He finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 54th Academy Awards for his final film role in On Golden Pond (1981), which also starred Katharine Hepburn and his daughter Jane Fonda, but was too ill to attend the ceremony. He died from heart disease a few months later.
Born: May 16, 1905
Place of Birth: Grand Island, Nebraska, USA
Known For
Filmography
as Self (archive footage)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Prof. Tommy Turner (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Hugues (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as (archive footage)
as Self
as Joshua
as Norman Thayer Jr.
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Clarence Earl Gideon
as Col. J.C. Kincaid
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as The President
as Fire Chief Risley
as Old Prospector
as Col. Frederick Warner
as Self
as Dr. Walter Krim
as President of the Academy
as Elegant John
as Grandpa George
as Generale Foster
as Self
as Simon Davenport
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Mr. Whitehead
as Self - Host
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
as Sen. Enfield Bassett
as Adm. Chester W. Nimitz
as James Lawrence
as Gen. Douglas MacArthur
as Self
as Narrator
as Self
as Self (archive footage)
as Clarence Darrow
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
as Kardinal Schuster
as Narrator (voice)
as Jack Beauregard
as Mark Sawyer
as Mark Forbes
as Alan Davies
as Carl Tiflin
as Henry Stamper
as Self - Narrator
as Self
as Self
as Chad Smith
as Self
as Woodward W. Lopeman
as Harley Sullivan
as Capt. John G Nolan
as Joshua Richards
as John Steinbeck (voice)
as Frank
as Narrator (voice)
as John S. Bottomly
as Henry Fonda (uncredited)
as Self - Guest
as Frank Beardsley
as Commissioner Anthony X. Russell
as Bob Larkin
as Narrator
as Narrator
as Ben Chamberlain
as Mayor Will Blue
as Meredith
as Self - Narrator
as Lt Col Kiley
as Dimitri Koulov
as CINCPAC II
as Marion 'Howdy' Lewis
as Frank Broderick
as The President
as William Russell
as Clay Spencer
as Self - Host
as Narrator / Host
as Jethro Stuart
as Self
as Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
as Robert Leffingwell
as Self - Narrator
as Self
as Narrator (segment "Fifties Dead Sequence") (voice)
as Willie Bauche
as Marshal Simon Fry
as Clay Blaisedell
as Self - Host
as Lewis Easton
as Morgan Hickman
as Juror 8
as Manny Balestrero
as Pierre Bezukhov
as Self - Guest
as Self (archive footage)
as Self - Nominee
as Self - Host
as Self - Co-Host/Special Award Recipient
as Self - Host / Presenter
as Self - Presenter
as Lieutenant Roberts
as Alan Squier
as Self - Host
as Emmett Kelly
as Clarence Earl Gideon
as Narrator: Grant Wood episode (voice)
as Narrator (voice)
as Self - Mystery Guest
as Nightclub Waiter (uncredited)
as Self
as Lt. Col. Owen Thursday
as Lank Solsky
as Peter Lapham
as A Fugitive
as Joe Adams
as Wyatt Earp
as Self - Cecil B. DeMille Award Recipient
as Corporal Colin Spence
as Gil Carter
as Narrator (voice)
as Narrator
as Agustus 'Little Pinks' Pinkerton, II
as George
as Thadeus Winship 'Tad' Page
as John Wheeler
as Tommy Turner
as Peter Kirk
as John Murdock
as Charles Pike
as Chad Hanna
as Frank James
as Alexander Moore
as Tom Joad
as Gilbert Martin
as Abraham Lincoln
as Thomas Watson
as "Brick" Tennant
as Frank James
as Self (archive footage)
as Peter Ames
as Jim Kimmerlee
as Marco
as Preston Dillard
as Ives Towner
as Jack V. Merrick, Jr.
as Slim Kincaid
as Kerry Gilfallen
as Eddie Taylor
as Townsend Middleton
as Anthony Amberton / John Smith
as Dave Tolliver
as Johnny Street
as David Bartlett
as Dan Harrow