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.
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The other party is in disarray. Five men vie for the party nomination for president. No one has a ma...
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A womanizing reporter for a sleazy tabloid magazine impersonates his hen-pecked neighbor in order to...
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In the winter of 1944, the Allied Armies stand ready to invade Germany at the coming of a New Year. ...
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A naive traveler in Laredo gets involved in a poker game between the richest men in the area, jeopar...
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Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on the true story...
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As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jil...
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When a widower with ten children marries a widow with eight, can the twenty of them ever come togeth...
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A WWII film set on a Pacific island. Japanese and allied forces occupy different parts of the island...
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Hank Stamper and his father, Henry, own and operate the family business by cutting and shipping logs...
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Jack Beauregard, an aging gunman of the Old West, only wants to retire in peace and move to Europe, ...
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Barbara gets secret plastic surgery in Switzerland in an attempt to save her marriage to Mark, but h...
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A young terrorist kills and injures patrons of a Norfolk amusement park by placing homemade explosiv...
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An ex-employee of a city oil refinery creates an explosion at the facility which starts a chain-reac...
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For Norman and Ethel Thayer, this summer on golden pond is filled with conflict and resolution. When...
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This documentary revisits the making of Gone with the Wind via archival footage, screen tests, insig...
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George Abitbol, the classiest man in the world, dies tragically during a cruise. The director of an ...
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| # | Name | Character | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | La Classe américaine (1993) | Hugues (archive footage) | 6 | |
| 2 | The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind (1988) | Self (archive footage) | - | - |
| 3 | On Golden Pond (1981) | Norman Thayer Jr. | 7 | |
| 4 | Meteor (1979) | The President | 5.5 | |
| 5 | City on Fire (1979) | Fire Chief Risley | 2 | |
| 6 | The Swarm (1978) | Dr. Walter Krim | 4.5 | |
| 7 | Fedora (1978) | President of the Academy | 3 | |
| 8 | Rollercoaster (1977) | Simon Davenport | 8 | |
| 9 | Tentacles (1977) | Mr. Whitehead | 4 | |
| 10 | Midway (1976) | Adm. Chester W. Nimitz | 8 | |
| 11 | My Name Is Nobody (1973) | Jack Beauregard | 7.2 | |
| 12 | Ash Wednesday (1973) | Mark Sawyer | - | - |
| 13 | Directed by John Ford (1971) | - | 6 | |
| 14 | Sometimes a Great Notion (1971) | Henry Stamper | - | - |
| 15 | Too Late the Hero (1970) | Capt. John G Nolan | 6 | |
| 16 | The Boston Strangler (1968) | John S. Bottomly | 6.3 | |
| 17 | Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) | Frank | 8.5 | |
| 18 | Madigan (1968) | Commissioner Anthony X. Russell | 3 | |
| 19 | Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) | Frank Beardsley | 7.5 | |
| 20 | A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966) | Meredith | - | - |
| 21 | Battle of the Bulge (1965) | Lt Col Kiley | 8 | |
| 22 | Fail Safe (1964) | The President | 8.5 | |
| 23 | The Best Man (1964) | William Russell | 3 | |
| 24 | Sex and the Single Girl (1964) | Frank Broderick | 5.5 | |
| 25 | The Longest Day (1962) | Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. | 8.3 | |
| 26 | How the West Was Won (1962) | Jethro Stuart | 6 | |
| 27 | Warlock (1959) | Clay Blaisedell | 6.5 | |
| 28 | 12 Angry Men (1957) | Juror 8 | 8.7 | |
| 29 | The Tin Star (1957) | Morgan Hickman | 7 | |
| 30 | The Wrong Man (1956) | Manny Balestrero | 5 | |
| 31 | War and Peace (1956) | Pierre Bezukhov | - | - |
| 32 | Mister Roberts (1955) | Lieutenant Roberts | 7 | |
| 33 | Jigsaw (1949) | Nightclub Waiter (uncredited) | 5 | |
| 34 | Fort Apache (1948) | Lt. Col. Owen Thursday | 6.4 | |
| 35 | The Long Night (1947) | Joe Adams | 5 | |
| 36 | Daisy Kenyon (1947) | Peter Lapham | 4 | |
| 37 | The Fugitive (1947) | A Fugitive | 2 | |
| 38 | My Darling Clementine (1946) | Wyatt Earp | 5.5 | |
| 39 | The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) | Gil Carter | 7.8 | |
| 40 | The Battle of Midway (1942) | Narrator (voice) | 3.7 | |
| 41 | The Big Street (1942) | Little Pinks | 5 | |
| 42 | The Magnificent Dope (1942) | Thadeus Winship 'Tad' Page | - | - |
| 43 | The Lady Eve (1941) | Charles Pike | 7 | |
| 44 | The Grapes of Wrath (1940) | Tom Joad | 7.3 | |
| 45 | The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939) | Thomas Watson | - | - |
| 46 | Jesse James (1939) | Frank James | - | - |
| 47 | Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) | Abraham Lincoln | 5 | |
| 48 | Let Us Live (1939) | "Brick" Tennant | - | - |
| 49 | Spawn of the North (1938) | Jim Kimmerlee | - | - |
| 50 | Jezebel (1938) | Preston Dillard | 6 | |
| 51 | That Certain Woman (1937) | Jack V. Merrick, Jr. | 5 | |
| 52 | You Only Live Once (1937) | Eddie Taylor | 7 | |
| 53 | The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) | Dave Tolliver | 4 | |
| 54 | The Moon's Our Home (1936) | Anthony Amberton / John Smith | - | - |
