Henry Fonda
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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.
Known for
Credits
12 Angry Men (1957)
as Juror 8
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
as Frank
Sex and the Single Girl (1964)
as Frank Broderick
The Longest Day (1962)
as Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
How the West Was Won (1962)
as Jethro Stuart
Midway (1976)
as Adm. Chester W. Nimitz
My Name Is Nobody (1973)
as Jack Beauregard
War and Peace (1956)
as Pierre Bezukhov
On Golden Pond (1981)
as Norman Thayer Jr.
The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
as Tom Joad
Battle of the Bulge (1965)
as Lt Col Kiley
Fedora (1978)
as President of the Academy
Let Poland Be Poland (1982)
as Self
In Harm's Way (1965)
as CINCPAC II
Directed by John Ford (1971)
Actor
Slim (1937)
as Slim Kincaid
Fort Apache (1948)
as Lt. Col. Owen Thursday
Warlock (1959)
as Clay Blaisedell
Madigan (1968)
as Commissioner Anthony X. Russell
The Return of Frank James (1940)
as Frank James
The Wrong Man (1956)
as Manny Balestrero
Fail Safe (1964)
as The President
My Darling Clementine (1946)
as Wyatt Earp
There Was a Crooked Man... (1970)
as Woodward W. Lopeman
Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)
as Frank Beardsley
Drums Along the Mohawk (1939)
as Gilbert Martin
Spencer's Mountain (1963)
as Clay Spencer
The Tin Star (1957)
as Morgan Hickman
The Swarm (1978)
as Dr. Walter Krim
The Last Four Days (1974)
as Kardinal Schuster
The Boston Strangler (1968)
as John S. Bottomly
La Classe américaine (1993)
as Hugues (archive footage)
Meteor (1979)
as The President
Tentacles (1977)
as Mr. Whitehead
Jezebel (1938)
as Preston Dillard
Benjy (1951)
as Narrator (voice)
A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)
as Meredith
Wanda Nevada (1979)
as Old Prospector
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
as Abraham Lincoln
Jesse James (1939)
as Frank James
Gideon's Trumpet (1980)
as Clarence Earl Gideon
Sometimes a Great Notion (1971)
as Henry Stamper
The Biggest Battle (1978)
as Generale Foster
Firecreek (1968)
as Bob Larkin
The Battle of Midway (1942)
as Narrator (voice)
The Making of Midway (2001)
as Self
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
as Gil Carter
The Rounders (1965)
as Marion 'Howdy' Lewis
Welcome to Hard Times (1967)
as Mayor Will Blue
City on Fire (1979)
as Fire Chief Risley
A Special Sesame Street Christmas (1978)
as Self
The Cheyenne Social Club (1970)
as Harley Sullivan
Stranger on the Run (1967)
as Ben Chamberlain
Rings on Her Fingers (1942)
as John Wheeler
On Our Merry Way (1948)
as Lank Solsky
John Ford: The Man Who Invented America (2019)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939)
as Thomas Watson
Citizen Jane Fonda (2020)
Actor
The Golden Honeymoon (1980)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
Stage Struck (1958)
as Lewis Easton
Advise & Consent (1962)
as Robert Leffingwell
You Only Live Once (1937)
as Eddie Taylor
Too Late the Hero (1970)
as Capt. John G Nolan
The Fabulous Fifties (1960)
as Narrator (segment "Fifties Dead Sequence") (voice)
The Big Street (1942)
as Little Pinks
The Male Animal (1942)
as Tommy Turner
Soldier's Home (1977)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
as George
Rollercoaster (1977)
as Simon Davenport
The Serpent (1973)
as Alan Davies
The Long Night (1947)
as Joe Adams
Daisy Kenyon (1947)
as Peter Lapham
The Mad Miss Manton (1938)
as Peter Ames
Spawn of the North (1938)
as Jim Kimmerlee
The Fugitive (1947)
as A Fugitive
The American West of John Ford (1971)
as Self - Narrator
The Red Pony (1973)
as Carl Tiflin
The Lady Eve (1941)
as Charles Pike
You Belong to Me (1941)
as Peter Kirk
An Opera of Violence (2003)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
Ash Wednesday (1973)
as Mark Sawyer
The Dirty Game (1965)
as Dimitri Koulov
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind (1988)
as Self (archive footage)
Pictura (1951)
as Narrator (segment "Grant Wood") (voice)
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991)
Actor
Mister Roberts (1955)
as Lieutenant Roberts
The Great Smokey Roadblock (1978)
as Elegant John
Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down the Line (1997)
as Self (archive footage)
I'm a Fool (1977)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
Parker Adderson, Philosopher (1974)
as Narrator (Voice)
Clarence Darrow (1974)
as Clarence Darrow
Breakdowns of 1938 (1938)
as Self (archive footage)
Immortal Sergeant (1943)
as Corporal Colin Spence
Let Us Live (1939)
as "Brick" Tennant
That Certain Woman (1937)
as Jack V. Merrick, Jr.
Inside 'the Swarm' (1978)
as Self
The Petrified Forest (1955)
as Alan Squier
Way Down East (1935)
as David Bartlett
Spanish Western (2015)
as Self (archive footage)
Bernice Bobs Her Hair (1976)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
The Farmer Takes a Wife (1935)
as Dan Harrow
Lillian Russell (1940)
as Alexander Moore
Parkinson: Meet Henry Fonda (1975)
as Self
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia (2013)
as Self (archive footage)
Barbara Stanwyck: Fire and Desire (1991)
as Self (archive footage)
Chad Hanna (1940)
as Chad Hanna
Sacco and Vanzetti (2006)
as Prof. Tommy Turner (archive footage)
The Wages of Sin (2003)
as Self (archive footage)
The Sensational Shocking Wonderful Wacky 70's (1980)
as Self (archive footage)
The Displaced Person (1977)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
Hollywood: The Fabulous Era (1962)
as Narrator / Host
Going Hollywood: The '30s (1984)
as (archive footage)
Henry James' The Jolly Corner (1975)
as Narrator
The Magnificent Dope (1942)
as Thadeus Winship 'Tad' Page
Hollywood: The Selznick Years (1961)
as Self - Narrator
The Real Miss America (1952)
as Narrator (voice)
Hidden Hollywood II: More Treasures from the 20th Century Fox Vaults (1999)
as (archive footage)
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936)
as Dave Tolliver
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Making '12 Angry Men' (2008)
as Self (archive footage)
The Alpha Caper (1973)
as Mark Forbes
Jay Sebring… Cutting to the Truth (2020)
as Self(archive footage)
Letter to Jane: An Investigation About a Still (1974)
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Jezebel: Legend of the South (2006)
as Self (archive footage)
Henry Fonda: Hollywood's Quiet Hero (1997)
as Self (archive footage)
Henry Fonda for President (2025)
as Self (archive footage)
The Best Man (1964)
as William Russell
Something to Do with Death (2003)
as Self (archive footage)
The Moon's Our Home (1936)
as Anthony Amberton / John Smith
Jigsaw (1949)
as Nightclub Waiter (uncredited)
The Man Who Understood Women (1959)
as Willie Bauche
John Ford & Monument Valley (2013)
as Self (archive footage)
Guilt Trip: Hitchcock and 'The Wrong Man' (2004)
as Self (archive footage)
Rappaccini's Daughter (1980)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
The Sky Is Gray (1980)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
I Met My Love Again (1938)
as Ives Towner
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (1980)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
The Man Who Loved Bears (1979)
as Self
An Impression of John Steinbeck: Writer (1969)
as John Steinbeck (voice)
Summer Solstice (1981)
as Joshua
To Save a Soldier (1966)
as Narrator (voice)
The Really Big Family (1966)
as Self - Narrator
I Dream Too Much (1935)
as Johnny Street
Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To (1990)
as (archive footage)
Fonda on Fonda (1992)
as Self (archive footage)
The Fondas: A Cinematic Dynasty (2023)
as Self - Actor (archive footage)
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (1980)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
'Fail-Safe' and the Cold War (2020)
as Self (archive footage)
The Greatest Man in the World (1981)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
Blockade (1938)
as Marco
Wings of the Morning (1937)
as Kerry Gilfallen
The Oldest Living Graduate (1980)
as Col. J.C. Kincaid
President Kennedy's Birthday Salute (1962)
as Self
Underground Doctors (1977)
as Self - Host
Paul's Case (1980)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
Barn Burning (1980)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
The Blue Hotel (1977)
as Self - Series Host (uncredited)
Wild Geese Calling (1941)
as John Murdock
Collision Course: Truman vs. MacArthur (1976)
as Gen. Douglas MacArthur
The Music School (1974)
as Narrator (voice)
Spendthrift (1936)
as Townsend Middleton
Home to Stay (1978)
as Grandpa George
A Space to Grow (1968)
as Narrator
Born to Buck (1966)
as Narrator
Hollywood: The Great Stars (1963)
as Self - Host
It's Everybody's War (1942)
as Narrator
Loving Against Time: the Making of On Golden Pond (—)
as archive footage
Pat Paulsen for President (1968)
as Narrator (voice)