This remarkable, soft-spoken American began in films as a diffident juvenile. With passing years, he matured into a star character actor who exemplified not only integrity and strength, but an ideal of the common man fighting against social injustice and oppression. He was born in Grand Island, Hall, Nebraska, the son of Herberta Elma (Jaynes) and William Brace Fonda, who was a commercial printer, and proprietor of the W. B. Fonda Printing Company in Omaha, Nebraska. His distant ancestors were Italians who had fled their country and moved to Holland, presumably because of political or religious persecution. In the mid-1600s, they crossed the Atlantic and settled in upstate New York where they founded a community with the Fonda name. In this article, we will talk about Henry Fonda's Biography including Net Worth, Age, Birthday, Height, Weight, Family, Children etc.
Henry Fonda Biography
Growing up, Henry developed an early interest in journalism after having a story published in a local newspaper. At the age of twelve, he helped in his father's printing business for $2 a week. Following graduation from high school in 1923, he got a part-time job in Minneapolis with the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company which allowed him at first to pursue journalistic studies at the University of Minnesota. As it became difficult to juggle his working hours with his academic roster, he obtained another position as a physical education instructor at $30 a week, including room and board. By this time, he had grown to a height of six foot one and was a natural for basketball.
In 1925, having returned to Omaha, Henry reevaluated his options and came to the conclusion that journalism was not his forte, after all. For a while, he tried his hand at several temporary jobs, including as a mechanic and a window dresser. Then, despite opposition from his parents, Henry accepted an offer from Gregory Foley, director of the Omaha Playhouse, to play the title role in 'Merton of the Movies'. His father would not speak to him for a month. The play and its star received fairly good notices in the local press. It ran for a week, after which Henry observed "the idea of being Merton and not myself taught me that I could hide behind a mask". For the rest of the repertory season, Henry advanced to assistant director which enabled him to design and paint sets as well as act. A casual trip to New York, however, had already made him set his sights on Broadway.
In 1928, he headed east and briefly played in summer stock before joining the University Players, a group of talented Princeton and Harvard graduates among whose number were such future luminaries as James Stewart (who would remain his closest lifelong friend), Joshua Logan and Kent Smith. Before long, Henry played leads opposite Margaret Sullavan, soon to become the first of his five wives. Both marriage and the players broke up four years later. In 1932, Henry found himself sharing a two-room New York apartment with Jimmy Stewart and Joshua Logan. For the next two years, he alternated scenic design with acting at various repertory companies. In 1934, he got a break of sorts, when he was given the chance to present a comedy sketch with Imogene Coca in the Broadway revue New Faces. That year, he also hired Leland Hayward as his personal management agent and this was to pay off handsomely.
It was Hayward who persuaded the 29-year old to become a motion picture actor, despite initial misgivings and reluctance on Henry's part. Independent producer Walter Wanger, whose growing stock company was birthed at United Artists, needed a star for The Farmer Takes a Wife (1935). With both first choice actors Gary Cooper and Joel McCrea otherwise engaged, Henry was the next available option. After all, he had just completed a successful run on Broadway in the stage version. The cheesy publicity tag line for the picture was "you'll be fonder of Fonda", but the film was an undeniable hit. Wanger, realizing he had a good thing going, next cast Henry in a succession of A-grade pictures which capitalized on his image as the sincere, unaffected country boy. Pick of the bunch were the Technicolor outdoor western The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), the gritty Depression-era drama You Only Live Once (1937) (with Henry as a back-to-the-wall good guy forced into becoming a fugitive from the law by circumstance), the screwball comedy The Moon's Our Home (1936) (with ex-wife Sullavan), the excellent pre-civil war-era romantic drama Jezebel (1938) and the equally superb Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), in which Henry gave his best screen performance to date as the 'jackleg lawyer from Springfield'. Henry made two more films with director John Ford: the pioneering drama Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940), with Henry as Tom Joad, often regarded his career-defining role as the archetypal grassroots American trying to stand up against oppression. It also set the tone for his subsequent career. Whether he played a lawman (Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine (1946)), a reluctant posse member (The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), a juror committed to the ideal of total justice in (12 Angry Men (1957)) or a nightclub musician wrongly accused of murder (The Wrong Man (1956)), his characters were alike in projecting integrity and quiet authority. In this vein, he also gave a totally convincing (though historically inaccurate) portrayal in the titular role of The Return of Frank James (1940), a rare example of a sequel improving upon the original.
Henry rarely featured in comedy, except for a couple of good turns opposite Barbara Stanwyck -- with whom he shared an excellent on-screen chemistry -- in The Mad Miss Manton (1938) and The Lady Eve (1941). He was also good value as a poker-playing grifter in the western comedy A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966). Finally, just to confound those who would typecast him, he gave a chilling performance as one of the coldest, meanest stone killers ever to roam the West, in Sergio Leone's classic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Illness curtailed his work in the 1970s. His final screen role was as an octogenarian in On Golden Pond (1981), in which he was joined by his daughter Jane. It finally won him an Oscar on the heels of an earlier Honorary Academy Award. Too ill to attend the ceremony, he died soon after at the age of 77, having left a lasting legacy matched by few of his peers.
To know his complete profile, check the following table.
| Name | : | Henry Fonda |
| Birth Name/Full Name | : | Henry Jaynes Fonda |
| Nickname (s) | : | One-Take Fonda, Hank |
| Other Name (s) | : | - |
| Gender | : | Male |
| Date of Birth | : | May 16, 1905 |
| Birthplace | : | Grand Island, Nebraska, USA |
| Citizenship | : | American |
| Height | : | 1.87 m |
| Weight | : | - kg |
| Profession (s) | : | Actor , Producer , Additional Crew |
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Henry Fonda Age in 2023 and Birthday Info
In this section, we will add Henry Fonda's birthday-related information. Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA on May 16, 1905.He died on in Los Angeles, California, USA (cardiorespiratory arrest). Check the below table for more information.
| Date of Birth | : | May 16, 1905 |
| Birth Place | : | Grand Island, Nebraska, USA |
| Country | : | United States |
| Date of Death | : | 1982-8-12 |
| Death Place | : | Los Angeles, California, USA (cardiorespiratory arrest) |
| Aged | : | 77 years |
| Next Birthday | : | 16 May, 2024 |
| Horoscope(Zodic Sign) | : | Taurus |
Henry Fonda Height and Weight
Now we are going to add Henry Fonda's Height (In Meter, Centi Meter, and Feet-Inches) and Weight (In Kilogram and Pounds). As weight changes frequently, we may not have the current weight of Henry Fonda. The height of Henry Fonda is 1.87 m. Check the below table to see in more units.
| Height in Meter | : | 1.87 m. |
| Height in Centimeter | : | 187 cm. |
| Height in Feet-inches | : | 6'2" |
| Weight in Kilogram | : | - kg |
| Weight in Pounds | : | - lb |
Henry Fonda Family (Spouse, Children, Parents, Siblings, Relatives)
In this section, we will add Henry Fonda's complete family information including his martial status, husbandorwife, children, parents, relatives, and siblings.
| Marital Status | : | Married |
| Spouse (s) | : | Shirlee Fonda (3 December 1965 - 12 August 1982) (his death) , Afdera Franchetti (9 March 1957 - 7 January 1961) (divorced) , Susan Blanchard (28 December 1950 - 2 May 1956) (divorced) (1 child) , Frances Seymour Fonda (16 September 1936 - 14 April 1950) (her death) (2 children) , Margaret Sullavan (25 December 1931 - 14 March 1933) (divorced) |
| Children (s) | : | Peter Fonda , Jane Fonda |
| Parents (Father and Mother) | : | William Brace Fonda , Herberta Jaynes |
| Relatives | : | Troy Garity (grandchild) , Herberta Jane Fonda (sibling) , Harriet Mcneill Fonda (sibling) , Malcolm Vadim (great grandchild) , Bridget Fonda (grandchild) , Vanessa Vadim (grandchild) , Viva Vadim (great grandchild) |
Henry Fonda Social Accounts (Facebbok, Instagram, Twitter, Website)
In this section, we will add Henry Fonda's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and personal website.
| : | Henry Fonda Facebook | |
| : | Henry Fonda Instagram | |
| : | Henry Fonda Twitter | |
| Personal Website | : | Henry Fonda Webiste |
Henry Fonda Net Worth in 2023
Are you curious to know what was the net worth of Henry Fonda at time when he died. The net worth of Henry Fonda was $20 Million. We do not guarantee the net worth of Henry Fonda is the exact amount. This is based on several sources on the internet.
Henry Fonda Facts and Trivia
Here is the list of top facts about Henry Fonda.
- Ranked #95 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]
- Studied acting with Dorothy Brando, mother of Marlon Brando.
- Earned the rank of Life Scout and became a scout master as an adult.
- Father of Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda with Frances Seymour Fonda. He also had an adoptive daughter, Amy Fishman (née Amy Fonda), with Susan Blanchard and raised a stepdaughter, Pan Corrias, from Frances' first marriage to George Tuttle Brokaw, who died in 1935.
- During a Barbara Walters interview, Jane Fonda claimed that her father was deeply in love with Lucille Ball and that the two were "very close" during the filming of Yours, Mine and Ours (1968).
- Hobby was making model airplanes and kites.
- His distant ancestors came from Genoa, Italy, and fled to the Netherlands around 1400. Among the early Dutch settlers in America, they established a still-thriving small town in upstate New York named Fonda in the early 1600s, named after patriarch Douw Fonda, who was later killed by Indians. He also had English, Scottish, and more distant German and Norwegian, ancestry. His paternal grandparents moved to Nebraska from New York in the 1800s.
- When he received the Oscar for his performance in On Golden Pond, Fonda was the oldest actor (76) to have received the award. That distinction has since been surpassed by Anthony Hopkins, who at 83 received the Academy Award for his work in The Father (2020).
- He periodically returned to the legitimate stage throughout his career (Mister Roberts, Critic's Choice and First Monday in October), but missed out on the chance to create the role of George in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. His agent rejected the script out of hand, without consulting him. The agent gave as his reason the assertion that, "You don't want to be in a play about four people yelling at each other all the time." Fonda, who was an admirer of playwright Edward Albee's talents, was furious. It didn't help matters when old friends like James Stewart and his wife Gloria Stewart, or even his own daughter Jane, told him that they saw the play in New York and couldn't picture anyone but Fonda in the lead. Finally seeing the show himself, Fonda was duly impressed by Arthur Hill's performance in the role, and conceded that he couldn't have played the part any better.
- Was known as a ladies' man in Hollywood, having been involved in affairs with many actresses.
- In spite of his kind, heroic, honest screen persona, he was often described as being cold, aloof and frequently angry off-screen.
- A friendship and collaboration of nearly 20 years was ended when director John Ford sucker-punched him while making Mister Roberts (1955).
- The Fonda family was acquainted with Marlon Brando's family, as they both lived in Omaha, Nebraska and Henry appeared with Marlon's mother Dorothy in community theater. In fact, the Brando family, on a trip to Southern California in the late 1930s, visited Henry on a movie set. The two very different actors never knew each other socially because Fonda was much older. In fact, when the teen-aged Brando started out as an actor, he did so in the shadow of Fonda, who was the most famous person from Omaha at that point. Brando did tell a story about how he had to fire a housekeeper after he found out that she was allowing tourists to come into his home to look around the digs of a star, for a fee. Soon after, Henry called him to check up on the credentials of a woman applying for the job of housekeeper at his home. It was the same woman that Brando had fired. He enthusiastically recommended her to his mother's former acting protégé, without telling him of her unauthorized tours.
- Was twice a roommate and a very close friend of James Stewart. They met and shared a room when the two were both struggling young actors in the early 1930s. Fonda went to Hollywood shortly before Stewart. When Stewart arrived he shared Fonda's home, where they both gained reputations as ladies' men. After both married and had kids, the more mellow buddies still hung out, usually spending time building model airplanes.
- He was voted the 29th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
- Though a Democrat for most of his life, Fonda was once a registered Republican, according to his son Peter Fonda in his autobiography Don't Tell Dad: A Memoir (1999). Peter believes that Henry's liberalism caused him to be gray-listed during the early 1950s, when he experienced a six-year layoff from films.
- Won Broadway's 1948 Tony Award as best dramatic actor for the title role in "Mister Roberts" and award shared with Paul Kelly for "Command Decision: and Basil Rathbone for "The Heiress." He also won a second special Tony in 1979, and was additionally nominated for Broadway's 1975 Tony Award as best dramatic actor for "Clarence Darrow".
- He was voted the 10th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.
- Named the #6 greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends by the American Film Institute
- Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued in his honor on 20 May 2005.
- One of his hobbies was bee keeping. This was one of many traits that his son, Peter Fonda, incorporated into his performance in Ulee's Gold (1997), a performance Peter says he based on his father.
- He and his daughter Jane Fonda were the first father-daughter couple to be Oscar-nominated the same year (1982).
- Of the Oscar-winning father-daughter couples, he and daughter Jane are the one of two pairs where the daughter won an Academy award before the father did. The other pair is Hayley Mills and John Mills. Hayley's 1960 honorary Oscar was given to her for the best juvenile performance in Pollyanna (1960). Her father John became very popular with the denizens of Hollywood when the Mills family resided there while Hayley made films for Walt Disney. He won a supporting actor Oscar in 1971 for his role as the village idiot in David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970).
- Named Father of The Year 1963 by the Father's Day/Mother's Day Council, Inc.
- His performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940) is ranked #51 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
- Fonda, who played the second Commander in Chief-Pacific (CINCPAC II) in In Harm's Way (1965), was actually a naval veteran of World War II who served in the Pacific Theater. After making The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), Fonda enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II, saying, "I don't want to be in a fake war in a studio." He served in the Navy for three years, initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer USS Satterlee; later, Fonda was commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade (O-2) in Air Combat Intelligence. For his service in the Central Pacific, he won the Bronze Star, the fourth highest award for bravery or meritorious service in conflict with the enemy.
- On April 12, 1967, he visited the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Kitty Hawk for an overnight stay in preparation for his role in Yours, Mine and Ours (1968).
- Three films of his are on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: On Golden Pond (1981) at #45, 12 Angry Men (1957) at #42, and The Grapes of Wrath (1940) at #7.
- Formed a partnership with actors Robert Ryan and Martha Scott in 1968, co-founding the theatrical production company Plumstead Playhouse in New York. Later called the Plumstead Theatre Society, it co-produced the Broadway production of First Monday in October, starring Fonda and Jane Alexander.
- The birth of his daughter Jane Fonda was the cause of some interruptions during his filming of Jezebel (1938) with Bette Davis.
- Separated from first wife Margaret Sullavan after only two months of marriage, however the formal divorce proceedings took longer than the time they were living together as husband and wife, with the final divorce decree not being finalized until an additional thirteen months after separation.
- Nearly fell out with his close friend James Stewart in an argument over blacklisting in the spring of 1947. It happened shortly after Fonda joined Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and John Huston in signing an open letter to the House Unamerican Activities Committee, suggesting it end its investigations of Communism involvement in the film industry. According to Stewart, the argument was "long and pretty heated" and ended only when the two men realized they were jeopardizing so many years of friendship. Soon afterward, Fonda moved to New York, not returning to Hollywood until 1955. Although part of the reason for his extended stay in the East was his starring role in Mister Roberts on Broadway, he also confided to friends that he couldn't tolerate the political climate in Southern California during those years. Jane Fonda admits she never got her father to say exactly what was said during the argument with Stewart. "I know it was definitely about the House Unamerican Activities Committee and what became known as McCarthyism later on," she recalled. "And it's true that their friendship really almost ended over that. That was why, after they had cooled down, they decided they would never again talk politics when they were together. But since they were agreeing to be so close-mouthed with one another, they were hardly going to start opening up to other people.".
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 284-287. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
- Was good friends with John Wayne from the time they were part of the director John Ford's stock company. Henry's son, Peter Fonda, in his autobiography, said that Henry had some trouble with the Duke and fellow Ford film co-star Ward Bond over politics, as the two were definitely to his father's right. Peter said that the Duke and Bond were wonderful with him and very warm, in contrast to his father, who was rather cold. Henry would drift away from the Ford stock company, and his relationship with the great director would end on the set of Mister Roberts (1955) when he objected to Ford's direction of the film. Ford punched Fonda and had to be replaced.
- 1982: Was unable to be present at the 1982 Academy Awards ceremony to accept his best actor Oscar for On Golden Pond (1981). His award was accepted on his behalf by his daughter Jane Fonda.
- He was one of the most active, and most vocal, liberal Democrats in Hollywood along with Robert Ryan and Gregory Peck. He once said that President Ronald Reagan made him "physically ill", and that he "couldn't stomach any of the Republicans, most of all Richard Nixon.".
- Contrary to popular belief, Fonda did approve of his daughter Jane's anti-war activism during Vietnam and at AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Henry Fonda (1978) told her critics to "shut up", because "she's perfect".
- Ranked #6 as AFI's top male screen legends.
- Grandfather of Bridget Fonda, Justin Fonda, Vanessa Vadim and Troy Garity.
- Considered for the leading role of Ladri di biciclette (1948).
- He was a founding member of the Hollywood Democratic Committee during the 1930s, formed in support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal agenda.
- Fonda told his third wife Susan Blanchard to stay away from Ward Bond, whose ultra-conservative views and active support for McCarthyism he despised.
- He returned to Broadway in 1974 for the biographical drama Clarence Darrow for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Fonda's health had been deteriorating for years, but his first outward symptoms occurred after an April 1974 performance when he collapsed from exhaustion. After the appearance of a heart arrhythmia brought on by prostate cancer, a pacemaker was installed and Fonda returned to the play in the following year. After the run of the 1978 play First Monday of October, he took the advice of his doctors and quit the rigors of live stage, though he continued to star in films and on television.
- Appeared in three movies based exclusively on World War II battles, The Longest Day (1962), Battle of the Bulge (1965) and Midway (1976), and also appeared in a more fictional representation of the Pearl Harbor attack and early South Pacific campaign, In Harm's Way (1965), in the same role he would portray in "Midway," Admiral Chester Nimitz (referred to as CINCPAC II in "In Harm's Way").
- With the exception of a $200,000 bequest to daughter Amy, he left his entire estate to his 5th wife Shirlee Adams.
- He was a close friend of actor Ross Alexander from the time they first worked together on Broadway.
- He left a clause in his will requesting that there be no funeral or memorial service.
- Was a first-hand witness to the Omaha race riots of 1919 and lynching of Will Brown.
- Won a 1979 Special Tony Award.
- Played a man wrongly accused of a crime four times: You Only Live Once (1937), Let Us Live (1939), The Wrong Man (1956), and Gideon's Trumpet (1980).
- He was a big fan of All in the Family (1971) and had the privilege of hosting "The Best of All in the Family, which looked back at the best moments from the first 100 episodes of the show.
- Fonda admits he was initially attracted to acting because it helped him "to get behind a mask.".
- Fonda did preliminary work on a picture to be called "Clown" about the life of Emmet Kelly, but script problems caused it to fall through, although he did appear as Kelly in the March 27, 1955 episode of the "General Electric Theatre" titled "The Clown.".
- Although he received great acclaim for both his acting and producing "Twelve Angry Men," Fonda, who was working on a percentage of the profits for his compensation as both actor and producer, ultimately received nothing for acting or producing, because the film just broke even.
- Fonda's first Broadway role was a small one in "A Game of Love and Death" with Alice Brady, Claude Rains, and Otto Kruger.
- Fonda was a member of the University Players, a group of young actors located in Falmouth near Provincetown. Other members included Joshua Logan, Kent Smith, Myron McCormick, Bretaigne Windust, Charles Arnt, Mildred Natwick, James Stewart, Barbara O'Neill, and future wife Magaret Sullavan. They stayed together for four years.
- Fonda was considered the most talented of all the Hollywood celebrities who painted in oils, mostly still lifes. He was offered considerable sums on many occasions for his paintings but preferred to give them away to friends.
- He played unnamed US Presidents in two films: Fail Safe (1964) and Meteor (1979).
- According to author Michael Buckley, Fonda's most cherished childhood memory was being awakened by his mother to see Halley's Comet in 1910.
- Although he was against the Vietnam War, Fonda was ultimately persuaded to go on a twenty-three day tour, taking Polaroids with the servicemen and autographing them.
- The day when Henry Fonda was born was Tuesday.
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