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