Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda (born May 16, 1905 in Grand Island , Nebraska , † August 12, 1982 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American film actor . Between 1935 and 1981 he made 115 film and television appearances. He is considered one of the most important American character actors and was voted number 6 in the list of the 25 greatest male film legends of all time by the American Film Institute .
Fonda was mostly cast as an upright, morally sound American in film classics such as The Fruits of Wrath and The Twelve Jurors ; a departure from this role was his appearance as the unscrupulous killer in Spiel mir das Lied von Tod . In 1981 he received an honorary Oscar , and a year later Fonda was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor for his last film Amolden See . He is the father of Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda and the grandfather of Bridget Fonda .
Life
Early years
Henry Fonda - son of William Brace Fonda and Elma Herberta (Jaynes) Fonda - initially planned a career as a journalist. In the mid-1920s he joined an amateur theater company led by Dorothy Brando (mother of Marlon Brando ). At the University of Minnesota , Fonda met James Stewart , with whom he would become a lifelong friend. Stewart and Fonda played theater in New York and shared a small apartment. In the mid-1930s, the two actors received their first offers from Hollywood. From 1931 to 1932 Fonda was married to his colleague Margaret Sullavan for the first time .
First successes
In 1935 Henry Fonda made his first film: The Farmer Will Marry was the adaptation of a play with which he was already successful on Broadway. From 1936 Fonda was married to Frances Seymour Brokaw - from the marriage the two children Jane and Peter emerged, who later also became successful as actors. The handsome, highly talented Fonda quickly became a popular star in Hollywood and immediately starred under such renowned directors as Fritz Lang and William Wyler . In Jesse James, Man Without a Law , he appeared alongside Tyrone Power in the role of Frank James . John Ford starred Fonda in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) and hired him in 1940 for his Steinbeck film adaptation of The Fruits of Wrath , in which Fonda played the role of Tom Joad . Fonda was nominated for an Oscar for the latter , but the award went to his friend James Stewart for his lead role in The Night Before the Wedding .
Character actor
The success of Fruits of Wrath established Henry Fonda as one of the great character actors of his generation. While most Hollywood stars only appeared in motion pictures, Fonda worked regularly as a stage actor throughout his film career. In the 1940s he played important roles under directors such as Fritz Lang and John Ford in western classics such as Ritt zum Ox-Bow (1943), Faustrecht der Prärie (1946) or Until the Last Man (1948). Fonda's image was that of the upright, morally upright American.
During the Second World War, Fonda volunteered for a three-year service in the United States Navy from 1942 . There served, among other things, as quartermaster with the rank of NCO on the destroyer USS Satterlee and later as an officer in the military intelligence service in the Pacific. For his service he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal , among other things .
In 1950, Fonda's second wife in psychiatry cut her throat on her 42nd birthday after he had announced a divorce three months earlier in order to marry Susan Blanchard (* 1928). Years later, treating psychiatrist Margaret Gibson described Fonda as a "cold, selfish, and complete narcissist ". His next cast in a film did not follow until five years later: in 1955 he played a naval officer in the film adaptation of the play Mister Roberts , after having appeared on the stage for years in this role. Fonda played for Alfred Hitchcock in The Wrong Man in 1956 . In 1957 he shot the court drama The Twelve Jurors, directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the play by Reginald Rose , for which he was also responsible as a producer. In this he shone as a skeptical juror who convinced everyone else of the doubts about the guilt of the young defendant and thus saved him from being sentenced to death.
He played the role of the American president in the Cold War drama Target Moscow (1964). In 1965 he took on the lead role in the World War II flick The Last Battle . In 1968, director Sergio Leone radically cast him, contrary to his previous image, for the cult western Spiel mir das Lied von Tod , in which Fonda took on the role of the ice-cold contract killer Frank, who is not afraid to wipe out entire families.
From 1959 to 1961, Fonda played the leading role of the Marshal in Silver City in a total of 76 episodes in the television series The Second Man (The Deputy) , of which 24 episodes were broadcast on West German television from June 6, 1964 . He also appeared in the early 1960s as a presenter on the television series The Big Picture , which was produced by the United States Army for propaganda purposes .
Late years
In the 1970s, the aging character actor was no longer so picky about his choice of roles and appeared in many exclusively commercially oriented films. His better-known Hollywood films of the 1970s include Battle for Midway (1976) and Meteor (1979). In 1973, Sergio Leone, who worked as a producer, gave him the role of a legendary western hero who befriends a young admirer ( Terence Hill ) in the amusing western comedy My Name Is Nobody . In 1981 Robert Redford presented the actor with an honorary Oscar for his outstanding life's work. In 1982 Fonda received an Oscar just a few months before his death for a role he played in the generational drama On the Golden Lake , which he could no longer accept himself. Next to Katharine Hepburn and for the first and only time next to his daughter Jane, he showed the character study of an old man who played over his incipient senility and fear of death with grim humor.
In the last few years of his life, Fonda expressed himself deliberately disparagingly about the policies of his former colleague Ronald Reagan , who was elected President of the White House in 1980 .
Henry Fonda, who was married five times, died of a heart condition on August 12, 1982 in his Los Angeles apartment . Fonda's wife, Shirlee, his daughter Jane and his son Peter were by his side that day. Prostate cancer is noted on the death certificate as a further disease that does not cause death.
Acting performance
Henry Fonda is considered one of the most important actors in film history . Over the decades, he has become an American icon adored in unprecedented ways by his compatriots. In his haunting portrayal of morally infallible men who always acted responsibly, he embodied the American virtues in their purest form. He has portrayed American presidents several times. Fonda admitted, however, that it was impossible in reality to lead a life as honorable as his screen characters.
Henry Fonda has earned a unique reputation among critics and audiences alike . The slim, aristocratic-looking actor with the striking blue eyes, attractive even in old age, was known for his naturalistic style of representation. He played deliberately straightforward and withdrawn and convinced with the extraordinary intensity of his roles. Fonda thought little of the psychologizing acting method of method acting , which the acting teacher Lee Strasberg propagated and whose most outstanding representative Marlon Brando is considered. Strasberg, on the other hand, described Fonda as "the best method actor of all of us".
Filmography
- 1935: The Farmer Takes a Wife
- 1935: Way Down East
- 1935: I Dream Too Much
- 1936: Battle in the Mountains (The Trail of the Lonesome Pine)
- 1936: Escape into Love (The Moon's Our Home)
- 1936: Donation thrift
- 1937: You Only Live Once (You Only Live Once)
- 1937: Gypsy Princess (Wings of the Morning)
- 1937: Slim - A man aims high (Slim)
- 1937: That Certain Woman
- 1938: I Met My Love Again
- 1938: Jezebel - The Malicious Lady (Jezebel)
- 1938: blockade
- 1938: Pirates in Alaska (Spawn of the North)
- 1938: The Mad Miss Manton
- 1939: Jesse James, Man Without a Law (Jesse James)
- 1939: Let Us Live
- 1939: The love and life of the telephone maker A. Bell (The Story of Alexander Graham Bell)
- 1939: Young Mr. Lincoln (Young Mr. Lincoln)
- 1939: Drums Along the Mohawk (Drums along the Mohawk)
- 1940: The Grapes of Wrath (The Grapes of Wrath)
- 1940: Lillian Russell
- 1940: Revenge for Jesse James (The Return of Frank James)
- 1940: Chad Hanna
- 1941: The Cardsharp (The Lady Eve)
- 1941: Wild Geese Calling
- 1941: You Belong to Me
- 1942: Subject: Der Mann (The Male Animal)
- 1942: The Big Game (Rings on Her Fingers)
- 1942: The Magnificent Dope
- 1942: Six Fates (Tales of Manhattan)
- 1942: The Big Street
- 1942: It's Everybody's War (documentary, voice)
- 1942: Battle of Midway ( The Battle of Midway, voice)
- 1943: Ride to the Ox-Bow (The Ox-Bow Incident)
- 1943: Immortal Sergeant
- 1946: Law of the Prairie (My Darling Clementine)
- 1947: The vultures eat the last one (The Long Night)
- 1947: Command of Conscience (The Fugitive)
- 1947: Daisy Kenyon
- 1948: On Our Merry Way
- 1948: To the Last Man (Fort Apache)
- 1949: Jigsaw (cameo)
- 1950: Showtime, USA (TV series, episode)
- 1951: Benjy (documentary short film)
- 1953: Medallion Theater (TV series, episode)
- 1955: General Electric Theater (TV series, episode The Clown )
- 1955: Producers' Showcase (TV series, episode The Petrified Forest )
- 1955: No time for heroism (Mister Roberts)
- 1956: War and Peace (War and Peace)
- 1957: The Wrong Man (The Wrong Man)
- 1957: The Twelve Jurors (12 Angry Men)
- 1957: Tin Star (The Tin Star)
- 1958: One day the door opens (Stage Struck)
- 1958: Rangers of Yellowstone (short film, voice)
- 1959: The Man with the Golden Guns (Warlock)
- 1959: Over the streets of Nice (The Man Who Understood Women)
- 1959–1961: The Second Man ( The Deputy ; TV series, 76 episodes)
- 1961: San Francisco Fire (short film, voice)
- 1961/1962: Toast of the Town (TV series, two episodes)
- 1962: Storm over Washington (Advise and Consent)
- 1962: The Longest Day (The Longest Day)
- 1962: How the West Was Won (How the West Was Won)
- 1963: The Dick Powell Show (TV series, episode Tissue of Hate )
- 1963: Summer of Expectation (Spencer's Mountain)
- 1964: The candidate (The Best Man)
- 1964: Target Moscow (Fail-Safe)
- 1964: ... and single girls (Sex and the Single Girl)
- 1965: Nebraska (The Rounders)
- 1965: First Victory (In Harm's Way)
- 1965: Spies among themselves (The Dirty Game)
- 1965: The Final Battle (Battle of the Bulge)
- 1966: Highest stakes in Laredo (A Big Hand For The Little Lady)
- 1967: Arkansas Murder Burners (Welcome to Hard Times)
- 1967: Stranger on the Run (TV movie)
- 1968: The Five Bird Free (Firecreek)
- 1968: Only 72 hours left (Madigan)
- 1968: Yours, Mine and Ours (Yours, Mine and Ours)
- 1968: The Boston Strangler (The Boston Strangler)
- 1968: Pat Paulsen for President (TV movie, voice)
- 1968: Play me the song of death (C'era una volta il West)
- 1970: Bill Cosby (TV series, an episode)
- 1970: Pat Paulsen's Half a Comedy Hour (TV series, episode)
- 1970: Shooting starts at midnight (The Cheyenne Social Club)
- 1970: Too late for Heroes - Fall in to croak (Too Late the Hero)
- 1970: Two dirty scoundrels (There Was A Crooked Man)
- 1970: Howdy (TV movie)
- 1971: The Doris Day Show (TV series, episode)
- 1971: They Want To Be Giants (Sometimes a Great Notion)
- 1971–1972: The Smith Family (TV series, 39 episodes)
- 1973: Tilby has the last word ( The Red Pony , TV movie)
- 1973: The Serpent (Le Serpent)
- 1973: In the Last Moment ( The Alpha Caper , TV movie)
- 1973: The Rival (Ash Wednesday)
- 1973: My name is Nobody (Il mio nome è Nessuno)
- 1974: Mussolini - The Last Days (Mussolini - Ultimo atto)
- 1974: Clarence Darrow (TV movie)
- 1974: The Music School (TV short film, voice)
- 1974: Parker Adderson, Philosopher (short TV film, voice)
- 1976: Collision Course: Truman vs. MacArthur (TV movie)
- 1976: Battle for Midway (Midway)
- 1976: Bernice Bobs Her Hair (TV movie, voice)
- 1976: The Price of Power ( Captains and the Kings ; TV miniseries, 2 episodes)
- 1977: The Polyp - The Beast with the Arms of Death (Tentacoli)
- 1977: I'm a Fool (TV movie, voice)
- 1977: The Displaced Person (TV movie, voice)
- 1977: The Last of the Cowboys
- 1977: roller coaster
- 1977: The Blue Hotel (TV movie, voice)
- 1977/1978: Laugh-In (TV series, two episodes)
- 1978: The Great Offensive (Il Grande Attaco)
- 1978: Home to Stay (TV movie)
- 1978: Fedora
- 1978: The Swarm (The Swarm)
- 1979: Roots - The Next Generations ( Roots: The Next Generations, television series, 3 episodes)
- 1979: City on Fire (City on Fire)
- 1979: Wanda Nevada
- 1979: Meteor
- 1979: An American Family ( Family , TV series, 1 episode)
- 1980: Barn Burning (TV movie, voice)
- 1980: The Jilting of Granny Weatherall (TV movie, voice)
- 1980: The Oldest Living Graduate (TV movie)
- 1980: The Gideon Case ( Gideon's Trumpet, Movie made for TV)
- 1981: On Golden Pond (On Golden Pond)
- 1981: Solstice ( Summer Solstice ; TV movie)
synchronization
Fonda was mainly dubbed by the German actor Wilhelm Borchert . In addition, he lent, Siegmar Schneider , Jürgen Thormann , Friedrich Schoenfelder , helmo kindermann and Ernst Fritz Fürbringer their voices.
Awards
- 1941: Oscar nomination for Best Actor for The Fruits of Wrath
- 1958: Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Drama for The Twelve Jurors
- 1958: Oscar nomination as producer for The Twelve Jurors in the "Best Film" category
- 1958: BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor for The Twelve Jurors
- 1968: 3rd place in the Golden Laurel for best male actor in a comedy for yours, mine, ours
- 1977: Grammy for Best Spoken Recording (Great American Documents)
- 1978: AFI Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute
- 1980: Cecil B. DeMille Award (= Golden Globe for his life's work)
- 1981: Oscar for his life's work (Honorary Award)
- 1981: Golden Apple Award for Top Male Star of the Year
- 1982: Oscar, Golden Globe and National Board of Review Award for At the Golden Lake
- 1983: BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor for Am golden See
- Also two Emmy nominations and two other Laurel Award nominations
- Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1601 Vine Street)
- The American Film Institute voted him number 6 on the list of the 25 greatest male film legends of all time.
literature
- Michael Kerbel: Henry Fonda. His films - his life. (Original title: Henry Fonda ). (= Heyne film library. Volume 56). German translation and additions by Bernd Eckhardt. Heyne, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-453-86056-X , p. 262.
- Tony Thomas : The Complete Films of Henry Fonda. Citadel Press, Secaucus (NJ) 1983, ISBN 0-8065-1189-3 . (Paperback 1990)
- Henry Fonda, Howard Teichmann: Fonda: My Life. London 1984, ISBN 0-491-02866-0 .
- Peter Collier: The Fondas. A Hollywood Dynasty. Putnam Pub Group, 1991, ISBN 0-399-13592-8 .
- Andreas Kern: The fondas. Campus, 2001, ISBN 3-593-36531-6 .
- Devin McKinney: The man who saw a ghost: the life and work of Henry Fonda. St. Martin's Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-1-250-00841-1 .
Web links
- Henry Fonda in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Henry Fonda in the Internet Broadway Database (English)
- Henry Fonda in the database of Find a Grave (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Patricia Bosworth : Jane Fonda, The Private Life of a Public Woman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, p. 67. (books.google.com)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Fonda, Henry |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fonda, Henry Jaynes |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American film actor |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 16, 1905 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Grand Island , Nebraska , United States |
DATE OF DEATH | August 12, 1982 |
Place of death | Los Angeles , California , United States |