Jane Fonda, the daughter of famed actor Henry Fonda, has won Academy Awards for her roles in the films Klute and Coming Home. Fonda has received several honors, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the AFI Life Achievement Award, the Honorary Palme d’Or, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. She was a civil rights and anti-war activist off-screen. The actress earned popularity in the 1980s by producing a series of aerobic-exercise films. The Newsroom, Grace and Frankie, and Book Club are among Fonda’s latest accomplishments.
Quick Facts:
- Birth Year: 1937
- Birth date: December 21, 1937
- Birth State: New York, United States
- Gender: Female
- Career: Actress
- Best Known For: Jane Fonda is a well-known American actress who is also recognized for her political advocacy and aerobic fitness videos. The actress has two Oscars and is the daughter of famed actor Henry Fonda.
Early Life:
Jane Fonda, born Lady Jayne Seymour Fonda on December 21, 1937, in New York City, has had a successful career as an actress. Doctors Hospital in New York City delivered her by cesarean section. She is descended from a Hollywood dynasty. Her father, Henry, was a famous actor of the twentieth century. Her brother Peter and niece Bridget have also found success on the big screen.
Her father claims that her surname Fonda was derived from an Italian ancestor who went to the Netherlands in the 1500s. He intermarried there, and the resulting family began to use Dutch surnames, with Jane’s first Fonda ancestor arriving in New York in 1650. Fonda is also of English, French, and Scottish descent.
She was named after Henry VIII’s third wife, Jane Seymour, to whom she is distantly connected on her mother’s side, and because of whom Fonda stated she was called “Lady” (as in Lady Jane) until she was in fourth grade.
Growing up, Fonda encountered various difficulties. Her father was a bit distant and cold towards them. When Fonda was 12, her mother, socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw committed suicide. Fonda had an eating condition shortly after her mother’s death, which she battled for years.
Later that year, Henry Fonda married Susan Blanchard, a socialite 23 years his younger; the marriage ended in divorce. Jane began teaching dance at the age of 15 in Fire Island Pines, New York. Fonda attended Greenwich Academy in Connecticut. She then went to boarding school before attending Vassar College. Fonda left college to pursue art in Paris. She was a model before she became an actress, and she featured on the cover of Vogue twice.
Fonda got interested in the arts after seeing her father act in a charity production of The Country Girl at the Omaha Community Playhouse in 1954. She moved to Paris for six months to study painting after dropping out of Vassar. When she returned to the United States in 1958, she met Lee Strasberg, who changed the trajectory of her life. A few years later, Fonda began studying art with Lee Strasberg at the renowned Actors Studio, eventually following in her father’s footsteps.
Career:
1960’s – 2000’s:
Fonda‘s career began to take off in 1960. Throughout the decade, she averaged nearly two films per year, beginning in 1960 with Tall Story, in which she reprised one of her Broadway roles as a college cheerleader seeking a basketball star, played by Anthony Perkins.
There Was a Little Girl earned Fonda a Tony Award nomination on Broadway. Over the following few years, she continued to mix theater and film employment. Fonda appeared in the romantic comedy The Chapman Report (1962), directed by George Cukor. Around this time, she appeared on Broadway with Celeste Holm in Invitation to a March and Dyan Cannon in The Fun Couple.
Fonda’s breakout performance came in Cat Ballou (1965), in which she played a schoolmarm-turned-outlaw. This comic Western got five Oscar nominations, including best actor for Lee Marvin, and was one of the year’s top ten grossing pictures. Many thought it to be the picture that catapulted Fonda to bankable celebrity.
The next year, she starred in The Chase, her first picture with Robert Redford, and two-time Oscar winner Marlon Brando. The film garnered mixed reviews, although Variety magazine praised Fonda’s performance.
She went to France to film The Game Is Over (1966), which was widely regarded as her sexiest film, and appeared in the August 1966 issue of Playboy in paparazzi photos obtained on the set. Fonda promptly filed a lawsuit against the magazine for releasing the photos without her permission. Following this followed the comedy Any Wednesday (1966), co-starring Redford with Jason Robards and Dean Jones, and Barefoot in the Park (1967).
Under the supervision of her French director husband Roger Vadim, Fonda remade herself as a form of sex kitten in the late 1960s. This new appearance was particularly noticeable in the 1968 science fiction film Barbarella.
She quickly lost this image in favor of more serious dramatic parts. She received her first Academy Award nomination for ‘They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?’ in 1969. Fonda won her first Academy Award two years later for her work on Alan J. Pakula’s thriller Klute, which also starred Donald Sutherland. Fonda interviewed various prostitutes and madams before shooting the murder mystery.
Fonda continued to give outstanding performances on the big screen. In Julia (1977), she co-starred with Vanessa Redgrave as author Lillian Hellman. The next year, Fonda earned her second Academy Award for her performance in the Vietnam War film Coming Home, alongside Jon Voight. Around this period, she also appeared in the smash thriller The China Syndrome (1979) starring Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas.
A few years later, Fonda landed another important job. On Golden Pond (1982), she co-starred with her father Henry. The video examines a family’s relationships during a vacation to their summer home. In this example, art matched actuality, with Fonda portraying her real-life father’s daughter. Katharine Hepburn also appeared in the film as Fonda’s mother. Her father won his first and only Academy Award for Best Actor for the film.
Fonda made a stunning comeback to the public spotlight in 2005. Monster-in-Law was her first picture in over 15 years, and it also starred Jennifer Lopez and Michael Vartan. Fonda’s book, My Life So Far, was published the same year. More film appearances followed, including the title part in the 2007 film Georgia Rule, co-starring Lindsay Lohan.
1982- Jane Fonda’s Workout and Fonda Films:
Fonda used to take ballet classes to stay active, but she was unable to do so after breaking her foot while filming The China Syndrome. To compensate, she started doing aerobics and strengthening workouts under the supervision of Leni Cazden. The Leni Workout evolved into the Jane Fonda Workout, launching her into a second career that lasted many years.
This was seen as one of the factors that sparked the fitness obsession among baby boomers as they approached middle age. Fonda’s first fitness DVD, Jane Fonda’s Workout, was produced in 1982, inspired by her best-selling book, Jane Fonda’s Workout Book. Workout by Jane Fonda was the best-selling home video of the following few years, selling over a million copies.
On May 3, 1983, she went into a non-exclusive contract with motion picture distributor Columbia Pictures, under which she would appear in and/or produce projects under her own production banner Jayne Development Corporation, and she would set up offices at The Burbank Studios. The company instantly started after her previous office, IPC Films, which she co-founded with Bruce Gilbert, closed down. On June 25, 1985, Jane changed her production business to Fonda Films since the former name sounded like a real estate firm.
Late 2000’s and 2020’s:
Fonda made her television debut in 2012 with a recurring part on the media-focused drama series The Newsroom. In 2013, she portrayed former First Lady Nancy Reagan in the film The Butler. The following year, Fonda co-starred alongside Jason Bateman and Tina Fey in the family drama comedy This Is Where I Leave You.
Fonda collaborated with longtime friend Lily Tomlin on the 2015 sitcom Grace and Frankie. The show follows two ladies as they attempt to rebuild their lives after their husbands fall in love and leave them. Sam Waterston plays Tomlin’s spouse, Sol, while Martin Sheen plays Fonda’s husband, Robert. In the same year, Fonda received a Golden Globe nomination for Supporting Actress for her portrayal in Youth opposite Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel.
Fonda wrapped filming on the seventh and last season of Grace and Frankie in November 2021. The first four episodes debuted on August 14, 2021, with the last 12 episodes arriving on Netflix on April 29, 2022.
Fonda has joined the cast of 80 for Brady, a 2023 film starring legendary actors Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno, and Sally Field. It also stars Tom Brady, a former NFL quarterback. Moving On, a black comedy directed by Paul Weitz and starring Malcolm McDowell and Richard Roundtree, stars her and Tomlin. Book Club: The Next Chapter, her third project for 2023, was created in Italy.
Activism:
In addition to performing, Fonda became a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War. She visited North Vietnam in 1972, which generated quite a stir at home. Many people were outraged when Fonda posed for pictures while sitting on an antiaircraft cannon, which was used to shoot at American forces. She was dubbed “Hanoi Jane” and seen as a traitor for her support of the North Vietnamese. Fonda has advocated for social concerns, working as a spokeswoman for civil rights and women’s problems.
Fonda recommitted herself to activism in September 2019, moving to Washington, D.C., to participate in a series of public rallies to emphasize the seriousness of climate change. As a result of being arrested several times, she was frequently with prominent acquaintances like Waterston, Ted Danson, and Catherine Keener.
Marriages and Children:
Fonda has been married three times, each time ending in divorce. Her marriage to filmmaker Roger Vadim lasted from 1965 until 1973, during which time they had a daughter named Vanessa. In 1973, she married activist and politician Tom Hayden. That same year, they welcomed their son Troy Garity. Fonda also informally adopted a young African-American girl called Mary Williams when Troy was a teenager. Williams subsequently wrote about her relationship with Fonda in her novel The Lost Daughter, published in 2013.
Fonda married media magnate Ted Turner shortly after divorcing Hayden in 1990. The couple married in 1991 and was married for a decade. The pair split in 2001, allegedly due to Fonda’s newly discovered Christian religion. She later dated music producer Richard Perry for over a decade until splitting in 2017.
