Born in Grand Island, Nebraska, Henry Fonda started his acting debut with the Omaha Community Playhouse, a local amateur theater troupe directed by Dorothy Brando. He moved to the Cape Cod University Players and later Broadway, New York to expand his theatrical career from 1926 to 1934. His first major roles in Broadway include "New Faces of America" and "The Farmer Takes a Wife". The latter play was transfered to the screen in 1935 and became the start-up of Fonda's lifelong Hollywood career. The following year he married Frances Seymour Fonda with whom he had two children: Jane and Peter Fonda also to become screen stars. He is most remembered for his roles as Abe Lincoln in Young Mr. Lincoln, Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, for which he received an Academy Award Nomination, and more recently, Norman Thayer in On Golden Pond, for which he received an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1982. Henry Fonda is considered one of Hollywood's old-time legends and was friend and contemporary of James Stewart, John Ford and Joshua Logan. His movie career which spanned almost 50 years is completed by a notable presence in American theater and television.
The Longest Day (1962): $30,000
Fort Apache (1948): $110,000

Ranked #95 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997] Father of Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda. Studied acting with Dorothy Brando, mother of Marlon Brando. Tony Award for "Mister Roberts" in the title role. [1948] Earned the rank of Life Scout and became a Scout Master as an adult. Grandfather of Bridget Fonda, Justin Fonda and Troy Garity. 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. Hobby was making model airplanes and kites. Grandfather of Vanessa Vadim, father-in-law of Roger Vadim. Father-in-law of Tom Hayden. His last film was also Myrna Loy's. His 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. Henry Fonda's paternal grandparents moved to Nebraska in the 1800s. Father-in-law of Ted Turner. The oldest person ever to win a Best Actor Oscar (He was 76 at the time). Was good friends with James Stewart. He periodically returned to the legitimate stage throughout his career ("Mister Roberts," "Critic's Choice," "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?" when 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. Step-daughter, Pan, with Frances Brokaw Daughter, Amy, with Susan Blanchard. 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. The Fonda family was acquainted with Marlon Brando's family, as they both lived in Omaha, NE, although the two very different actors never knew each other because Fonda was much older. In fact, when the teenaged 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. 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. Stewart went out to Hollywood a little before Fonda did and when Fonda moved out there he shared Stewart's home, where they both gained reputations as ladies' men. After Stewart got married and Fonda 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 Actor (Dramatic) for "Mister Roberts" in the title role -- an award shared with Paul Kelly for "Command Decision" and Basil Rathbone for "The Heinres." He also won a second, Special Tony in 1979, and was additionally nominated for Broadway's 1975 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) 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, 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 his daughter are the one of two couples (the other is Hayley Mills/John Mills) where the daughter won an Academy award before the father did. Awarded "Father of The Year" in 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, was actually a naval veteran of World War II who served in the Pacific Theater. After making The Ox-Bow Incident, 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. 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 with Bette Davis. Divorced Margaret Sullavan after two months. Nearly fell out with his close friend James Stewart in an argument over blacklisting in the spring of 1947. That happened shortly after Fonda had joined with 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 out of California and back to New York, not to return 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."