Henry Fonda
Acting
🎂 1905-05-16
Henry Jaynes Fonda 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.
Cast credits(203)
Self
1962
Self
1961
Self (archive footage)
1956
Self - Nominee
1956
Self - Host
1956
Self - Co-Host/Special Award Recipient
1956
Self - Host / Presenter
1956
Self - Presenter
1956
Self - Cecil B. DeMille Award Recipient
1944
Juror 8
1957
Self
1971
Frank
1968
Self
1962
Marshal Simon Fry
1959
Self
1948
Self - Mystery Guest
1950
Self - Guest
1968
Self (archive footage)
1974
Self
1974
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz
1976
Self
1978
Self - Guest
1956
James Lawrence
1976
Self
1973
Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
1962
Henry Fonda (uncredited)
1968
Joshua Richards
1969
Jethro Stuart
1962
Frank Beardsley
1968
Frank Broderick
1964
Self
1971
Marion 'Howdy' Lewis
1965
Lt. Col. Owen Thursday
1948
Jack Beauregard
1973
Lt Col Kiley
1965
Norman Thayer Jr.
1981
Pierre Bezukhov
1956
Col. Frederick Warner
1979
Self - Host
1959
Narrator (Voice)
1974
Tom Joad
1940
Self - Actor (archive footage)
2023
Wyatt Earp
1946
Self (archive footage)
1992
CINCPAC II
1965
Meredith
1966
The President
1964
Self (archive footage)
1980
Clay Blaisedell
1959
Peter Kirk
1941
Dr. Walter Krim
1978
Self (archive footage)
2013
Mayor Will Blue
1967
Clay Spencer
1963
Woodward W. Lopeman
1970
Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
1974
Harley Sullivan
1970
Self
1973
Lieutenant Roberts
1955
Dimitri Koulov
1965
Self (archive footage)
1991
Morgan Hickman
1957
Commissioner Anthony X. Russell
1968
Self - Host
1955
Manny Balestrero
1956
1971
Narrator: Grant Wood episode (voice)
1951
"Brick" Tennant
1939
Self - Actor (archive footage)
2019
Alan Davies
1973
Bob Larkin
1968
Frank James
1940
John S. Bottomly
1968
The President
1979
Self (archive footage)
1997
Charles Pike
1941
Self (archive footage)
2018
Fire Chief Risley
1979
Self - Narrator
1971
Gil Carter
1943
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1981
Preston Dillard
1938
1991
Mr. Whitehead
1977
Eddie Taylor
1937
1969
Self
1971
Peter Ames
1938
Abraham Lincoln
1939
Narrator
1942
Mark Forbes
1973
Mark Sawyer
1973
Gilbert Martin
1939
Lank Solsky
1948
Frank James
1939
Old Prospector
1979
David Bartlett
1935
Henry Stamper
1971
Sen. Enfield Bassett
1976
Self (archive footage)
2020
Alan Squier
1955
Thomas Watson
1939
Dan Harrow
1935
President of the Academy
1978
Clarence Earl Gideon
1951
William Russell
1964
Joe Adams
1947
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1980
Narrator (voice)
1942
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1977
Generale Foster
1978
Robert Leffingwell
1962
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1980
Capt. John G Nolan
1970
Self (archive footage)
1997
Elegant John
1978
Agustus 'Little Pinks' Pinkerton, II
1942
Self (archive footage)
1988
Ben Chamberlain
1967
Emmett Kelly
1953
Chad Smith
1971
(archive footage)
1990
Clarence Earl Gideon
1980
Hugues (archive footage)
1993
Slim Kincaid
1937
George
1942
Willie Bauche
1959
A Fugitive
1947
Self (archive footage)
1938
Grandpa George
1978
Dave Tolliver
1936
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1980
Simon Davenport
1977
Anthony Amberton / John Smith
1936
Gen. Douglas MacArthur
1976
Self - Narrator
1961
Chad Hanna
1940
Marco
1938
Thadeus Winship 'Tad' Page
1942
John Murdock
1941
Corporal Colin Spence
1943
Kardinal Schuster
1974
Tommy Turner
1942
Townsend Middleton
1936
Jack V. Merrick, Jr.
1937
(archive footage)
1984
Self
1982
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1980
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1977
Self (archive footage)
2000
Self
1978
Peter Lapham
1947
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1980
Narrator (segment "Fifties Dead Sequence") (voice)
1960
Self (archive footage)
2015
Narrator
1967
Narrator (voice)
1951
Guest Performer
1977
Guest Performer (uncredited)
1977
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1980
Self (archive footage)
2004
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1977
Carl Tiflin
1973
Self (archive footage)
2025
Lewis Easton
1958
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1976
Self - Actor (archive footage)
2003
Self (archive footage)
2020
Self (archive footage)
2013
Jim Kimmerlee
1938
Narrator (voice)
1974
Self (Archival Footage)
1999
John Wheeler
1942
Self
1978
Nightclub Waiter (uncredited)
1949
Narrator (voice)
1968
Alexander Moore
1940
Ives Towner
1938
Kerry Gilfallen
1937
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1980
Narrator / Host
1962
Self (archive footage)
2003
Johnny Street
1935
Self (archive footage)
2003
Narrator
1975
Narrator
1968
Joshua
1981
Prof. Tommy Turner (archive footage)
2006
Col. J.C. Kincaid
1980
Self - Series Host (uncredited)
1977
Self
1979
Narrator
1966
Self - Narrator
1966
Self
1962
Self (archive footage)
2008
Self (archive footage)
2006
Clarence Darrow
1974
Narrator (voice)
1966
Self
1975
Self - Host
1977
John Steinbeck (voice)
1969
Narrator (voice)
1952
Self - Host
1963