Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 - August 12, 1982) was an acclaimed American film actor beloved for his roles as plain-speaking men of humane decency.
He was born in Grand Island, Nebraska to William Brace Fonda and Herberta Krueger Jaynes. Henry Fonda, an Academy and Tony Award-winning film and stage actor who appeared in nearly 90 films, finally won the Oscar for his performance in On Golden Pond - in which his daughter Jane co-starred. His son Peter is also an actor. Henry Fonda died of cancer and heart disease at his home in Los Angeles just months after his Oscar win, with wife Shirlee and daughter Jane at his side.
Marriages
- Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), in the title role
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940), as migrant Tom Joad, the iconic migrant Okie
- The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), as a cowboy trying to prevent a lynching
- My Darling Clementine, as Wyatt Earp
- Fort Apache (1948), as a Custer-like cavalry commander
- Mister Roberts (1955), in the title role of a battle-eager officer on a WWII supply ship
- 12 Angry Men (1957), as the calmly deliberate foreman of a combative jury in a murder trial
- Fail-Safe (1964), as the U.S. President facing a nuclear crisis
- Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), in an atypical role as a brutal gunman
- Midway (1976), as Adm. Chester Nimitz
- On Golden Pond (1981), as a retired professor approaching his 80th birthday