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Henry Fonda: Roles
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Refusing another long-term studio contract, Fonda returned to Broadway, wearing his own officer's cap to originate the title role in Mister Roberts, a comedy about the Navy, where Fonda, a junior officer, wages a private war against the captain. He won a 1948 Tony Award for the part. Fonda followed that by reprising his performance in the national tour and with successful stage runs in Point of No Return and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He starred in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts opposite James Cagney, William Powell and Jack Lemmon, continuing a pattern of bringing his acclaimed stage roles to life on the big screen. On the set of Mister Roberts, Fonda came to blows with John Ford and vowed never to work for him again. He never did (though he appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's acclaimed documentary "Directed by John Ford " and spoke glowingly of Ford therein).
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Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was a highly acclaimed American film, stage and television actor, best known for his roles as plain-speaking idealists. Fonda's subtle, naturalistic acting style preceded by many years the popularization of Method acting. He was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including son Peter Fonda, daughter Jane Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda and grandson Troy Garity.
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Henry Fonda -- in his final role -- plays peevish retired professor Norman Thayer, who's making his yearly excursion with his wife (Katherine Hepburn) to their idyllic summerhouse. But a hostile teen left in their care short-circuits the couple's tranquility. Read More
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After the war, Fonda appeared in the film Fort Apache (1948), and his contract with Fox expired. Refusing another long-term studio contract, Fonda returned to Broadway, wearing his own officer's cap to originate the title role in Mister Roberts, a comedy about the Navy. He won a 1948 Tony Award for the part, and later reprised his performance in the national tour and 1955 film version opposite James Cagney, continuing a pattern of bringing his acclaimed stage roles to life on the big screen. On the set of Mister Roberts, Fonda came to blows with John Ford and vowed never to work for him again. He never did.
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Fonda returned to film in 1955, with the production of Mister Rogers, the role he had created on stage. He followed that success with a string of classic films; the first was the epic War and Peace, which co-starred Audrey Hepburn. In 1956, he worked with Alfred Hitchcock in The Wrong Man. In 1957, Fonda produce his first film, 12 Angry Men. He shared Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations with coproducer Reginald Rose, and won the 1958 BAFTA Award for Best Actor.
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Even as Fonda, an unapologetic Hollywood liberal, professed the ideals of many of his characters, he ... wrestled with their—and his country's—contradictions. In one of his most iconic roles, Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, he played not only an honest, hard-working man but an ex-con, barely concealing his rage at Depression-era injustice. And in The Ox-Bow Incident, a film he fought hard to make amidst the patriotic fervor of World War II, he played a man consumed with guilt when he fails to stop a lynching. What no one knew at the time was that as a boy Fonda had witnessed a lynching; like many aspects of his life, it was something he didn't talk about. Much about Henry Fonda remained a mystery to the public, his friends, and even his family. Here, dozens of those who admired him, puzzled over him, and loved him talk about why he remains the most quintessentially American actor that Hollywood has ever produced.
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