Henry Fonda

Born: 16 May 1905
Where: Grand Island, Nebraska
Died; 12 August 1982

Fonda was raised in Omaha where he had goals of a becoming a journalist, an aspiration he undertook at the University of Minnesota.

But it didn't take long for Fonda's dream to change and he was soon experimenting with amateur theatrics and working at the Omaha Community Playhouse.

Fonda joined the University Players Group in 1928 and a year later made it to Broadway. But it was in 1934 that Fonda's big break came in Hollywood, with the opportunity to star opposite Janet Gaynor in the 1935 movie The Farmer Takes a Wife.

His roles were similar, playing rural youths in his earlier films, including Way Down East, The Trail of The Lonesome Pine, and Slim. But Fonda was determined not to be typecast and had no problem taking on a variety of different roles.

He took on comedies, thrillers and dramas opposite many well-known actors, from Margaret Sullivan in The Moons Our Home, to Bette Davis in Jezebel.

Fonda's career went from strength to strength, with a two year stretch with 20th Century Fox, through which he starred in Jesse James, The Story of Alexander Graham Bell, and Lillian Russell.

He enjoyed success with The Grapes of Wrath, and earned an Oscar nomination, but lost out to best friend Jimmy Stewart for his performance in The Philadelphia Story.

A year later, the Academy presented him with an honorary award, and he won another Oscar statuette as best actor for his performance in the 1981 film On Golden Pond.

Fonda played the lead in The Lady Eve proving he was just as good as a comedy artist.

It was his dramatic performance in The Ox-Blow Incident, an unforgettable lynch-mob story set in the Old West that earned him respect.

After a few years break, he returned to films in John Ford's My Darling Clementine, then in 1948 made his last feature films for seven years, Fort Apache, and On Our Merry Way. That year he also returned to Broadway to star in Mister Roberts.

In 1955 Fonda went back to features to star in an adaptation of Mister Roberts. Following this triumph his career stormed ahead, where in 1957 he played the voice of reason in the court drama 12 Angry Men, a film he also co-produced.

But 1981 was his year with On Golden Pond with his moving performance as a miserable old man, unforgiving of his adult daughter, which won him his first and last Oscar.

Fonda married five times. The first was to actress Margaret Sullivan, who he worked opposite in the 1936 film The Moon's Our Home. His children include actors Jane and Peter Fonda, by his second wife Frances Seymour Brokaw.