History Creator / HenryFonda

* OddFriendship: He was good friends with Creator/JimmyStewart. The two were diametric opposites in personality and political beliefs and even came to blows once because of it. Their children say that the friendship mostly consisted of the two men working on model airplanes in complete silence. He was also friendly with Creator/JohnWayne, another conservative, and was one of the last people to visit Wayne before his death.

* OddFriendship: He was good friends with Creator/JimmyStewart. The two were diametric opposites in personality and political beliefs and even came to blows once because of it. Their children say that the friendship mostly consisted of the two men working on model airplanes in complete silence.

* PlayingAgainstType: Fonda almost always played straight-laced heroes, which made his few villain roles extremely effective. See ''Film/FortApache'', ''Firecreek'' and most famously ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest''.

His career lasted from 1935 to 1981, where he was in over a hundred films, television programs, theatre productions and various shorts. He received one AcademyAward nomination (''The Grapes of Wrath'') and eventually won one in 1981 for ''On Golden Pond''. Between 1943 and 1946 his career was blank as he had been enlisted in the Navy during WorldWarII. He was also friends with Creator/JimmyStewart (despite their opposing political views[[note]]Stewart was a hawkish conservative, while Fonda was a vocal supporter of the Democratic Party. They actually once got into a fistfight after they had a political debate, and they made up by vowing never to talk politics again.[[/note]]), his former roommate.

His children [[Creator/JaneFonda Jane]] and Peter, as well as granddaughter Bridget, are also accomplished actors in their own right. Though he often played nice guys in his films in real life he was reportedly very distant and withdrawn from people, even his own children, and by his own admission he was not an ideal parent. He died of heart failure on August 12, 1982 at age 77.

In his lifetime, Fonda was well-known for playing straight-laced, heroic characters like Tom Joad in ''The Grapes of Wrath'' or Juror #8 in ''12 Angry Men''. His signature role came playing the beleaguered but sympathetic title character in ''Mister Roberts'', which he played for years on stage and later on film. Fonda cemented this image playing Presidents, statesmen, generals and other authority figures in most of his later movies. Ironically, today's audiences probably recognize Fonda from his drastically against-type role in ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' as a psychotic gunslinger.

In his lifetime, Fonda was well-known for playing straight-laced, heroic characters like Tom Joad in ''The Grapes of Wrath'' or Juror #8 in ''12 Angry Men''. He cemented this image playing Presidents, statesmen, generals and other authority figures in most of his later movies. Ironically, today's audiences probably recognize Fonda from his drastically against-type role in ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' as a psychotic gunslinger.

* MoneyDearBoy: From the '60s onward the balance of Fonda's roles were cameos in movies of varying quality. Occasionally it was something like ''Film/TheLongestDay'' or ''Film/HowTheWestWon'', sometimes it was ''Film/TheSwarm'' or ''Film/{{Meteor}}''.

* DoggedNiceGuy: His standard role.

His career lasted from 1935 to 1981, where he was in over a hundred films, television programs, theatre productions and various shorts. He received one AcademyAward nomination (''The Grapes of Wrath'') and eventually won one in 1981 for ''On Golden Pond''. Between 1943 and 1946 his career was blank as he had been enlisted in the Navy during WorldWarII. He was also friends with JimmyStewart (despite their opposing political views[[note]]Stewart was a hawkish conservative, while Fonda was a vocal supporter of the Democratic Party. They actually once got into a fistfight after they had a political debate, and they made up by vowing never to talk politics again.[[/note]]), his former roommate.

* ''Film/Midway'' (1976)

* ''[[Film/YoungMrLincoln Young Mr. Lincoln]]'' (1939)

* ''TheLadyEve'' (1941)

* ''FortApache'' (1948)

* ''TheWrongMan'' (1956)

* ''TheLongestDay'' (1962)

* ''Yours, Mine And Ours'' (1968)

His children [[Creator/JaneFonda Jane]] and Peter, as well as granddaughter Bridget, are also accomplished actors in their own right. Died of heart failure on August 12, 1982 at age 77.

* PlayingAgainstType: His villainous role in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInTheWest''.

* ''[[Film/YoungMrLincoln Young Mr. Lincoln]]''

* ''Film/{{Jezebel}}''

* ''The Ox-Bow Incident'' (1943)

* ''On Golden Pond'' (1981)