Activist and Academy Award-winning actress, Jane Fonda, is Hollywood royalty… literally.
A distant relative of the third wife of King Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Fonda has been gracing the silver screen for 65 years.
The daughter of renowned American actor, Henry Fonda, and socialite Frances Ford Seymour, Fonda made her film debut in rom-com Tall Story at the age of 23. It wasn’t long before Fonda stepped out of the shadow of her famous father and made a name for herself, starring in comedies Cat Ballou (1965), Barefoot in the Park (1967), and Barbarella (1968).
(I have a whole Barbarella GIF gallery here.)
By 1969, Fonda was Oscar-nominated for her role in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They, further solidifying herself as a serious actress playing a prostitute (opposite Donald Southerland) in the 1971 thriller Klute. The role earned Fonda her first Academy Award for Best Actress.
Fonda was again nominated for an Oscar in 1977 for Julia, with a Best Actress win for Coming Home in 1978, and another nomination in 1979 for The China Syndrome. Fonda made a return to comedy in 1980, starring alongside frequent collaborator, Lily Tomlin, and superstar recording artist, Dolly Parton, in the iconic film 9 to 5.
The following year, Jane starred alongside her father, Henry, in the 1981 drama On Golden Pond. The father-daughter dynamic portrayed in the film (the rights to which were purchased by Jane specifically for Henry to play the father character of Norman Thayer) paralleled Fonda’s actual relationship with her dad. In a recent interview with Chris Wallace, Jane said, “That movie On Golden Pond was kind of like a resolution in a way, my being able to say that to him in the scene. And he died five months later. And before he died, I was able to tell him, that I loved him and that I forgave him for, you know, whatever didn’t happen.”
Jane was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the film, but it was her father who won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Henry Fonda passed away mere months later.
Fonda was again nominated for her role in The Morning After (1986) before taking a 15-year hiatus from acting.
Fonda also had a successful career on the stage, earning a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut in There Was a Little Girl (1960) and another Best Actress Tony nomination 49 years later for her role in 33 Variations (2009).
Fonda has always been an outspoken political activist, publicly opposing the Vietnam War. She earned the nickname “Hanoi Jane” after being photographed seated on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun while visiting Hanoi in 1972. Fonda later expressed regret for the photo, telling Barbara Walters in 1988, “I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me in an anti-aircraft gun, which looks like I was trying to shoot at American planes. It hurt so many soldiers. It galvanized such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It was just thoughtless.”
In the 1908s, Fonda launched her first workout video, Jane Fonda’s Workout, selling over a million copies and prompting many people to buy state-of-the-art devices to watch her tape: VCRs. She went on to release 23 workout videos, selling 17 million copies as the best-selling exercise series of all time.
Fonda returned to film in 2005 playing the villain mother-in-law to J-Lo-bride in the rom-com Monster-in-Law. She received two Emmy nominations for her recurring role on HBO political drama The Newsroom, but it was Fonda’s role in the Netflix series Grace and Frankie (Playing opposite her off-screen (and on-screen) bestie, Lily Tomlin)that is most beloved by fans.
The age-defying actress continues to work today with her latest credit appearing in JLo’s panned “music film” This is Me… Now.
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