Henry Fonda: Journey from Nebraska Roots to Hollywood Stardom
Discover Henry Fonda’s inspiring journey from Nebraska youth to Hollywood legend, starring in timeless classics and shaping American cinema.
Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, to Elma Herberta Jaynes and William Brace Fonda. His ancestors were of Dutch origin, with the surname “Fonda” tracing back to Friesland in the northern Netherlands. He initially studied journalism at the University of Minnesota but dropped out during his second year. In 1925, while working for a business in Omaha, he was invited to perform in an amateur production at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Standing 6’1″, he quickly stood out. He fell in love with the stage, and his first professional role was in You and Me by Philip Barry.
By 1929, Fonda was in Manhattan, performing with the University Players Guild. He starred in The Devil and the Cheese alongside Margaret Sullavan, who became his first wife two years later. The marriage lasted just over a year before he moved to Hollywood to pursue a film career.
Fonda made his Hollywood debut in 1935, reprising his stage role in The Farmer Takes a Wife. Around this time, he also formed a lifelong friendship with fellow actor James Stewart. In 1936, he married Frances Seymour Brokaw, a wealthy American divorcée. Together they had two children, Jane and Peter Fonda, who would also become acclaimed actors. Tragically, Frances died by suicide in 1950 after a nervous breakdown.
Before serving in World War II as a third-class quartermaster, Fonda starred in over 20 films, including critically acclaimed hits like Jezebel (1938), Jesse James (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), and The Grapes of Wrath (1940), which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
He returned to the stage and screen in the late 1940s with the Western classic My Darling Clementine (1946), directed by John Ford, and the Broadway play Mister Roberts, which ran for three years in Philadelphia and New York. The play’s success led to a film adaptation, originally directed by Ford but completed by others after disagreements with Fonda. The film featured Jack Lemmon, James Cagney, and William Powell.
Throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, Fonda divided his time between stage and screen. In the early 70s, while starring in the one-man show Clarence Darrow in New York, he collapsed backstage and later required a pacemaker.
Fonda married three more times: to Susan Blanchard in 1950 (they adopted a daughter), to Italian baroness Afdera Franchetti in 1957, and finally to flight attendant Shirlee Mae Adams in 1965, who remained his wife until his death. Henry Fonda passed away in August 1982 from chronic heart disease.
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