In the spotlight…..

Henry Fonda   1905  1982 ….an uncommonly common man!

There were two events in Henry Fonda’s childhood that he always remembered with utmost clarity…the night he watched Halley’s Comet streak across the heavens…and the dark night in Omaha when he watched a man die.

Henry as a baby

Henry Jaynes Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska May 16th, 1905 the first child of William Brace and Herbetta Jaynes Fonda. But, by the time the family had moved to Omaha, Henry had been  joined by two sisters, Harriet and Jayne. One night when he was 5, his mother woke him up to watch the trail of Halley’s Comet “because it only comes around every 76 years” she said. “I didn’t want you to miss such a sight. Now you will always remember it”.
                             

.....at 14

As a young boy, Henry would take the trolley downtown to his father’s office. William would give him a nickel for the nickelodeon where he could watch his favorite movie stars Charles Chaplin and William S. Hart. When he was 12, Henry began working in the shop for $2 a week. It was a dark summer night when his father took him to the print shop’s second floor window overlooking the courthouse square. The mayor, the sheriff and several deputies were trying to hold off a mob brandishing torches and guns. They wanted the black man that had been arrested that morning and was being held inside for accosting a white woman. By sheer numbers, they overpowered the law officers and dragged the man outside. Hanging him from a lamppost, they shot him multiple times and then dragged his corpse through the streets from the bumper of a car. William Fonda never said a word to his son as he led him back down the stairs, locked up and went home.

Fonda in 1933

Henry wanted to be a writer so he tried journalism classes at the University of Minnesota only to leave after his sophomore year doubting his ability to succeed in that field. But that summer a friend of his mother took his life in a very different direction. Dorothy Brando, mother of 1-year-old Marlon, and director of the Omaha Community Playhouse, asked him to play Ricky in Philip Barry’s play “You and I”. Since Henry had nothing else to do, he agreed and stayed on even after the play closed doing any job they asked him to do. In 1926 the director asked him to play the lead in “Merton of the Movies”.  The audience loved him. At home after his opening night, he got the best review he would ever get when his father proclaimed to the rest of the family that his performance “was perfect”. Then and there Henry decided it was the actor’s life for him.
                         

Margaret Sullavan

It was the stage that would forever hold Henry Fonda’s heart. Making movies would always be just a way to earn money so that he could return to the stage. He covered the summer stock circuit before landing a place with the University Players Guild in 1928 along with future stars Joshua Logan, Kent Smith and Myron McCormick. A year later, an 18-year-old actress by the name of Margaret Sullavan joined the group. Sparks flew between Henry and Maggie almost instantly and their tempestuous romance led to marriage on Christmas morning, 1931. But the tempest proved too much for both of them. It all ended in February, 1932 and they let the embers cool into friendship. It was during this time that James Stewart joined the players and later shared an apartment with Fonda, Logan and McCormick. Henry and Jimmy remained life-long friends.

....on stage with June Walker

Henry signed with an agent, Leland Hayward who begged him to try films. The answer was always “No”. Finally Leland coaxed him with an all-expenses-paid trip to Hollywood in late fall, 1934. Leland also arranged an interview with producer Walter Wanger.  Wanger liked what he saw and asked Fonda how much it would take to get him to sign a contract. Henry, tongue firmly in cheek, said $1000 a week….and he got it! But Wanger thought it better  sent Henry back to New York until a suitable project was ready for him. Back in Gotham, Fonda won the lead in Max Gordon’s production of Marc Connelly’s play “The Farmer Takes a Wife”. It was a success, running for over 100 performances.When Fox bought the screen rights Wanger convinced them to include Fonda. Not only that but good ol’ Walter divided the fee he got from Fox with the newly minted screen star giving Fonda a cool $3000 a week for the film!
                   

Fonda's wedding to Frances

Fonda was considered a star in his very first movie without screen test or fanfare, unlike his pal Jimmy Stewart who had to do it the hard way. Fonda was given second billing with Oscar-winner Janet Gaynor in “The Farmer…”  and they were paired together again in the remake of D. W. Griffith’s “Way Down East”. By this time, Jimmy had come to Hollywood and the two pals rented a Mexican-style farmhouse together in Brentwood planning to be the most eligible bachelors in Tinseltown although Henry and Maggie Sullavan were a twosome again on and off after her separation from director William Wyler.  But then Henry went off to London to film “Wings of the Morning” and met wealthy American socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw. Three months later, on September 16th, 1936, they were married in a big New York society wedding with Josh Logan as best man.

...with Peter and Jane in 1941

In 1937 Fonda returned to Broadway to do “Blow Ye Winds” but had to return to Hollywood while a pregnant Frances stayed in New York to have their daughter, Jane. He would not return to the stage again for 11 years. After Jane was born, Henry moved his family into a house in Brentwood with 8 acres where he could farm in his spare time. By 1938, he was no longer under contract to Wanger and could select his own  films.  But when he was offered “The Grapes of Wrath” in 1939 it meant signing with 20th Century Fox or no Tom Joad. He signed. On February 23, 1940 Frances gave birth to a son, Peter again by caesarean section (a child from a previous marriage made this the third time she had the surgery). Her physical recovery took much longer and her emotional stability became very fragile. But Henry was busy at the studio and apparently was unaware of the changes. He enlisted in the Navy in August, 1942 and won the Bronze Star  in the South Pacific. By the time he returned home Frances had become erratic and had to be placed in a rest home for several months and then a mental hospital. On April 14, 1950 while confined there,  Frances Fonda committed suicide by slashing her throat.
                             

Henry enlists in the Navy

But Henry was a marryin’ man and, on December 28th, 1950 he wed his third wife, Susan Blanchard, 20 years his junior. They adopted a daughter, Amy, in 1953.  But during the long production schedule for “War and Peace” in Rome, that marriage collapsed and Henry began a new romance (and eventual fourth marriage) with Afdera Franchetti, the 24 year-old daughter of Baron Raimondo Franchetti. It lasted less than three years.
                       

Henry and Jane as she makes her stage debut 1955

In 1959 Fonda was persuaded to do a television series “The Deputy” as narrator and occasional guest star. The show lasted two years but NBC felt it would have gone on longer had Fonda been the star every week. However, Henry kept busy and appeared in over 60 films during the 1960s as well as several stage productions. He also met and dated airline stewardess Shirlee Mae Adams, making a solemn vow not to rush into marriage again. He took five years to think about it. Henry married Shirlee on December 3, 1965 and it lasted the rest of his life.
                         

Henry and Shirlee

By the 1970s it was the television star Fonda, not the screen star Fonda that was in demand. His television films were very impressive ….”The Red Pony” with Maureen O’Hara in 1973…”Collision Course” for ABC in 1976 when he played General Douglas  MacArthur to E. G. Marshall’s Harry S, Truman.
On March 23, 1974 Henry opened a highly acclaimed one-man show “Clarence Darrow’ on Broadway. The New York Post called him “…one of the most brilliant actors living” while Time magazine called it “..one American monument impersonating another.” But the play ended after 29 performances when Fonda collapsed backstage. After having a pacemaker implanted to regulate his heart, Henry took the play to Los Angeles. But it was the first sign that physical frailty was beginning to take hold.   

...with E.G. Marshall in "Collision Course"

During the late 1970s Henry was spending more time at home in his garden, keeping bees, painting and doing needlework. But he still kept his hand in on the stage and the small screen and when he received the script for “On Golden Pond” he knew he had to do it. It was filmed on location in New Hampshire in the summer of 1980 and on March 31st, 1981 before the film was released, Henry got the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He had been nominated once for Best Actor in “The Grapes of Wrath”  but lost to his pal, Jimmy Stewart for “The Philadelphia Story”.

...receiving his Lifetime Award from Robert Redford in 1981

In a year’s time Henry would get his golden statuette for “On Golden Pond” but he was too sick to be there in person and his daughter Jane took it home to him. “I’m not a religious man but I thank God every morning that I lived long enough to play that role.”
               

...."On Golden Pond"

Henry Fonda died quietly in his sleep at Cedars-Sinai Hospital on August 12, 1982.  Henry asked that there be no funeral and that his eyes be donated. His body was cremated a few hours after his death. There has been no actor like Henry Fonda before or after he graced America’s stage and screen and I doubt that there will ever be…..he was unique Americana.

For more on Henry Fonda see Arabella's Notes

Filmography