Afdera Franchetti
Who was Henry Fonda 's spouse in late 1950s?
Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda ( May 16 , 1905 – August 12 , 1982 ) was an American film and stage actor who had a career that spanned five decades in Hollywood . Fonda cultivated a strong , appealing screen image in several films now considered to be classics , earning one Academy Award for Best Actor on two nominations . Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor and made his Hollywood film debut in 1935 . His film career began to gain momentum with roles such as Bette Daviss fiancé in her Academy Award-winning performance in Jezebel ( 1938 ) , brother Frank in Jesse James ( 1939 ) , and the future President in Young Mr . Lincoln ( 1939 ) , directed by John Ford . His early career peaked with his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath ( 1940 ) , about an Oklahoma family who moved to California during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s . This film is widely considered to be among the greatest American films , based on a novel of the same name by Nobel laureate for literature , John Steinbeck . In 1941 he starred opposite Barbara Stanwyck in the screwball comedy classic The Lady Eve . Book-ending his service in WWII were his starring roles in two highly regarded westerns : The Ox-Bow Incident ( 1943 ) and My Darling Clementine ( 1946 ) , the latter directed by John Ford , and he also starred in Fords western Fort Apache ( 1948 ) . After a seven-year break from films , during which Fonda focused on stage productions , he returned with the WWII war-boat ensemble Mister Roberts ( 1955 ) . In 1956 , at the age of fifty-one , he played the title role as the thirty-eight-year-old Manny Balestrero in Alfred Hitchcocks thriller The Wrong Man . In 1957 , he starred as Juror #8 , the hold-out juror , in 12 Angry Men . Fonda , who was also the co-producer of this film , won the BAFTA award for Best Foreign Actor . Later in his career , Fonda moved into darker roles , such as the villain in the epic Once Upon a Time in the West ( 1968 ) , underrated and a box office disappointment at its time of release , but now regarded as one of the best westerns of all time . He also played in lighter-hearted fare such as Yours , Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball , but also often played important military figures , such as a colonel in Battle of the Bulge ( 1965 ) , and Admiral Nimitz in Midway ( 1976 ) . He won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 54th Academy Awards for his final film role in On Golden Pond ( 1981 ) , which also starred Katharine Hepburn and his daughter Jane Fonda , but was too ill to attend the ceremony . He died from heart disease a few months later . Fonda was the patriarch of a family of famous actors , including daughter Jane Fonda , son Peter Fonda , granddaughter Bridget Fonda , and grandson Troy Garity . His family and close friends called him Hank . In 1999 he was named the sixth-Greatest Male Screen Legends of the Classic Hollywood Era ( stars with a film debut by 1950 ) by the American Film Institute . Family history and early life . Born in Grand Island , Nebraska on May 16 , 1905 , Henry Jaynes Fonda was the son of printer William Brace Fonda , and his wife , Herberta ( Jaynes ) . The family moved to Omaha , Nebraska in 1906 . Fondas patriline originates with an ancestor from Genoa , Italy , who migrated to the Netherlands in the 15th century . In 1642 , a branch of the Fonda family immigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland on the East Coast of North America . They were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York , establishing the town of Fonda , New York . By 1888 , many of their descendants had relocated to Nebraska . Fonda was brought up as a Christian Scientist , though he was baptized an Episcopalian at St . Stephens Episcopal Church in Grand Island . He said , My whole damn family was nice . They were a close family and highly supportive , especially in health matters , as they avoided doctors due to their religion . Despite having a religious background , he later became an agnostic . Fonda was a bashful , short boy who tended to avoid girls , except his sisters , and was a good skater , swimmer , and runner . He worked part-time in his fathers print plant and imagined a possible career as a journalist . Later , he worked after school for the phone company . He also enjoyed drawing . Fonda was active in the Boy Scouts of America ; Teichmann reports that he reached the rank of Eagle Scout . However , this is denied elsewhere . When he was about 14 , his father took him to observe the brutal lynching of Will Brown during the Omaha race riot of 1919 . This enraged the young Fonda and he kept a keen awareness of prejudice for the rest of his life . By his senior year in high school , Fonda had grown to more than six feet ( 1.8m ) tall , but remained shy . He attended the University of Minnesota , where he majored in journalism , but did not graduate . While at Minnesota he was a member of Chi Delta Xi , a local fraternity , which later became Chi Phis Gamma Delta chapter on that campus . He took a job with the Retail Credit Company . Career . Early stage work . At age 20 , Fonda started his acting career at the Omaha Community Playhouse when his mothers friend Dodie Brando ( mother of Marlon Brando ) recommended that he try out for a juvenile part in You and I , in which he was cast as Ricky . He was fascinated by the stage , learning everything from set construction to stage production , and embarrassed by his acting ability . When he received the lead in Merton of the Movies , he realized the beauty of acting as a profession , as it allowed him to deflect attention from his own tongue-tied personality and create stage characters relying on someone elses scripted words . Fonda decided to quit his job and go east in 1928 to seek his fortune . He arrived on Cape Cod and played a minor role at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis , Massachusetts . A friend took him to Falmouth , MA where he joined and quickly became a valued member of the University Players , an intercollegiate summer stock company . There , he worked with Margaret Sullavan , his future wife . James Stewart joined the Players a few months after Fonda left , though they were soon to become lifelong friends . Fonda left the Players at the end of their 1931–1932 season after appearing in his first professional role in The Jest , by Sem Benelli . Joshua Logan , a young sophomore at Princeton who had been double-cast in the show , gave Fonda the part of Tornaquinci , an elderly Italian man with a long white beard and even longer hair . Also in the cast of The Jest with Fonda and Logan were Bretaigne Windust , Kent Smith , and Eleanor Phelps . Soon after , Fonda headed for New York City to be with his then wife , Margaret Sullavan . The marriage was brief , but when James Stewart came to New York his luck changed . Getting contact information from Joshua Logan , Jimmy , as he was called , Hank Fonda and these small-town boys found they had a lot in common , as long as they didnt discuss politics . The two men became roommates and honed their skills on Broadway . Fonda appeared in theatrical productions from 1926 to 1934 . They fared no better than many Americans in and out of work during the Great Depression , sometimes lacking enough money to take the subway . Entering Hollywood . Fonda got his first break in films when he was hired in 1935 as Janet Gaynors leading man in 20th Century Foxs screen adaptation of The Farmer Takes a Wife ; he reprised his role from the Broadway production of the same name , which had gained him recognition . Suddenly , Fonda was making $3,000 a week and dining with Hollywood stars such as Carole Lombard . Stewart soon followed him to Hollywood , and they roomed together again , in lodgings next door to Greta Garbo . In 1935 Fonda starred in the RKO film I Dream Too Much with the opera star Lily Pons . The New York Times announced him as Henry Fonda , the most likable of the new crop of romantic juveniles . Fondas film career blossomed as he costarred with Sylvia Sidney and Fred MacMurray in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine ( 1936 ) , the first Technicolor movie filmed outdoors . He starred with ex-wife Margaret Sullavan in The Moons Our Home , and a short rekindling of their relationship led to a brief but temporary consideration of remarriage . Fonda got the nod for the lead role in You Only Live Once ( 1937 ) , also costarring Sidney , and directed by Fritz Lang . He starred opposite Bette Davis , who had picked him , in the film Jezebel ( 1938 ) . This was followed by the title role in Young Mr . Lincoln ( 1939 ) , his first collaboration with director John Ford , and that year he played Frank James in Jesse James ( 1939 ) . Another 1939 film was Drums Along the Mohawk , also directed by Ford . Fondas successes led Ford to recruit him to play Tom Joad in the film version of John Steinbecks novel The Grapes of Wrath ( 1940 ) . A reluctant Darryl Zanuck , who preferred Tyrone Power , insisted on Fondas signing a seven-year contract with his studio , Twentieth Century-Fox . Fonda agreed and was ultimately nominated for an Academy Award for his work in the film , which many consider to be his finest role . Fonda starred in Fritz Langs The Return of Frank James ( 1940 ) with Gene Tierney . He then played opposite Barbara Stanwyck in Preston Sturgess The Lady Eve ( 1941 ) , and again teamed with Tierney in the successful screwball comedy Rings on Her Fingers ( 1942 ) . She was one of Fondas favorite co-stars , and they appeared in three films together . He was acclaimed for his role in The Ox-Bow Incident ( 1943 ) . Fonda enlisted in the United States Navy to fight in World War II , saying , I dont want to be in a fake war in a studio . Previously , Stewart and he had helped raise funds for the defense of Britain . Fonda served for three years , initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer . He was later commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and Navy Presidential Unit Citation . After being discharged from active duty due to an overage in rank , Fonda was transferred to the Naval Reserve , serving three years ( 1945-1948 ) . Postwar career . After the war , Fonda took a break from movies and attended Hollywood parties and enjoyed civilian life . Stewart and Fonda would listen to records and invite Johnny Mercer , Hoagy Carmichael , Dinah Shore , and Nat King Cole over for music , with the latter giving the family piano lessons . Fonda played Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine ( 1946 ) , which was directed by John Ford . Fonda did seven postwar films until his contract with Fox expired , the last being Otto Premingers Daisy Kenyon ( 1947 ) , opposite Joan Crawford . He starred in The Fugitive ( 1947 ) , which was the first film of Fords new production company , Argosy Pictures . In 1948 he appeared in a subsequent Argosy/Ford production , Fort Apache , as a rigid Army colonel , along with John Wayne and Shirley Temple in her first adult role . Refusing another long-term studio contract , Fonda returned to Broadway , wearing his own officers cap to originate the title role in Mister Roberts , a comedy about the U.S . Navy , during World War II in the South Pacific Ocean where Fonda , a junior officer , Lt . Douglas A . Roberts wages a private war against a tyrannical captain . He won a 1948 Tony Award for the part . Fonda followed that by reprising his performance in the national tour and with successful stage runs in Point of No Return and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial . After an eight-year absence from films , he starred in the same role in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts with James Cagney , William Powell , and Jack Lemmon , continuing a pattern of bringing his acclaimed stage roles to life on the big screen . On the set of Mister Roberts , Fonda came to blows with director John Ford , who punched him during filming , and Fonda vowed never to work for the director again . While he kept that vow for years , Fonda spoke glowingly of Ford in Peter Bogdanovichs documentary Directed by John Ford and in a documentary on Fords career alongside Ford and James Stewart . Fonda refused to participate until he learned that Ford had insisted on casting Fonda as the lead in the film version of Mr . Roberts , reviving Fondas film career after concentrating on the stage for years . After Mr . Roberts , Fonda was next in Paramount Picturess production of Leo Tolstoys epic novel War and Peace ( 1956 ) about French Emperor Napoleons invasion of Russia in 1812 , in which he played Pierre Bezukhov opposite Audrey Hepburn ; it took two years to shoot . Fonda worked with Alfred Hitchcock in 1956 , playing a man falsely accused of robbery in The Wrong Man ; the unusual semidocumentary work of Hitchcock was based on an actual incident and partly filmed on location . In 1957 Fonda made his first foray into producing with 12 Angry Men , in which he also starred . The film was based on a teleplay and a script by Reginald Rose , and directed by Sidney Lumet . The low-budget production was completed in 17 days of filming , mostly in one claustrophobic jury room . It had a strong cast , including also Jack Klugman , Lee J . Cobb , Martin Balsam , and E . G . Marshall . The intense story about twelve jurors deciding the fate of a young man accused of murder was well received by critics worldwide . Fonda shared the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations with co-producer Reginald Rose , and won the 1958 BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his performance as Juror #8 . Early on , the film drew poorly , but after gaining recognition and awards , it proved a success . In spite of the outcome , Fonda vowed that he would never produce a movie again , fearing that failing as a producer might derail his acting career . After acting in the western movies The Tin Star ( 1957 ) and Warlock ( 1959 ) , Fonda returned to the production seat for the NBC western television series The Deputy ( 1959–1961 ) , in which he starred as Marshal Simon Fry . His co-stars were Allen Case and Read Morgan . During the 1960s , Fonda performed in a number of war and western epics , including 1962s The Longest Day and the Cinerama production How the West Was Won , 1965s In Harms Way , and Battle of the Bulge . In the Cold War suspense film Fail-Safe ( 1964 ) , Fonda played the President of the United States who tries to avert a nuclear holocaust through tense negotiations with the Soviets after American bombers are mistakenly ordered to attack the USSR . He also returned to more light-hearted cinema in Spencers Mountain ( 1963 ) , which was the inspiration for the 1970s TV series , The Waltons , based on the Great Depression of the 1930s memories of Earl Hamner , Jr. . Fonda appeared against type as the villain Frank in 1968s Once Upon a Time in the West . After initially turning down the role , he was convinced to accept it by actor Eli Wallach and director Sergio Leone ( who had previously tried to hire him to portray the Man with No Name in his Dollars Trilogy , a role that was later taken on by Clint Eastwood ) , who flew from Italy to the United States to persuade him to take the part . Fonda had planned on wearing a pair of brown-colored contact lenses , but Leone preferred the paradox of contrasting close-up shots of Fondas innocent-looking blue eyes with the vicious personality of the character Fonda portrayed . Fondas relationship with Jimmy Stewart survived their disagreements over politics – Fonda was a liberal Democrat , and Stewart a conservative Republican . After a heated argument , they avoided talking politics with each other . The two men teamed up for 1968s Firecreek , where Fonda again played the heavy . In 1970 Fonda and Stewart co-starred in the western The Cheyenne Social Club , in which they humorously argued politics . They had first appeared together on film in On Our Merry Way ( 1948 ) , an episodic comedy which also starred William Demarest and Fred MacMurray and featured a grown-up Carl Alfalfa Switzer , who had acted as a child in the Our Gang movie serials of the 1930s . Later career . Despite approaching his seventies , Fonda continued to work in theater , television and film through the 1970s . In 1970 Fonda appeared in three films ; the most successful was The Cheyenne Social Club . The other two films were Too Late the Hero , in which Fonda played a secondary role , and There Was a Crooked Man , about Paris Pitman Jr . ( played by Kirk Douglas ) trying to escape from an Arizona prison . Fonda returned to both foreign and television productions , which provided career sustenance through a decade in which many aging screen actors suffered waning careers . He starred in the ABC television series The Smith Family between 1971 and 1972 . A TV-movie adaptation of John Steinbecks novel , 1973s The Red Pony , earned Fonda an Emmy nomination . After the unsuccessful Hollywood melodrama , Ash Wednesday , he filmed three Italian productions released in 1973 and 1974 . The most successful of these , My Name Is Nobody , presented Fonda in a rare comedic performance as an old gunslinger whose plans to retire are dampened by a fan of sorts . Fonda continued stage acting throughout his last years , including several demanding roles in Broadway plays . He returned to Broadway in 1974 for the biographical drama , Clarence Darrow , for which he was nominated for a Tony Award . Fondas health had been deteriorating for years , but his first outward symptoms occurred after a performance of the play in April 1974 , when he collapsed from exhaustion . After the appearance of a cardiac arrhythmia brought on by prostate cancer , he had a pacemaker installed following cancer surgery . Fonda returned to the play in 1975 . After the run of a 1978 play , First Monday of October , he took the advice of his doctors and quit plays , though he continued to star in films and television . Fonda appeared in a revival of The Time of Your Life that opened on March 17 , 1972 , at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles , where Fonda , Richard Dreyfuss , Gloria Grahame , Ron Thompson , Strother Martin , Jane Alexander , Lewis J . Stadlen , Richard X . Slattery , and Pepper Martin were among the cast with Edwin Sherin directing . In 1976 , Fonda appeared in several notable television productions , the first being , the story of the volatile relationship between President Harry Truman ( E . G . Marshall ) and General MacArthur ( Fonda ) , produced by ABC . After an appearance in the acclaimed Showtime broadcast of Almos a Man , based on a story by Richard Wright , he starred in the epic NBC miniseries Captains and Kings , based on Taylor Caldwells novel . Three years later , he appeared in ABCs , but the miniseries was overshadowed by its predecessor , Roots . Also in 1976 , Fonda starred in the World War II blockbuster Midway . Fonda finished the 1970s in a number of disaster films . The first of these was the 1977 Italian killer octopus thriller Tentacles and Rollercoaster , in which Fonda appeared with George Segal , Richard Widmark and a young Helen Hunt . He performed again with Widmark , Olivia de Havilland , Fred MacMurray , and José Ferrer in the killer bee action film The Swarm . He also acted in the global disaster film Meteor ( his second role as a sitting President of the United States after Fail-Safe ) , with Sean Connery , Natalie Wood , and Karl Malden , and the Canadian production City on Fire , which also featured Shelley Winters and Ava Gardner . Fonda had a small role with his son , Peter , in Wanda Nevada ( 1979 ) , with Brooke Shields . As Fondas health declined and he took longer breaks between filming , critics began to acknowledge the value of his extensive body of work . In 1979 , he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement . His Golden Plate was presented by Awards Council member Jimmy Stewart . In 1979 , he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame for his achievements on Broadway and received the Kennedy Center Honor . Lifetime Achievement awards from the Golden Globes and Academy Awards followed in 1980 and 1981 , respectively . Fonda continued to act into the early 1980s , though all but one of the productions in which he was featured before his death were for television . The television works included the live performance of Preston Joness The Oldest Living Graduate and the Emmy-nominated Gideons Trumpet ( co-starring Fay Wray in her last performance ) about Clarence Gideons fight to have the right to publicly funded legal counsel for the indigent . On Golden Pond in 1981 , the film adaptation of Ernest Thompsons play , marked one final professional and personal triumph for Fonda . Directed by Mark Rydell , the project provided unprecedented collaborations between Fonda and Katharine Hepburn , along with Fonda and his daughter , Jane . The elder Fonda played an emotionally brittle and distant father who becomes more accessible at the end of his life . Jane Fonda has said that elements of the story mimicked their real-life relationship , and helped them resolve certain issues . She bought the film rights in the hope that her father would play the role , and later described it as a gift to my father that was so unbelievably successful . Premiered in December 1981 , the film was well received by critics , and after a limited release on December 4 , On Golden Pond developed enough of an audience to be widely released on January 22 . With 10 Academy Award nominations , the film earned nearly $120 million at the box office , becoming an unexpected blockbuster . In addition to wins for Hepburn ( Best Actress ) , and Thompson ( Screenplay ) , On Golden Pond brought Fonda his only Oscar - for Best Actor ( he was the oldest recipient of the award ; it also earned him a Golden Globe Best Actor award ) . Fonda was by that point too ill to attend the ceremony , and his daughter Jane accepted on his behalf . She said when accepting the award that her dad would probably quip , Well , aint I lucky . Years later , Fondas performance would be remembered as a brutally honest portrayal of frightened old age . Fondas final performance was in the 1981 television drama Summer Solstice with Myrna Loy . It was filmed after On Golden Pond had wrapped and Fonda was in rapidly declining health . Personal life . Marriages and children . Fonda was married five times and had three children , one of them adopted . His marriage to Margaret Sullavan in 1931 soon ended in separation , which was finalized in a 1933 divorce . In 1936 he married Frances Ford Seymour Brokaw widow of a wealthy industrialist , George Tuttle Brokaw . The Brokaws had a daughter , Frances de Villiers , nicknamed Pan , who had been born soon after the Brokaws marriage in 1931 . Fonda met his future wife Frances at Denham Studios in England on the set of Wings of the Morning , the first picture in Europe to be filmed in three-strip Technicolor . They had two children , Jane ( born December 21 , 1937 ) and Peter ( February 23 , 1940August 16 , 2019 ) , both of whom became successful actors . Jane has won two Best Actress Academy Awards , and Peter was nominated for two Oscars , one for Best Actor . In August 1949 , Fonda announced to Frances that he wanted a divorce so he could remarry ; their 13 years of marriage had not been happy ones for him . Devastated by Fondas confession , and plagued by emotional problems for many years , Frances went into the Austen Riggs Psychiatric Hospital in January 1950 for treatment . She committed suicide there on April 14 . Before her death , she had written six notes to various individuals , but left no final message for her husband . Fonda quickly arranged a private funeral with only himself and his mother-in-law , Sophie Seymour , in attendance . Years later , Dr . Margaret Gibson , the psychiatrist who had treated Frances at Austen Riggs , described Henry Fonda as a cold , self-absorbed person , a complete narcissist . Later in 1950 , Fonda married Susan Blanchard , his mistress . She was 21 years old , the daughter of Australian-born interior designer Dorothy Hammerstein , and the step-daughter of Oscar Hammerstein II . Together , they adopted a daughter , Amy Fishman ( born 1953 ) . They divorced three years later . Blanchard was in awe of Fonda , and she described her role in the marriage as a geisha , doing everything she could to please him , dealing with and solving problems he would not acknowledge . In 1957 Fonda married the Italian baroness Afdera Franchetti . They divorced in 1961 . Soon after , in 1965 , Fonda married Shirlee Mae Adams ( born in 1932 ) , and remained with her until his death in 1982 . Fondas relationship with his children has been described as emotionally distant . Fonda loathed displays of feeling in himself or others , and this was a consistent part of his character . Whenever he felt that his emotional wall was being breached , he had outbursts of anger , exhibiting a furious temper that terrified his family . In Peter Fondas 1998 autobiography Dont Tell Dad ( 1998 ) , he described how he was never sure how his father felt about him . He never volunteered to his father that he loved him until he was elderly , and Peter finally heard , I love you , son . His daughter Jane rejected her fathers friendships with Republican actors such as John Wayne and James Stewart . Their relationship became extremely strained as Jane Fonda became a left-wing activist . Jane Fonda reported feeling detached from her father , especially during her early acting days . In 1958 she met Lee Strasberg while visiting her father at Malibu . The Fonda and Strasberg families were neighbors , and she had developed a friendship with Strasbergs daughter , Susan . Jane Fonda began studying acting with Strasberg , learning the techniques of The Method of which Strasberg was a renowned proponent . This proved to be a pivotal point in her career . As Jane Fonda developed her skill as an actress , she became frustrated with her fathers talent that , to her , appeared a demonstration of effortless ability . Politics . Fonda was an ardent supporter of the Democratic Party and an admirer of U.S . President Franklin D . Roosevelt . In 1960 Fonda appeared in a campaign commercial for presidential candidate John F . Kennedy . The ad focused on Kennedys naval service during World War II , specifically the famous PT-109 incident . He was initially a registered Republican , but switched parties because the Republican party did not represent his values . On acting . In the late 1950s , when Jane Fonda asked her father how he prepared before going on stage , she was baffled by his answer , I dont know , I stand there , I think about my wife , Afdera , I dont know . The writer Al Aronowitz , while working on a profile of Jane Fonda for The Saturday Evening Post in the 1960s , asked Henry Fonda about method acting : I cant articulate about the Method , he told me , because I never studied it . I dont mean to suggest that I have any feelings one way or the other about it...I dont know what the Method is and I dont care what the Method is . Everybodys got a method . Everybody cant articulate about their method , and I cant , if I have a method—and Jane sometimes says that I use the Method , that is , the capital letter Method , without being aware of it . Maybe I do ; it doesnt matter . Aronowitz reported Jane saying , My father cant articulate the way he works . He just cant do it . Hes not even conscious of what he does , and it made him nervous for me to try to articulate what I was trying to do . And I sensed that immediately , so we did very little talking about it...he said , Shut up , I dont want to hear about it . He didnt want me to tell him about it , you know . He wanted to make fun of it . Death and legacy . Fonda died at his Los Angeles home on August 12 , 1982 , from heart disease . Fondas wife , Shirlee , his daughter Jane , and his son Peter were at his side that day . He suffered from prostate cancer , but this did not directly cause his death and was noted only as a concurrent ailment on his death certificate . Fonda requested that no funeral be held , and his body was cremated . President Ronald Reagan , a former actor himself , hailed Fonda as a true professional dedicated to excellence in his craft . He graced the screen with a sincerity and accuracy which made him a legend . The home where Fonda was born in 1905 is preserved at The Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island , Nebraska . Fonda is widely recognized as one of the Hollywood greats of the classic era . On the centenary of his birth , May 16 , 2005 , Turner Classic Movies ( TCM ) honored Fonda with a marathon of his films . Also in May 2005 , the United States Post Office released a 37-cent postage stamp with an artists drawing of Fonda as part of their Hollywood legends series . The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood , originally known as the Carter DeHaven Music Box , was named for the actor in 1985 by the Nederlander Organization . In popular culture . In Joseph Hellers satirical novel Catch-22 , there is a running joke that fictional character Major Major Major Major resembles Henry Fonda . Philip D . Beidler comments that one of the novels great absurd jokes is the characters bewildering resemblance to Henry Fonda . Taking into account when Catch-22 was written , this most likely refers to Fonda circa about 1955 , when he starred in the film Mister Roberts . Filmography . From the beginning of his career in 1935 through his last projects in 1981 , Fonda appeared in 106 films , television programs , and shorts . Through the course of his career , he appeared in many films , including such classics as 12 Angry Men and The Ox-Bow Incident . He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in 1940s The Grapes of Wrath and won for his part in 1981s On Golden Pond . Fonda made his mark in Westerns ( which included his most villainous role as Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West ) and war films , and made frequent appearances in both television and foreign productions late in his career . Broadway stage performances . - The Game of Love and Death ( November 1929 – January 1930 ) - I Loved You , Wednesday ( October – December 1932 ) - New Faces of 1934 ( Revue ; March – July 1934 ) - The Farmer Takes a Wife ( October 1934 – January 1935 ) - Blow Ye Winds ( September – October 1937 ) - Blockade ( June 1938 ) - Mister Roberts ( February 1948 – January 1951 ) - Point of No Return ( December 1951 – November 1952 ) - The Caine Mutiny ( January 1954 – January 1955 ) - Two for the Seesaw ( January 1958 – October 1959 ) - Silent Night , Lonely Night ( December 1959 – March 1960 ) - Critics Choice ( December 1960 – May 1961 ) - A Gift of Time ( February – May 1962 ) - Generation ( October 1965 – June 1966 ) - Our Town ( November – December 1969 ) - Clarence Darrow ( March – April 1974 ; March 1975 ) - First Monday in October ( October – December 1978 ) Bibliography . - Wise , James . Stars in Blue : Movie Actors in Americas Sea Services . Annapolis , MD : Naval Institute Press , 1997 . . . External links . - Retrieved on 2008-07-26 - Retrieved on 2008-07-26 - Retrieved on 2008-07-26 Retrieved on 2008-07-26 - Henry Fonda as found in the 1910 US Census , 1920 US Census , 1930 US Census , 1931 Maryland Marriages , and Social Security Death Index . - Literature on Henry Fonda