Peter Fonda

Peter Henry Fonda, born by caesarean section on February 23, 1940, at LeRoy Hospital in New York City, was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. The son of actor Henry Fonda and socialite Frances Ford Seymour, he was the brother of actress Jane Fonda and the father of actress Bridget Fonda. He died on August 16, 2019.

Fonda's early years were marked by significant hardship. His mother died by suicide in a mental hospital when he was ten years old, and he did not learn the circumstances or location of her death until he was fifteen. One month before his eleventh birthday, he accidentally shot himself in the abdomen and traveled to Nainital, Uttarakhand, in northern India to recover. He attended the Fay School in Southborough, Massachusetts, graduating with the Class of 1954, before enrolling at Westminster School, a boarding school in Simsbury, Connecticut, where he graduated in 1958. He subsequently studied acting in Omaha, Nebraska, his father's hometown, joining the Omaha Community Playhouse while attending the University of Nebraska Omaha.

Returning to New York, Fonda joined the Cecilwood Theatre in 1960 before making his Broadway debut in 1961. His stage credit, Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole, written by James and William Goldman, ran for 84 performances. The role earned him a Theatre World Award in 1962, as well as a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. He also began appearing on television during this period, guest starring on programs including Naked City, The New Breed, Wagon Train, and The Defenders.

Fonda's film career began when producer Ross Hunter cast him opposite Sandra Dee in Tammy and the Doctor (1963), a minor commercial hit. He followed that with a supporting role in The Victors (1963), directed by Carl Foreman, a film examining American soldiers during World War II. His work in that film earned him a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Director Robert Rossen then cast him in Lilith (1964), alongside Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg, and Gene Hackman, in what proved to be Rossen's final film. Fonda also starred in The Young Lovers (1964), the sole directorial effort of Samuel Goldwyn Jr.

By the mid-1960s, Fonda had become a prominent figure in the counterculture, growing his hair long and distancing himself from conventional Hollywood expectations. His first counterculture-oriented film role came in Roger Corman's The Wild Angels (1966), in which he played a biker after originally being cast in a supporting capacity. The film screened at the Venice Film Festival and launched the biker movie genre. He followed it with Corman's The Trip (1967), written by Jack Nicholson, and appeared in the portmanteau horror film Spirits of the Dead (1968), in a segment directed by Roger Vadim that co-starred his sister Jane. During this period, he also recorded a 45-rpm single, "November Night," written by Gram Parsons for the Chisa label, produced by Hugh Masekela, backed with Donovan's "Catch the Wind."

Fonda's most significant contribution to American cinema came with Easy Rider (1969), which he produced, co-wrote, and starred in alongside Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson. The film, about two bikers traveling through the American Southwest and South, was financed by Columbia Pictures with a budget of approximately $360,000. Fonda co-wrote the screenplay with Terry Southern and Hopper, and his work earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He made his directorial debut two years later with the revisionist Western The Hired Hand (1971), in which he also appeared as an actor.

Throughout the 1970s, Fonda established himself as an action star, appearing in films including Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974) and Futureworld (1976). His career experienced a major critical resurgence with Ulee's Gold (1997), a drama in which his starring performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama. He won a second Golden Globe, for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film, for The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999). In 2003, Fonda received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7018 Hollywood Boulevard.