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| Birth Name(s) : Jane Seymour Fonda |
Date of Birth: December 21, 1937 |
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| Profession:
Actor/Model |
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Full Jane Fonda Biography
Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was prompted by Joshua Logan to appear with her father in the 1954 Omaha Community Theatre production of 'The Country Girl'. Her interest in acting grew after meeting Lee Strasberg in 1958 and joining the Actors Studio.
Her screen debut in Tall Story (1960) marked the beginning of a highly successful and respected acting career highlighted by 2 Academy Awards for her performance in Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978) and 5 Oscar nominations for Best Actress in: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Julia (1977), Morning After, The (1986) and On Golden Pond (1981) which was the only film she made with her father.
Jane Fonda's professional success contrasted with her personal life, often laden with scandal and controversy. Her appearance in several risque movies (including Barbarella (1968)) by then husband Roger Vadim was followed by what was to become Jane Fonda's most debated and controversial period: her espousal of anti-Establishment causes and especially her anti-War activities during the Vietnam War. Her political involvement continued with fellow activist and husband Tom Hayden (I) in the 70s and early 80s. In the 80s Fonda started the aerobic exercise craze with the publication of the "Jane Fonda's Workout Book". She remarried to broadcasting Czar Ted Turner in 1991. They have since divorced. |
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Additional Jane Fonda Biography
Fonda has served as an activist for many political causes, one of the most notable and controversial of which was her opposition to the Vietnam War. She has also protested the Iraq War and violence against women. She describes herself as a liberal and a feminist. Since 2001, Fonda has been a Christian. She published an autobiography in 2005 and currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia.
Fonda was born in New York City to actor Henry Fonda and socialite Frances Ford Seymour, and named Lady Jayne Seymour Fonda. Henry Fonda had distant Dutch ancestry, and the surname Fonda originates from Friesland, a northern province of the Netherlands. The "Lady" part of Jane Fonda's name was apparently inspired by Lady Jane Seymour, to whom she is distantly related on her mother's side. The "Jayne" comes from her father's mother maidenname Jaynes married to William Brace Fonda born 1879. Her brother, Peter Fonda (born 1939), and her niece Bridget Fonda (born 1964), are also actors. She has an older half-sister, Frances Brokaw, as well as an adopted sister, Amy, who was born in 1953.
Between Klute in 1971 and Fun With Dick and Jane in 1977, Fonda spent most of the first half of the decade without a major film success, even though she appeared in films such as A Doll's House (1973), Steelyard Blues and The Blue Bird (1976). From comments ascribed to her in interviews, some have inferred that she personally blamed the situation on anger at her outspoken political views - "I can't say I was blacklisted, but I was greylisted." However, in her 2005 autobiography, My Life So Far, it would appear that she categorically rejects such simplification. "The suggestion is that because of my actions against the war my career had been destroyed ... But the truth is that my career, far from being destroyed after the war, flourished with a vigor it had not previously enjoyed." From her own point of view, her absence from the silver screen was related more to the fact that her political activism provided a new focus in her life. By the same token her return to acting with a series of 'issue-driven' films was a reflection of this new focus. "When I hear admonitions ... warning outspoken actors to remember 'what happened to Jane Fonda back in the seventies', this has me scratching my head: And that what would be...?"
In 1972, Fonda starred as a reporter alongside Yves Montand in Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin's film Tout va bien. The film's directors then made Letter to Jane, in which the two spend nearly an hour discussing a news photograph of Fonda.
In 2005, some of Fonda's popular programs were re-released on DVD. One included her Complete Workout from 1988 and her Stress Reduction Program from 1989, a second DVD included her 1991 Fun House Fitness series, and a third DVD included her 1995 Personal Trainer Series.
In April 1991, after three decades in film, Fonda announced her retirement from the film industry. In May 2005, however, she returned to the screen, after a fourteen-year absence, with the box-office success Monster-in-Law, a comedy in which she played the manipulative prospective mother-in-law of Jennifer Lopez's character.
In the same year, Fonda spoke out against the war at a rally organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She offered to help raise funds for VVAW, and, for her efforts, was rewarded with the title of Honorary National Coordinator. On November 3, 1970, Fonda started a tour of college campuses on which she raised funds for the organization. As noted by the New York Times, Fonda was a "major patron" of the VVAW.
Fonda continued to participate in political activism, particularly in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During a trip to Jerusalem in 2002 (billed as a promotion of "world peace"), Fonda was criticized by right wing Israelis, and heckled as she arrived for a meeting with leading Israeli feminists. Three hecklers, members of Women for Israel's Tomorrow, criticized her controversial stance during the Vietnam War, her stance toward Israel, and said that she "came to Israel as a guest of Peace Now".
Members of the conservative organization Free Republic staged a counter-protest which included a life-sized effigy of Fonda with a sign reading "Jane Fonda; American Traitor; Bitch."
In 2001, Fonda publicly announced that she had become a Christian. She strongly opposes bigotry, discrimination, and dogma, which she believes are promoted by a small minority of Christians. Her announcement came shortly after her divorce from Ted Turner. Fonda stated publicly on Charlie Rose in April 2006 that her Christianity may have played a part in the divorce as Turner had allegedly criticized religion.
On April 5, 2005, Random House released Fonda's autobiography My Life So Far. The book describes her life as a series of three acts, each thirty years long, and declares that her third "act" will be her most significant, due in part to her commitment to the Christian religion, and that it will determine the things she will be remembered for. Fonda also claims that her autobiography shows that "she is so much more than what we as America knows her as". |
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