Fonda, Henry [Jaynes] (1905–82), actor. The lanky, slightly twangy‐voiced leading man was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, and raised in Omaha, where he first appeared on stage in 1925 as Ricky in
You and I with the Omaha Community Playhouse. After performing with various stock groups for several years, he made his Broadway debut as a walk‐on in
The Game of Love and Death (1929). Shortly thereafter, he joined the
University Players and remained with them until 1932. Fonda next appeared on Broadway in
I Love You Wednesday (1932),
Forsaking All Others (1933), and
New Faces (1934), before winning acclaim as canal man Dan Harrow in
The Farmer Takes a Wife (1934). Apart from a brief run in
Blow Ye Winds (1937), he devoted himself to films until he returned to play
Mister Roberts (1948). John Mason
Brown wrote of his performance, “He is to the full the unheroic hero; the shy, modest, everyday young man whose decencies and hidden strength have somehow made a leader of him. His is a quiet performance . . . Its power is its understatement, its reticence, its utter and communicated honesty.” Thereafter, Fonda became one of the few major stars to shuttle regularly between Hollywood and Broadway. Among his memorable stage performances were businessman Charles Gray in
Point of No Return (1951); the reluctant prosecuting attorney Lt. Greenwald in
The Caine Mutiny Court‐Martial (1954); staid Irish lawyer Jerry Ryan in
Two for the Seesaw (1958); John, who finds an evening of love in a New England inn, in
Silent Night, Lonely Night (1959); the drama critic Parker Ballantine in
Critic's Choice (1960); the conservative executive Jim Bolton in
Generation (1965); the one‐man show
Clarence Darrow (1974); and liberal Supreme Court Justice Daniel Snow in
First Monday in October (1978). Autobiography:
Fonda: My Story, with Howard Teichman, 1981; biography:
Henry Fonda: His Life and Work, Norm Goldstein, 1982.
