Henry Fonda

Henry Fonda (1905 to 1982) was an American film and stage actor born in Grand Island, Nebraska, best known for playing plain-speaking idealists across six decades in Hollywood. He began on stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse, appeared in Broadway productions from 1926 to 1934 and made his film debut in 1935 in The Farmer Takes a Wife. His career gained momentum with The Grapes of Wrath in 1940, which brought him an Academy Award nomination, and he worked often with the director John Ford. He won a Tony Award in 1948 for the title role in Mister Roberts on Broadway, and in 1957 he took a first step into production with 12 Angry Men, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Lifetime achievement honors from the Golden Globes and the Academy followed near the end of his life, and he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for On Golden Pond, which he made with Katharine Hepburn and his daughter Jane.