Fonda, Jane

Related Category: Film and Television: Biographies

1937–, American actress, b. New York City; daughter of Henry Fonda and sister of Peter Fonda. First cast in pert and sexy roles, she later distinguished herself in dramatic parts, often as a tough and disillusioned woman. Regarded as one of the best actresses of her generation, she is also a committed feminist and has occasionally left acting to pursue a radical, later liberal, political agenda. In 1971 she made a controversial trip to North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In the 1980s and 90s she promoted physical fitness through a series of popular books and videotapes. She won Academy Awards for her roles in Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978). Her other films include Cat Ballou (1965), Barefoot in the Park (1967), Barbarella (1968), They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969), Julia (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), On Golden Pond (1981), Agnes of God (1985), and Stanley and Iris (1990). Over the years she married and divorced French director Roger Vadim, American radical and politician Tom Hayden, and American mogul Ted Turner. Fonda retired in 1991 but returned to the screen in 2005 in the comedy Monster-in-Law.

See her autobiography, My Life So Far (2005); biography by T. Kiernan (1973).