Trivia

Was twice a roommate and a very close friend of James Stewart. They met and shared a room when the two were both struggling young actors in the early 1930s. Fonda went to Hollywood shortly before Stewart. When Stewart arrived he shared Fonda's home, where they both gained reputations as ladies' men. After both married and had kids, the more mellow buddies still hung out, usually spending time building model airplanes.

Studied acting with Dorothy Brando, mother of Marlon Brando.

Although he received great acclaim for both his acting and producing "Twelve Angry Men," Fonda, who was working on a percentage of the profits for his compensation as both actor and producer, ultimately received nothing for acting or producing, because the film just broke even.

When he received the Oscar for his performance in On Golden Pond, Fonda was the oldest actor (76) to have received the award. That distinction has since been surpassed by Anthony Hopkins, who at 83 received the Academy Award for his work in The Father (2020).

One of his hobbies was bee keeping. This was one of many traits that his son, Peter Fonda, incorporated into his performance in Ulee's Gold (1997), a performance Peter says he based on his father.

Fonda was considered the most talented of all the Hollywood celebrities who painted in oils, mostly still lifes. He was offered considerable sums on many occasions for his paintings but preferred to give them away to friends.

He was a big fan of All in the Family (1971) and had the privilege of hosting "The Best of All in the Family, which looked back at the best moments from the first 100 episodes of the show.

His son Peter Fonda reportedly once broke into tears upon seeing an interview where Henry praised his acting talents as Peter claimed it was the first time his dad had ever offered up such praise to him.

Nearly fell out with his close friend James Stewart in an argument over blacklisting in the spring of 1947. It happened shortly after Fonda joined Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and John Huston in signing an open letter to the House Unamerican Activities Committee, suggesting it end its investigations of Communism involvement in the film industry. According to Stewart, the argument was "long and pretty heated" and ended only when the two men realized they were jeopardizing so many years of friendship. Soon afterward, Fonda moved to New York, not returning to Hollywood until 1955. Although part of the reason for his extended stay in the East was his starring role in Mister Roberts on Broadway, he also confided to friends that he couldn't tolerate the political climate in Southern California during those years. Jane Fonda admits she never got her father to say exactly what was said during the argument with Stewart. "I know it was definitely about the House Unamerican Activities Committee and what became known as McCarthyism later on," she recalled. "And it's true that their friendship really almost ended over that. That was why, after they had cooled down, they decided they would never again talk politics when they were together. But since they were agreeing to be so close-mouthed with one another, they were hardly going to start opening up to other people.".

In spite of his kind, heroic, honest screen persona, he was often described as being cold, aloof and frequently angry off-screen.

A friendship and collaboration of nearly 20 years was ended when director John Ford sucker-punched him while making Mister Roberts (1955).

Three films of his are on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. They are: On Golden Pond (1981) at #45, 12 Angry Men (1957) at #42, and The Grapes of Wrath (1940) at #7.

He periodically returned to the legitimate stage throughout his career (Mister Roberts, Critic's Choice and First Monday in October), but missed out on the chance to create the role of George in the original Broadway production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. His agent rejected the script out of hand, without consulting him. The agent gave as his reason the assertion that, "You don't want to be in a play about four people yelling at each other all the time." Fonda, who was an admirer of playwright Edward Albee's talents, was furious. It didn't help matters when old friends like James Stewart and his wife Gloria Stewart, or even his own daughter Jane, told him that they saw the play in New York and couldn't picture anyone but Fonda in the lead. Finally seeing the show himself, Fonda was duly impressed by Arthur Hill's performance in the role, and conceded that he couldn't have played the part any better.

Although he was against the Vietnam War, Fonda was ultimately persuaded to go on a twenty-three day tour, taking Polaroids with the servicemen and autographing them.

Fonda, who played the second Commander in Chief-Pacific (CINCPAC II) in In Harm's Way (1965), was actually a naval veteran of World War II who served in the Pacific Theater. After making The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), Fonda enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II, saying, "I don't want to be in a fake war in a studio." He served in the Navy for three years, initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer USS Satterlee; later, Fonda was commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade (O-2) in Air Combat Intelligence. For his service in the Central Pacific, he won the Bronze Star, the fourth highest award for bravery or meritorious service in conflict with the enemy.

Hobby was making model airplanes and kites.

According to author Michael Buckley, Fonda's most cherished childhood memory was being awakened by his mother to see Halley's Comet in 1910.

He and his daughter Jane Fonda were the first father-daughter couple to be Oscar-nominated the same year (1982).

In a 1981 interview in "Playboy", Fonda claimed that Sex and the Single Girl (1964) was the worst film that he had ever made.

Fonda turned down the Charles Bronson role in "Death Wish" because he termed its theme 'repulsive.'.

During a Barbara Walters interview, Jane Fonda claimed that her father was deeply in love with Lucille Ball and that the two were "very close" during the filming of Yours, Mine and Ours (1968).

He was voted the 10th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Premiere Magazine.

Named the #6 greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends by the American Film Institute

He left a clause in his will requesting that there be no funeral or memorial service.

He was known among friends and family as a reserved man who had immense difficulty expressing his feelings for others.

With the exception of a $200,000 bequest to daughter Amy, he left his entire estate to his 5th wife Shirlee Adams.

His performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940) is ranked #51 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).

Was a first-hand witness to the Omaha race riots of 1919 and lynching of Will Brown.

1982: Was unable to be present at the 1982 Academy Awards ceremony to accept his best actor Oscar for On Golden Pond (1981). His award was accepted on his behalf by his daughter Jane Fonda.

Was good friends with John Wayne from the time they were part of the director John Ford's stock company. Henry's son, Peter Fonda, in his autobiography, said that Henry had some trouble with the Duke and fellow Ford film co-star Ward Bond over politics, as the two were definitely to his father's right. Peter said that the Duke and Bond were wonderful with him and very warm, in contrast to his father, who was rather cold. Henry would drift away from the Ford stock company, and his relationship with the great director would end on the set of Mister Roberts (1955) when he objected to Ford's direction of the film. Ford punched Fonda and had to be replaced.

His daughter Jane claims that she only saw him cry once, when Franklin D. Roosevelt died.

Fonda admits he was initially attracted to acting because it helped him "to get behind a mask.".

Separated from first wife Margaret Sullavan after only two months of marriage, however the formal divorce proceedings took longer than the time they were living together as husband and wife, with the final divorce decree not being finalized until an additional thirteen months after separation.

Of the Oscar-winning father-daughter couples, he and daughter Jane are the one of two pairs where the daughter won an Academy award before the father did. The other pair is Hayley Mills and John Mills. Hayley's 1960 honorary Oscar was given to her for the best juvenile performance in Pollyanna (1960). Her father John became very popular with the denizens of Hollywood when the Mills family resided there while Hayley made films for Walt Disney. He won a supporting actor Oscar in 1971 for his role as the village idiot in David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970).

He has appeared in nine films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Jezebel (1938), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Lady Eve (1941), The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), My Darling Clementine (1946), 12 Angry Men (1957), How the West Was Won (1962) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

The Fonda family was acquainted with Marlon Brando's family, as they both lived in Omaha, Nebraska and Henry appeared with Marlon's mother Dorothy in community theater. In fact, the Brando family, on a trip to Southern California in the late 1930s, visited Henry on a movie set. The two very different actors never knew each other socially because Fonda was much older. In fact, when the teen-aged Brando started out as an actor, he did so in the shadow of Fonda, who was the most famous person from Omaha at that point. Brando did tell a story about how he had to fire a housekeeper after he found out that she was allowing tourists to come into his home to look around the digs of a star, for a fee. Soon after, Henry called him to check up on the credentials of a woman applying for the job of housekeeper at his home. It was the same woman that Brando had fired. He enthusiastically recommended her to his mother's former acting protégé, without telling him of her unauthorized tours.

Though a Democrat for most of his life, Fonda was once a registered Republican, according to his son Peter Fonda in his autobiography Don't Tell Dad: A Memoir (1999). Peter believes that Henry's liberalism caused him to be gray-listed during the early 1950s, when he experienced a six-year layoff from films.

Earned the rank of Life Scout and became a scout master as an adult.

His second wife Frances Seymour Brokaw committed suicide while he was performing in a matinee. A trouper to the end, he finished the performance before he went home.

He was voted the 29th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Appeared in three movies based exclusively on World War II battles, The Longest Day (1962), Battle of the Bulge (1965) and Midway (1976), and also appeared in a more fictional representation of the Pearl Harbor attack and early South Pacific campaign, In Harm's Way (1965), in the same role he would portray in "Midway," Admiral Chester Nimitz (referred to as CINCPAC II in "In Harm's Way").

Ranked #6 as AFI's top male screen legends.

Starred in eight Oscar Best Picture nominees: Jezebel (1938), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), Mister Roberts (1955), 12 Angry Men (1957), The Longest Day (1962), How the West Was Won (1962) and On Golden Pond (1981).

Fonda told his third wife Susan Blanchard to stay away from Ward Bond, whose ultra-conservative views and active support for McCarthyism he despised.

Unlike a lot of film stars that started their careers on Broadway, Fonda returned regularly to the New York stage throughout his career.

Although Fonda confesses he would have liked to play George in Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," his agent turned the script down without consulting him.

Was known as a ladies' man in Hollywood, having been involved in affairs with many actresses.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1601 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

The birth of his daughter Jane Fonda was the cause of some interruptions during his filming of Jezebel (1938) with Bette Davis.

Contrary to popular belief, Fonda did approve of his daughter Jane's anti-war activism during Vietnam and at AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Henry Fonda (1978) told her critics to "shut up", because "she's perfect".