Background

Jane Seymour Fonda was born on December 21, 1937 in New York City, New York, United States; the daughter of Frances Ford Brokaw (née Seymour), and Henry Fonda. She has a brother, Peter, who is also an actor, and a maternal half-sister, Frances de Villers Brokaw (aka "Pan").

In 1950, when Fonda was 12, her mother committed suicide while undergoing treatment at Craig House psychiatric hospital in Beacon, New York. Fonda's father then married socialite Susan Blanchard, just nine years his daughter's senior. Blanchard did much to provide a stable home life for them.

Education

Fonda attended Greenwich Academy in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, where she was an undistinguished student. Thereafter, she engaged in a whirlwind of studies in Paris and New York.

Her first stage appearance was in 1954, but she did not seriously decide on an acting career until four years later while visiting her father, who lived next door to Lee Strasberg, director of the Actors Studio in Malibu, California. Friends urged her to go into the profession; Strasberg accepted her as his student, and she paid for her acting lessons with a brief but successful modeling career.

Career

At the beginning of her career, Jane Fonda lived in New York City, where she worked as a model. Her acting career began with appearances in the Broadway play There Was a Little Girl (1960) and the motion picture Tall Story (1960), and she went on to appear in numerous comic films in the 1960s, including Cat Ballou (1965) and Barefoot in the Park (1967).

Fonda’s subsequent, more-substantial roles were in such socially conscious films as They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), Klute (1971), Coming Home (1978), and The China Syndrome (1979). She received Academy Awards for best actress for her performances as a call girl in Klute and as the wife of a Vietnam War soldier in Coming Home.

In the 1970s and ’80s Fonda was active on behalf of left-wing political causes. Aside from her political activism, in the 1980s she devised a popular exercise program.

Fonda then joined Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin in Nine to Five (1980), a comedy in which three women join forces to get even with their cruel misogynistic boss. In 1981 she costarred with her father and Katharine Hepburn in the film On Golden Pond. Fonda’s other movies in the 1980s included Agnes of God (1985) and The Morning After (1986).

Following her turn as a struggling widow in Stanley & Iris (1990), Fonda took a break from acting and did not reappear onscreen until 2005, when she starred opposite Jennifer Lopez in the romantic comedy Monster-in-Law. Her later films included Georgia Rule (2007), Peace, Love & Misunderstanding (2011), Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013), and This Is Where I Leave You (2014).

In 2009 Fonda returned to Broadway, after a 46-year absence, to portray a dying musicologist in 33 Variations. She also had a recurring role in the television drama The Newsroom (2012–14). She then starred opposite Lily Tomlin in the Netflix television comedy Grace and Frankie, about two women whose husbands leave them for each other. In 2017 Fonda portrayed a widow who befriends her longtime neighbour (played by Robert Redford) in the Netflix movie Our Souls at Night. She later starred in Book Club (2018), a romantic comedy about four old friends who add spice to their club - and their lives - by reading E.L. James’s erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey.

Achievements

• 

  Jane Fonda is a versatile actress who has won several prestigious awards over a long and illustrious career spanning more than five decades. The beautiful and talented lady has evolved from just being an actress to become a fitness icon and also an outspoken feminist and political activist. Her luminous beauty and seductive charms earned her the image of a sex symbol.
  
  She is a two-time Academy Award winner, two-time BAFTA Award winner, and four-time Golden Globe Award winner. In 2017, she was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 74th Venice Film Festival.
  
  In 1962, Fonda was given the honorary title of "Miss Army Recruiting" by the Pentagon. In 1981, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award. In 2004, she was awarded the Women's eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century award as one of Seven Who Change Their Worlds. In 2007, Fonda was awarded an Honorary Palme d'Or by Cannes Film Festival President Gilles Jacob for career achievement. Only three others had received such an award – Jeanne Moreau, Alain Resnais, and Gérard Oury.
  
  In December 2008, Fonda was inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. In November and December 2009, she received the National German Sustainability Award and New York Women's Agenda Lifetime Achievement Award. She was also selected as the 42nd recipient (2014) of the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2017, she received a Goldene Kamera lifetime achievement award.

Works

More photos

• book

  • My Life So Far

    (Surprising, candid, and wonderfully written, My Life So F...)

    1985
  • Prime Time: Love, health, sex, fitness, friendship, spirit; Making the most of all of your life

    (In Prime Time, Jane Fonda offers an empowering vision for...)

    2011
  • Jane Fonda Cooking for Healthy Living 1996
  • Jane Fonda's Workout Book for Pregnancy, Birth and Recovery 1982
  • Women Coming of Age 1984

• movie

  • Peace, Love and Misunderstanding

    (Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding stars Academy Award winni...)

    2012
  • Book Club

    (Four friends' (Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen a...)

    2018
  • Better Living Through Chemistry

    (A pharmacist's uneventful life is turned inside out when ...)

    2014
  • This is Where I Leave You

    (When their father passes away, four grown siblings bruise...)

    2014
  • The Morning After

    (Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges and Raul Julia star in this thri...)

    1986
  • Sunday In New York

    (Fonda portrays a virginal miss who runs off from her fian...)

    1963
  • The Electric Horseman

    (Sonny Steele used to be a rodeo star, but his next appear...)

    1979
  • Barefoot in the Park

    (Master of Broadway comedy Neil Simon adapted his hit play...)

    1967
  • The Chase

    (This steamy pot-boiler follows the intrigues surrounding ...)

    1966
  • Steelyard Blues

    (A group of misfits decide to refurbish a plane and use it...)

    1973
  • Monster-In-Law

    (The love life of a professional dog walker consists of an...)

    2005
  • Grace and Frankie - Season 2

    (After learning their ex-husbands plan to marry one anothe...)

    2016
  • Georgia Rule

    (A film from director Garry Marshall about the power of re...)

    2007
  • Old Gringo

    (Jane Fonda and Gregory Peck star in the sweeping story of...)

    1989
  • Barbarella

    (The setting is the planet Lythion in the year 40, 000, wh...)

    1968
  • Any Wednesday

    (Any Wednesday you’ll find business tycoon John Cleves wit...)

    1966
  • The China Syndrome

    (A modern nightmare nearly becomes reality in this timely,...)

    1979
  • La Ronde

    (Charming, smart and decorous sex farce based on Arthur Sc...)

    2009
  • Klute

    (A high-priced call girl is forced to depend on a reluctan...)

    1971
  • Period of Adjustment

    (A pretty hospital night nurse (Jane Fonda) says "I do" to...)

    1982
  • Julia

    (Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave star in this Oscar(R)-win...)

    1977
  • Fun With Dick And Jane

    (George Segal and Jane Fonda are the Dick and Jane of this...)

    1977
  • 9 To 5

    (Frank Hart is a pig. He takes advantage of the women who ...)

    1980

• video

  • Jane Fonda's Original Workout 2015
  • Jane Fonda Prime Time: Trim, Tone & Flex 2011
  • Jane Fonda's Low Impact Workout 2015
  • Jane Fonda Prime Time 2010
  • Jane Fonda Prime Time 2011
  • Jane Fonda Prime Time: Walkout 2010
  • Jane Fonda Am/Pm Yoga For Beginners 2012
  • Jane Fonda's New Workout 2015

Religion

Fonda grew up atheist but turned to Christianity in the early 2000s. She describes her beliefs as being "outside of established religion" with a more feminist slant, and views God as something that "lives within each of us as Spirit (or soul)." She practices Zazen meditation and Yoga.

Politics

During the 1960s, Fonda engaged in political activism in support of the Civil Rights Movement, and in opposition to the Vietnam War. Fonda's visits to France brought her into contact with leftist French intellectuals who were opposed to war, an experience that she later characterized as "small-c communism". She journeyed to Hanoi in 1972 to denounce the U.S. bombing campaigns there. During that trip she visited with the crew of a North Vietnamese air defense battery, and photographs of Fonda in the seat of an antiaircraft gun were widely circulated. Her actions led to Fonda’s being branded "Hanoi Jane" (recalling World War II’s Tokyo Rose). In 1988 she apologized to American veterans of the Vietnam War in a televised interview with Barbara Walters, saying that some of her behaviour in Hanoi was "thoughtless and careless."

Along with other celebrities, she supported the Alcatraz Island occupation by American Indians in 1969, which was intended to call attention to the failures of the government with regards to treaty rights and the movement for greater Indian sovereignty.

She supported Huey Newton and the Black Panthers in the early 1970s, stating: "Revolution is an act of love; we are the children of revolution, born to be rebels. It runs in our blood." She called the Black Panthers "our revolutionary vanguard ... we must support them with love, money, propaganda and risk." She has been involved in the feminist movement since the 1970s and dovetails her activism in support of civil rights.

Views

In 2015, Fonda expressed disapproval of President Barack Obama's permitting of Arctic drilling (Petroleum exploration in the Arctic) at the Sundance Film Festival. She also marched in a Toronto protest called the "March for Jobs, Justice, and Climate", which was organized by dozens of nonprofits, labor unions, and environmental activists, including Canadian author Naomi Klein. The march aimed to show businesses and politicians alike that climate change is inherently linked to issues that may seem unrelated. In 2017, while on a trip with Greenpeace to protest oil developments, Fonda criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying at the summit on climate change in Paris, known as the Paris agreement, Trudeau "talked so beautifully of needing to meet the requirements of the climate treaty and to respect and hold to the treaties with indigenous people...and yet he has betrayed every one of the things he committed to in Paris."

Quotations: "It's never too late - never too late to start over, never too late to be happy."

"When you can't remember why you're hurt, that's when you're healed."

"A good many dramatic situations begin with screaming."

"We cannot always control our thoughts, but we can control our words, and repetition impresses the subconscious, and we are then master of the situation."

"If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them."

"To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power."

"A man has every season while a woman only has the right to spring."

"I don't want my wrinkles taken away - I don't want to look like everyone else."

"I don't think there's anything more important than making peace before it's too late. And it almost always falls to the child to try to move toward the parent."

"My mother killed herself when I was 12. I won't complete that relationship. But I can try to understand her."

Personality

As a child, Fonda suffered from a poor self-image and lack of confidence in her appearance, an issue exacerbated by her father Henry Fonda. In adulthood, Fonda developed bulimia which took a toll on her quality of life for many years, an issue that also affected her mother Frances Ford Seymour who committed suicide when Fonda was 12.

For many years Fonda took ballet class to keep fit, but after fracturing her foot while filming The China Syndrome, she was no longer able to participate. To compensate, she began participating in aerobics and strengthening exercises under the direction of Leni Cazden. The Leni Workout became the Jane Fonda Workout.

Physical Characteristics: Her luminous beauty and seductive charms earned her the image of a sex symbol. Her height is 5’ 8” (173 cm), weight - 128 pounds( 58 kg). Her hair is blonde and eyes are blue.

Having been diagnosed with breast cancer, Fonda underwent a lumpectomy in November 2010, and has recovered.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Jane Fonda did an extraordinary job with her part. She is a splendid actress with a strong analytical mind which sometimes gets in her way, and with an incredible technique and control of emotion; she can cry at will, on cue, mere drops or buckets, as the scene demands. .. I thought Jane well deserved the Oscar she should have got." - Fred Zinnemann, director of Julia (1977)

Interests

• Politicians

  Huey Newton, the Black Panthers

Connections

Jane Fonda married Roger Vadim, on August 14, 1965. The marriage produced a daughter Vanessa Vadim. Fonda and Vadim divorced in 1973. Three days after that Fonda married Tom Hayden. The marriage produced a son Troy O'Donovan Garity. In 1982, Fonda and Hayden unofficially adopted an African-American teenager, Mary Luana Williams. Fonda and Hayden divorced on June 10, 1990.

In 1991, Jane Fonda married Ted Turner. The pair divorced on May 22, 2001, in Atlanta. In 2009, Fonda began a relationship with the record producer Richard Perry. It ended in 2017.

Father:

Henry Fonda

(May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982)

Henry Fonda was an American film and stage actor with a career spanning five decades.

Mother:

Frances Ford Seymour

Frances Ford Seymour was a Canadian-born American socialite.

Sister:

Frances de Villers Brokaw

Sister:

Amy Fishman

Brother:

Peter Fonda

Ex-husband:

Roger Vadim Plemiannikov

Roger Vadim Plemiannikov was a French screenwriter, film director and producer, as well as an author and artist.

Ex-husband:

Thomas Hayden

Thomas Hayden was an American social and political activist, author, and politician.

Ex-husband:

Ted Turner

Ted Turner is an American media proprietor, producer, and philanthropist.

Daughter:

Vanessa Vadim

Son:

Troy O’Donovan Garity

Troy O'Donovan Garity is an American film actor.

Daughter:

Mary Luana Williams

Mary Luana Williams is an American social activist and author.

niece:

Bridget Fonda

ex-partner:

Richard Perry

Richard Perry is an American record producer.

Collegue :

Marlon Brando

References

• Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal
  2010
• Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman
  2012
• Jane Fonda's War: A Political Biography Of An Antiwar Icon
  2005