PETER FONDA

'Peter Henry Fonda' (born February 23, 1940) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor. Fonda is associated with Western counterculture of the 1960s.^[1]

Contents

Biography

Personal life

Career

Filmography

Primary sources

References

External links

Biography

Personal life

Fonda was born in New York, New York, the son of actor Henry Fonda and financier Frances Ford Seymour, who took her own life in 1950. Fonda is the younger brother of actress Jane Fonda. On his eleventh birthday, he accidentally shot himself and nearly died. Fonda studied acting in Omaha, Nebraska, which was his father's home town. He began attending the University of Omaha and joined the Omaha Community Playhouse, where many actors (including his father and Marlon Brando) founded their careers. Fonda is the father of actress Bridget Fonda.

Career

Fonda found work on Broadway where he achieved notice in ''Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole'', before going to Hollywood to make films. He started his film career in romantic leading roles. He debuted in ''Tammy and the Doctor'' (1963), which he called "Tammy and the Schmuckface." But Fonda's intensity impressed Robert Rossen, the director of ''Lilith'' (1964). Rossen envisioned a Jewish actor in the role of Stephen Evshevsky, a mental patient. Fonda earned the role after removing his boss' glasses from his face and putting them on so as to look more "Jewish." He also played the male lead in ''The Young Lovers'' (1964), about out-of-wedlock pregnancy, and ''The Victors'' (1964), an "anti-war war movie."
By the mid-1960s, Peter Fonda was not a conventional "leading man" in Hollywood. As Playboy magazine reported, Fonda had established a "solid reputation as a dropout." He had become outwardly nonconformist and grew his hair long, alienating the "establishment" film industry. Desirable acting work became scarce.
Through his friendships with members of the Byrds, Fonda visited The Beatles in their rented house in Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles in August, 1965. While John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison were under the influence of LSD, Lennon heard Fonda say, "I know what it's like to be dead." This phrase became the tag line for their song "She Said She Said", which appeared in their groundbreaking ''Revolver'' (1966) album. In 1966, Fonda was arrested in the anti-war Sunset Strip riot which the Los Angeles Police Department ended forcefully. The band Buffalo Springfield protested the department's handling of the incident in their song "For What it's Worth."

Fonda's first counterculture-oriented film role was the lead character Heavenly Blues, a Hells Angels chapter president, in the Roger Corman-directed film ''The Wild Angels'' (1966). ''The Wild Angels'' is still remembered for Fonda's "eulogy" delivered at the fiasco of a fallen Angel's funeral service, which was sampled in the Primal Scream recording "Loaded" (1991), and in other rock songs. Then Fonda played the male lead character in Corman's film ''The Trip'' (1967), a television commercial director experiencing the ambivalence and turmoil of divorce.
In 1968, Fonda produced ''Easy Rider'', the classic film for which he is best known. ''Easy Rider'' is about two long-haired bikers traveling through the southwest and southern United States in a world of intolerance and violence. The Fonda character was the charismatic, laconic "Captain America" whose motorcycle jacket bore a large American flag across the back. Dennis Hopper played the garrulous "Billy." Jack Nicholson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his turn as George Hanson, an alcoholic civil rights lawyer who rides along. Fonda co-wrote ''Easy Rider'' with Terry Southern and Hopper, who directed.

Hopper filmed the cross-country road trip depicted in ''Easy Rider'' almost entirely on location, spending US$375,000.00, and released the film in 1969 to massive success. Robbie Robertson was so moved by an advance screening that he approached Fonda and tried to convince him to let him write a complete score, even though the film was nearly due for wide release. Fonda refused, using the Byrds' song "Ballad of Easy Rider," Dylan's "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" sung by the Byrds' Roger McGuinn. Fonda, Hopper and Southern were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
After the success of 'Easy Rider'', both Hopper and Fonda were in a position to make any film project they wanted. Whilst Hopper chose to make the drug addled jungle epic ''The Last Movie'', Fonda displayed considerable maturity as a film maker and directed ''The Hired Hand''. Fonda took the lead role in a cast that also featured Warren Oates, Verna Bloom and Beat poet Michael McClure.
Fonda received critical recognition for his part in ''Ulee's Gold'' (1997). Fonda portrayed a stoic north Florida beekeeper who, in spite of his tumultuous family life, imparts a sense of integrity to his wayward convict son, and takes risks in acting protectively toward his drug-abusing daughter-in-law. Fonda's performance resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Fonda's choices of film roles are notable for extreme contrasts in type: The introspective drug-dealing rebel motorcycle biker in ''Easy Rider'' is a world apart from the war-veteran father in ''Ulee's Gold'', a man whose strength is in his benevolence.
He also lent his voice talent to the video game '' as the hippie, ''The Truth''. The Truth owns a jar of green goo, which gives him a lot of power; in his mind. In 2002 Fonda was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

Filmography

★ ''Tammy and the Doctor'' (1963) .... Dr. Mark Cheswick ★ ''The Victors (film)'' (1963) .... Weaver ★ ''Lilith'' (1964) .... Stephen Evshevsky ★ ''The Young Lovers'' (1964) .... Eddie Slocum ★ ''The Wild Angels'' (1966) .... Heavenly Blues ★ ''The Trip'' (1967/II) .... Paul Groves ★ ''Histoires extraordinaires'' (1968) .... Baron Wilhelm (segment "Metzengerstein") ★ ''Easy Rider'' (1969) .... Wyatt ★ ''The Hired Hand'' (1971) .... Harry Collings ★ ''The Last Movie'' (1971) .... Young sheriff ★ ''Idaho Transfer'' (1973) .... Director ★ ''Two People'' (1973) .... Evan Bonner ★ ''Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry'' (1974) .... Larry Rayder ★ ''Open Season (1974 film)'' (1974) .... Ken ★ ''Race with the Devil'' (1975) .... Roger March ★ ''92 in the Shade'' (1975) .... Skelton ★ ''Killer Force'' (1976) .... Bradley ★ ''Futureworld'' (1976) .... Chuck Browning ★ ''Fighting Mad'' (1976) .... Tom Hunter ★ ''Outlaw Blues'' (1977) .... Bobby Ogden ★ ''High-Ballin''' (1978) .... Rane ★ ''Wanda Nevada'' (1979) .... Beaudray Demerille ★ ''Cannonball Run'' (1981) .... Chief Biker (cameo appearance) ★ ''Split Image'' (1982) .... Kirklander ★ ''Peppermint-Frieden'' (1983) .... Mr. Freedom ★ ''Dance of the Dwarfs'' (1983) .... Harry Bediker ★ ''Daijôbu, mai furendo'' (1983) .... Gonzy Traumerai ★ ''Spasms'' (1983) .... Dr. Tom Brasilian

★ ''Certain Fury'' (1985) .... Rodney ★ ''Hawken's Breed'' (1987) ★ ''Mercenary Fighters'' (1988) .... Virelli ★ ''The Rose Garden'' (1989) .... Herbert Schluter ★ ''Fatal Mission'' (1990) .... Ken Andrews ★ ''South Beach'' (1992) .... Jake ★ ''Family Express'' (1992) .... Nick ★ ''Deadfall'' (1993) .... Pete ★ ''Bodies, Rest & Motion'' (1993) .... Motorcycle Rider ★ ''Molly & Gina'' (1994) .... Larry Stanton... ★ ''Love and a .45'' (1994) .... Vergil Cheatham ★ ''Nadja'' (1994) .... Dracula/Dr. Van Helsing ★ ''Escape from L.A.'' (1996) .... Pipeline ★ ''Grace of My Heart'' (1996) .... Guru Dave ★ ''Ulee's Gold'' (1997) .... Ulysses 'Ulee' Jackson ★ ''Painted Hero'' (1997) .... Ray the Cook ★ ''The Passion of Ayn Rand'' (1999) .... Frank ★ ''The Limey'' (1999) .... Terry Valentine ★ ''South of Heaven, West of Hell'' (2000) .... Shoshonee Bill ★ ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad'' (2000) .... Grandpa Burnett Stone ★ ''Second Skin'' (2000/I) .... Merv Gutman ★ ''Wooly Boys'' (2001) .... Stoney ★ ''The Laramie Project'' (2002) .... Doctor Cantway ★ ''The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things'' (2004) .... Grandfather ★ '' (2004) .... The Truth (voice) ★ ''Ghost Rider'' (2007) .... Mephistopheles ★ '' Wild Hogs'' (2007) .... Damien Blade ★ '' (2007) .... Byron McElroy ★ ''Japan'' (2007).... Alfred ★ ''The Gathering'' (2007) (mini tv series) (pre - Production)

Primary sources

★ Fonda, Peter, ''"Don't Tell Dad''," Hyperion Books (April, 1998).

★ ''Playboy'', "Playboy Interview: Peter Fonda," HMH Publishing Co., Inc., pp. 85-108, 278-79 (September, 1970).

★ Filmography: Internet Movie Database.

References

1. http://www.avclub.com/content/node/22567

External links

★

★ ''3:10 to Yuma'' Peter Fonda Interview