Piece of electricity that stirred Steinbeck
RANDOR GUY
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He had a memorable celluloid career lasting nearly half century. Henry Fonda is remembered on his birth centenary.
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OSCAR-WINNING ROLE: On Golden Pond with Katherine Hepburn.
"A lean, stringy dark-faced piece of electricity walked out on the screen and he had me. I believed my own story again," wrote the the American novelist John Steinbeck who created the character in his book (made into a movie), "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940). The `piece of electricity' that stirred him was Henry Fonda. No actor could ask for a better compliment.
Henry Fonda brought dignity, stature and honesty to the roles he played during a memorable career lasting nearly half century.
Some of the movies he acted in became classics such as "You Only Live Once" (1937), "The Ox-Bow Incident" (1943), "My Darling Clementine" (1946), "The Wrong Man" (1956),. "Twelve Angry Men" (1957), "How The West Was Won" (1962) and "On Golden Pond" (1981 , ironically this is the only movie for which Fonda won the Best Actor Oscar at age 77, before passing away a few months after the Awards ceremony). He came to films from Broadway.
Henry Jaynes Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska on May 16, 1905. Theatre attracted him and thanks to his mother's friend Dodie Brando (Marlon Brando's mother) he got a break in theatre in Omaha.
Later, he went to New York where he appeared on Broadway. His performance in "The Farmer Takes A Wife" was so impressive that when it was made into a movie ( 1935), he made his film debut playing the same role.
Stardom came with Fritz Lang's "You Only Live Once." Then came his brilliant innings and association with John Ford, which began with "Young Mr. Lincoln." After that came the movie version of the John Steinbeck classic "The Grapes Of Wrath" (1939). It was a hit.
Fonda married five times and two of his wives committed suicide. They were, first wife, the noted star Margaret Sullavan and Frances Ford Seymour, a socialite and the mother stars Jane and Peter Fonda.
Fonda died on August 12, 1982, in Los Angeles. The U.S. Postal Service recently brought out a special stamp under the series `Legends of Hollywood' as tribute to Henry Fonda on his Birth Centenary.
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