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Peter Henry Fonda (born February 23, 1940) is an American actor. More than any other actor, Fonda is associated with Western counterculture of the 1960s.
Early life
Fonda was born in New York, New York, the son of actor Henry Fonda, the younger brother of actress Jane Fonda, the father of actress Bridget Fonda. His mother, Frances Ford Seymour, took her own life in 1950.
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 found work on Broadway where he achieved notice in Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole, before going to Hollywood to make films.
Career
Fonda 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"/Wyatt 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 (TM) 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 (TM) 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 (TM) for Best Actor.
Fonda's choices of film roles are notable for extreme contrasts in type: The introspective drug-dealing rebel (perhaps amoral) 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 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the hippie, The Truth. In 2002 Fonda was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
| Latest news about Peter Fonda |
My Year In Crime: To the Mattresses Week 11 - 40 Things I HatePeter Fonda's big plan. 34. Billy Connolly dies, which removes any reason to watch... 35. The possibility of a third movie. 36. Why are the Saints the only people who actually hit what they shoot at? 37. 40 agents show up immediately ... Continue reading
The SIXTIES: Peter Fonda keeps on ridingBy Peter Howell. The 40th anniversary celebrations for Easy Rider motor on, and what a stormy trip it has been for iconic bikers Captain America and Billy, played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. But it's now a solo journey, ... Continue reading
Inside The LC: The Strange but Mostly True Story of Laurel Canyon ...Locals and tourists alike knew where to go to gawk at the Freaks and, as an added bonus, quite possibly rub shoulders with the likes of Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper and Warren Beatty, along with their female ... Continue reading
PETER FONDA LOADEDYou know it. Continue reading
Peter Fonda interview – Peter Fonda “Easy Rider,” “Ulee's Gold ...Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com interviews Peter Fonda of “Easy Rider,' “Ulee's Gold” and “3:10 to Yuma.” Continue reading
Outlaw Blues – DVD Review: Peter Fonda and Susan Saint James StarWhen an ex-con finds out that a famous country singer stole his song, he goes on a humorous rampage to set things right. Continue reading
M&M: Peter Fonda Not Easy Rider Now - Huckleberries Online ...I remember the night that I took my youngest brother, Doug, to see “Easy Rider.” We sat through the entire film - the chopper-preening, the mustachio-grandstanding, the smoke-huffing - only to be faced with that ridiculous ending, ... Continue reading
FutureworldFuture World (1976) directed by Richard T. Heffron starring Peter Fonda and Blythe Danner. The tagline:”Where the only way to survive is to kill yourself”. Don't be confused by this tagline I think IMDB pulled this from the wrong film. ... Continue reading
Open Happy Birthday Thread: The Mighty Peter Fonda | Conservative ...You Are Here: Home » 2010 » 02 » 23 » Open Happy Birthday Thread: The Mighty Peter Fonda. By Big Hollywood February 23, 2010. Leave a Comment. Open Happy Birthday Thread: The Mighty Peter Fonda ... Continue reading
Inside the Briefcase: Film Talk: Once Upon a Time In Nazi-Occupied ...In Once Upon a Time in the West, this conflict is capsulated in a conversation on the train with Frank (played by Henry Fonda, father of Jane and Peter Fonda), who derives power from his gun, and Morton, who advocates the more dominant, ... Continue reading
Hollywood Actors Jessica alba Peter Fonda pictures and Peter Fonda biography
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