PETER FONDA (1940 - 2019)

Peter Fonda, son of Hollywood legend, Henry Fonda who followed in his father's footsteps along with his older sister, Jane to have a remarkable acting and film making career, has passed away on August 16th at the age of seventy-nine after a battle with lung cancer. The 1969 film, "Easy Rider", which he starred and co-wrote, would become a landmark touchstone for a generation and make Fonda an iconic symbol of the counterculture movement.

Fonda was born on February 23, 1940 in New York City and the only son of Henry and his second wife, Frances Ford Seymour. His mother died when he was ten but did not find out that she had actually committed suicide while in a mental hospital until he was fifteen.

Fonda went to college in his father’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska and studied acting at the Omaha Community Playhouse where his father also attended. He would find work on Broadway and guest-starred on television shows in the early 1960’s. The fledgling actor made his film debut with the romantic-comedy, “Tammy and the Doctor” in 1963 with Sandra Dee and had a supporting role in the WW II drama, “The Victors” which would win him a Golden Globe for a now defunct category, Most Promising Newcomer.

But despite this early attention, Fonda was not seen as a conventional leading man (even though he looks almost exactly like his famous father). Hollywood roles soon dried up for Fonda and it wasn’t helped by him embracing an anti-establishment stance. He grew out his hair, took plenty of hallucinogenic drugs and hung out with rock musicians like the Byrds, Gram Parsons and the Beatles.

Fonda would meet Roger Corman, the king of the B-movies, and he was cast as a biker in the producer’s 1966 low-budget film, “The Wild Angels”. Based loosely on the real-life L.A. chapter of the Hell’s Angels, this outlaw drama (which also featured Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern and his wife at the time, Diane Ladd) became a box-office smash. After starring in another Corman production, “The Trip”, a psychedelic film written by Jack Nicholson, Fonda was inspired to write what would become “Easy Rider”.

This road trip drama (co-written with Terry Southern and Dennis Hopper who also directed) about two bikers traveling across the American Southwest would bring attention to the hippie lifestyle and casual drug use. With a budget of under $500,000, “Easy Rider” would gross over sixty million dollars worldwide, receive two Academy Award nominations and helped usher in the New Hollywood era of indie filmmaking during the early 1970’s.

Fonda would soon move behind the camera and directed three features including the 1971 western, “The Hired Gun” and the 1979 comedy, “Wanda Nevada” where he also co-starred with Brooke Shields. But Fonda never stopped acting and appeared in such films as “Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry” (1974), “Futureworld” (1976), “Esacpe Fom L.A.”(1996), “The Limey”(1999) and “Ghost Rider”. (2007). And in 1997, Fonda would receive critical praise for his performance in “Ulee’s Gold” about a stoic Florida beekeeper trying to save his son and granddaughter from a life of drug abuse. He would win a Golden Globe for Best Actor In a Motion Picture (Drama) and receive an Oscar nomination for this role.

Peter Fonda is survived by his third wife, Margaret DeVogelaere and his two children from his first marriage to Susan Brewer, Justin and Bridget who had a successful acting career throughout the 1990's before retiring in 2002.