Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an Academy Award-winning American actress, writer, producer, and political activist. Fonda, who currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, describes herself as a liberal, and more recently, as a feminist and a Born-again Christian.

Ancestry and family

Jane Fonda was born in New York City to actor Henry Fonda and socialite Frances Ford Seymour. Seymour was the second of Fonda's five wives. Seymour, who was of Irish and German descent, had been previously married to millionaire George Tuttle Brokaw. In 1950, when Jane was twelve years old, Seymour committed suicide after voluntarily seeking treatment at a psychiatric hospital.

Although Henry Fonda was primarily of Dutch and British descent, the surname Fonda originates in Italy. The name, Jane Seymour Fonda � while also being an obvious derivative of her parents' surnames � was reputedly inspired by Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII of England. As a girl she was frequently called "Lady Jane", a nickname she greatly disliked.

Her brother Peter Fonda (born 1940) and his daughter Bridget Fonda (born 1964) are also actors. She also has an adopted sister, named Amy, who was born in 1953.

Acting career

Fonda first became interested in acting in 1954, while appearing with her father in a charity performance of The Country Girl, at the Omaha Community Theatre. After attending Vassar College in New York, she was introduced by her father to renowned drama teacher Lee Strasberg in 1958, and subsequently joined his Actors Studio.

1960s

Her stage work in the late 1950s laid the foundation for her film career in the 1960s. She averaged almost two movies a year throughout the decade, starting in 1960 with Tall Story, in which she recreated one of her Broadway roles as a college cheerleader pursuing a basketball star, played by Anthony Perkins. Period of Adjustment and Walk on the Wild Side followed in 1962. In Walk on the Wild Side Fonda played a prostitute, and earned a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.

In 1963 she appeared in Sunday in New York. Newsday called her "the loveliest and most gifted of all our new young actresses". However, she also had her detractors�in the same year the Harvard Lampoon named her the "Year's Worst Actress". Fonda's career breakthrough came with Cat Ballou (1965), in which she played a schoolmarm turned outlaw. This comedy Western received five Oscar nominations and was one of the year's top ten films at the box office. It was considered by many to have been the film that brought Fonda to stardom at the age of twenty-eight. After this came the comedies Any Wednesday (1966) and Barefoot in the Park (1967), the latter co-starring Robert Redford.

In 1968, she played the title role in the science fiction spoof Barbarella, which established her as a leading sex symbol. In contrast, the tragedy They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) won her critical acclaim, and she earned her first Oscar nomination for the role. Fonda was very selective by the end of the 1960s, turning down lead roles in Rosemary's Baby and Bonnie and Clyde, films widely praised by critics and considered box-office successes.

1970s

Fonda won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1971, again playing a prostitute, in the detective murder mystery Klute. It is generally acknowledged that her finest moment onscreen is the extraordinary scene towards the end of Klute where she is confronted by her potential killer. Her second Award was in 1978 for Coming Home, the story of a disabled Vietnam War veteran's difficulty in re-entering civilian life.

Fonda spent most of the first half of the decade without a major film success. She personally blamed the situation on anger at her outspoken political views. In an interview, she said "I can't say I was blacklisted, but I was greylisted." In mid-decade, her biggest role was in the 1976 fairy tale The Blue Bird. Through her production company Indo-China Peace Campaign (IPC), she produced films that helped return her to star status. The 1977 comedy film Fun With Dick and Jane is generally considered her comeback picture. She also received very positive reviews and an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of playwright Lillian Hellman in the 1977 film, Julia.

During this period Fonda announced that she would only make films that focused on important issues, and she generally stuck to her word. She turned down An Unmarried Woman because she felt the part was not relevant. She followed with popular and successful films such as The China Syndrome (1978), about a cover up of an accident in a nuclear power plant; and The Electric Horseman (1979) with her previous co-star, Robert Redford.

1980s

In 1980, Fonda starred in Nine to Five with Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. She played a divorced woman re-entering the workforce. The film was one of her greatest financial successes, contributing significantly to her wealth.

She had long wanted to work with her father, hoping it would help their strained relationship. She achieved this goal when she was cast as a supporting actress alongside Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond (1982). This film brought Henry Fonda his first Academy Award for Best Actor, which Jane accepted on his behalf, as he was ill and homebound. He died several months later.

In the early 1980s, she began a different career by leading the aerobics craze as a fitness guru. She continued appearing in feature films throughout the 1980s.

Retirement and return

In April 1991, after three decades in film, Fonda announced her retirement from the film industry. In May 2005, however, she returned to the screen, after a fourteen-year absence, with the box-office success Monster-in-Law, a comedy in which she plays the prospective mother-in-law of a character played by Jennifer Lopez.

In July 2005, the British tabloid The Sun reported that when Fonda was asked if she would appear in a sequel to her 1980 hit Nine to Five, she replied "I'd love to."

In the course of her career, Fonda has received seven Oscar nominations and two Oscars.

Workout videos

For many years, Fonda was a ballet enthusiast, but after fracturing her foot while filming The China Syndrome, she was no longer able to participate. To compensate, she began actively participating in aerobics and strengthening exercises.

In 1982, Fonda released her first exercise video, titled Jane Fonda Workout, which sold 17 million copies, the most of any home video of all time. The video's release led many people to buy VCRs so that they could watch the video while they performed the workout. Fonda subsequently released 23 more workout videos, five workout books, and thirteen audio tapes. Her most recent workout video was released in 1995.

Fonda is known to have popularized the phrase "go for the burn". However, she has been criticized as "hypocritical" by many fitness professionals for improving her figure by means of plastic surgery.

Political activism

During the 1960s, Fonda engaged in political activism in support of the Civil Rights Movement and in opposition to the Vietnam War.

Along with other celebrities, she supported the Alcatraz Island occupation in 1969, which was intended to call attention to Native American issues. (In the 1990s she was criticized by Native American activists for doing the perceived racist celebration "The Tomahawk Chop" at Atlanta Braves baseball games with her then-husband, Ted Turner.)

She likewise 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", and said "we must support them with love, money, propaganda and risk."

Fonda has also been involved in the feminist movement since the 1970s, which dovetails with her activism in support of civil rights.

Opposition to the Vietnam War

In April 1970, Fred Gardner, Fonda and Donald Sutherland formed *FTA* ("Free The Army", a play on the troop expression "Fuck The Army"), an anti-war road show designed as an answer to Bob Hope's USO tour. The tour, referred to as "political vaudeville" by Fonda, visited military towns along the West Coast, with the goal of establishing a dialogue with soldiers about their upcoming deployments to Vietnam. The dialogue was made into a movie that contained strong, frank criticism of the war by service men and women. It was released in 1972.

In the same year, Fonda spoke out against the war at a rally organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. She offered to help raise funds for VVAW, and, for her efforts, was rewarded with the title of Honorary National Coordinator. On November 3, 1970, Fonda started a tour of college campuses on which she raised funds for the organization. As noted by the New York Times, Fonda was a "major patron" of the VVAW.

In March 1971, Fonda traveled to Paris to meet with National Liberation Front (NLF) foreign minister Madam Nguyen Thi Binh. According to a transcript that was translated into Vietnamese and back to English, Fonda told Binh at one point: "Many of us have seen evidence proving the Nixon administration has escalated the war, causing death and destruction, perhaps as serious as the bombing of Hiroshima." Afterwards, Fonda traveled to London, where she again came under fire for making a speech that discussed the use of torture by US troops in Vietnam. Her financial support to VVAW at this time was apparently not significant, as the organization ran out of money within a month, and one of its prominent leaders, John Kerry, was called upon to raise the necessary funds.

"Hanoi Jane"

Fonda visited Hanoi in July 1972. She is credited with publicly exposing the potential strategy of bombing the dikes in Vietnam. As with the potential use of nuclear weapons in the Korean campaign, this strategy may have been considered, but it was never employed. At the time, she was called a liar by United Nations ambassador George H. W. Bush. Bush was intending to provide evidence of US innocence, but cancelled the press conference after Fonda released filmed evidence, with Bush saying, "I think that the best thing I can do on the subject is to shut up."

In Vietnam, Fonda was photographed multiple times seated on an anti-aircraft battery used against American pilots. She also participated in several radio broadcasts on behalf of the Communist regime, asking US pilots to turn around without dropping their bombs. In her 2005 autobiography, she states that she was manipulated into sitting on the battery, and claims to have been immediately horrified at the implications of the pictures. She expressed some regret for her actions sixteen years later, but many believe that she never apologized to Vietnam veterans and their families, and continued hostility is shown towards her by many Americans.

She also visited American prisoners of war (POWs), who she claims were neither tortured nor brainwashed. Fonda relayed these claims to the American public. When cases of torture began to emerge among POWs returning to the United States, Fonda called the returning POWs "hypocrites and liars" (Andersen, p. 266) She added, "These were not men who had been tortured. These were not men who had been starved. These were not men who had been brainwashed." On the subject of torture in general, Fonda told the New York Times in 1973, "I'm quite sure that there were incidents of torture... but the pilots who were saying it was the policy of the Vietnamese and that it was systematic, I believe that's a lie." Several American POWs and other eyewitnesses, including US Senator John McCain, disagree with this sentiment.

Although opposition to the war was building in the U.S., Fonda's actions in July 1972 were widely perceived as an unpatriotic display of aid and comfort to the enemy, with some even characterizing it as treason. Her detractors labeled her Hanoi Jane, comparing her to war propagandists Tokyo Rose and Hanoi Hannah. Although some former POWs state that Fonda handed over information from U.S. prisoners of war to NLF insurgents (better known in the U.S. as the "Viet Cong"), these allegations have been dismissed as an urban myth. She has often been accused of contributing to a perceived anti-soldier sentiment among Vietnam War protesters, such as spitting on soldiers. Because of her actions, actor John Wayne cut off all contact with her, despite his close ties to her father.

In 1972, Fonda funded and organized the Indochina Peace Campaign. It continued to mobilize antiwar activists across the nation after the 1973 Paris Peace Agreement, when most other antiwar organizations closed down.

Fonda's regrets

In 1988, Fonda admitted to former American POWs and their families that she had some regrets, stating:

I would like to say something, not just to Vietnam veterans in New England, but to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to deepen because of things that I said or did. I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to apologize to them and their families. [...] I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me in an anti-aircraft gun, which looks like I was trying to shoot at American planes. It hurt so many soldiers. It galvanized such hostility. It was the most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It was just thoughtless.

On the Charlie Rose program, Fonda noted that her regrets were limited to the photo appearance with the anti-aircraft gun, and that she was "proud" of her activism against "the bombing of the dikes".

In a 60 Minutes interview on March 31, 2005, Fonda reiterated that she had no regrets about her trip to North Vietnam in 1972, with the exception of the anti-aircraft gun photo. She stated that the incident was a "betrayal" of American forces and of the "country that gave me privilege". Fonda said, "The image of Jane Fonda, Barbarella, Henry Fonda's daughter ... sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was a betrayal ... the largest lapse of judgment that I can even imagine." She later distinguished between regret over the use of her image as propaganda and pride for her anti-war activism: "There are hundreds of American delegations that had met with the POWs. Both sides were using the POWs for propaganda... It's not something that I will apologize for." Fonda said she had no regrets about the broadcasts she made on Radio Hanoi, something she asked the North Vietnamese to do: "Our government was lying to us and men were dying because of it, and I felt I had to do anything that I could to expose the lies and help end the war."

Anti-Fonda protests

Protestors disrupted filming of Fonda's 1990 picture Stanley and Iris. Later, when Fonda was honored by Barbara Walters in 1999 as one of the 100 great women of the century, old sentiments regarding Fonda's actions in Vietnam were rekindled.

In the U.S. presidential election, 2004, her name was used as a disparaging epithet against John Kerry, the former VVAW leader, who was then the Democratic Party presidential candidate. Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie called Kerry a "Jane Fonda Democrat". In addition, Kerry's opponents circulated a photograph showing Fonda and Kerry in the same large crowd at a 1970 anti-war rally, although they were sitting several rows apart. A faked composite photograph, which gave the false impression that the two had shared a speaker's platform, was also circulated. Fonda appeared on CNN to defend Kerry against these attacks.

In April 2005, a man named Michael A. Smith from Kansas City, Missouri took advantage of one of Jane Fonda's book signings to spit tobacco juice in her face. Minutes later, Smith was caught by police and charged with disorderly conduct. He went to court on May 27, 2005, and stated that he spat in Fonda's face because he believed her to be a "traitor", adding that his actions were "absolutely worth it". Smith disagreed with Fonda's active support of North Vietnam and what he perceived to be a betrayal of American POWs during the Vietnam War. After he was led away, Fonda carried on signing books.

In May 2005, Kentucky resident Irving Bouthwell announced that his two movie theaters would not show Fonda's new film Monster-in-law. Bouthwell (who had in the past banned other Fonda films as well as Fahrenheit 9/11) hung photos of Fonda clapping with a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft crew outside the theater.

Feminist causes

Fonda has been a longtime supporter of feminist causes, including V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women, inspired by the off-Broadway hit The Vagina Monologues. She was present at their first summit in 2002, bringing together founder Eve Ensler, Afghan women oppressed by the Taliban, and a Kenyan activist campaigning to save girls from genital mutilation.

In 2002, Fonda established the Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia; the goal of the center is to prevent adolescent pregnancy, and to promote women's reproductive rights.

On February 16 2004, Fonda led a march through Ciudad Ju�rez, with Sally Field, Eve Ensler, and other women, urging Mexico to provide sufficient resources to newly appointed officials helping investigate the murders of hundreds of women in the rough border city.

Fonda strongly feels that many gender stereotypes are damaging to individuals of all genders. In 2004, she served as a mentor to the first ever all-transsexual cast of The Vagina Monologues.

Opposition to patriarchy

In My Life So Far, Fonda says that she considers patriarchy to be harmful to men as well as women. She also states that for many years, she feared to call herself a feminist, because she believed that all feminists were "anti-male". But now, with her increased understanding of patriarchy, she feels that feminism is beneficial to both men and women, and states that she "still loves men". She states that when she divorced Ted Turner, she felt like she had also divorced the world of patriarchy, and was very happy to have done so.

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Fonda continues to participate in political activism, particularly in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During a trip to Jerusalem in 2002 (billed as a promotion of "world peace"), Fonda was criticized by right wing Israelis, and heckled as she arrived for a meeting with leading Israeli feminists. Three hecklers, members of Women in Green, criticized her controversial stance during the Vietnam War and said that she "came to Israel as a guest of Peace Now, Israeli traitors".

Opposition to the Iraq War

Fonda has argued that the military campaign in Iraq will turn people all over the world against America, and has asserted that a global hatred of America will result in more terrorist attacks in the aftermath of the war. (April 11, 2003)

In July 2005, Fonda said that some of the war veterans she had met while on her book tour had urged her to speak out against the Iraq War.

In September 2005, Fonda and George Galloway postponed their anti-war bus tour due to the perceived slow start to the relief operation now underway in the Gulf Coast, which had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Fonda will take the anti-war bus tour in March 2006 with her daughter and families of military veterans.

Christianity

In 2001, Fonda publicly announced that she had become a Christian. She considers herself a liberal Christian and strongly opposes what she considers to be bigotry, discrimination, and dogma, which she believes are promoted by some conservative Christians. Her announcement came shortly after her divorce from Ted Turner; some believed that Fonda's Christianity led to the divorce, as Turner had allegedly criticized religion.

Autobiography

In 2005, Fonda released her autobiography, My Life So Far. The book describes her life as a series of three acts, each thirty years long, and declares that her third "act" will be her most significant, and that it will determine the things she will be remembered for.

Fonda's autobiography was praised by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and several other newspapers.

Romantic relationships

• Her first husband (1965-73) was French film director Roger Vadim, with whom she had a daughter, Vanessa (born 1968), so named for actress and activist Vanessa Redgrave. According to her 2005 memoir, Fonda participated in sexual threesomes, at Vadim's suggestion.
• Her second husband (1973-1990) was author and politician Tom Hayden. Their son Troy Garity (born 1973) was given his paternal grandmother's surname. With Hayden, she also raised a foster daughter, Mary Luana Williams, who is an activist born to members of the Black Panthers.
• Her third husband (1991-2001) was cable-television tycoon and CNN founder Ted Turner.
• She has also had romantic relationships with:
  • Alexander "Sandy" Whitelaw, director; involved 1960.
  • Donald Sutherland, actor; costarred in Klute; together in the 1970s.
  • Barry Matalon, hairdresser; together in the 1990s.

Film awards and nominations

Academy Awards

• 1970: Academy Award Nomination; Best Actress, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
• 1971: Academy Award; Best Actress, Klute
• 1978: Academy Award Nomination; Best Actress, Julia
• 1978: Academy Award; Best Actress, Coming Home
• 1980: Academy Award Nomination; Best Actress, The China Syndrome
• 1982: Academy Award Nomination; Best Supporting Actress, On Golden Pond
• 1987: Academy Award Nomination; Best Actress, The Morning After

Golden Globes

• 1971: Golden Globe; Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), Klute
• 1972: Golden Globe; World Film Favorite � Female
• 1977: Golden Globe; Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), Julia
• 1978: Golden Globe; World Film Favorite � Female
• 1978: Golden Globe; Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama), Coming Home
• 1961: Golden Globe; Most Promising Newcomer � Female

Others

• 1984: Emmy; Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special, The Dollmaker

Selected filmography