Al Weisel
Everybody's All-American: Henry Fonda
By Al Weisel
Premiere, June 2005, pp. 110-114, 134
In roles ranging from Abe Lincoln and Clarence Darrow to Tom Joad and Mr. Roberts, Henry Fonda personified the search for truth, justice, and the American way. Off-screen, he married five times and fathered an acting dynasty, but he was a hard man to get close to. On the occasion of the centennial of his birth, Premiere talks to Fonda's family, friends, and colleagues about a career that spanned nearly five decades and a life that embodied many contradictions.
When Henry Fonda locked his bright blue eyes on a freckled, towheaded kid and shot him in 1968's Once Upon Time in the West, it was one of the most shocking moments in movie history. Coming as it did in the midst of the Vietnam War, some saw it as a statement about America, because for many around the world Fonda was a uniquely American hero.
He defended a Western town against the Clanton Gang in My Darling Clementine, saved the world from annihilation as the unflappable President in Fail-Safe, and stood alone as a thoughtful juror in 12 Angry Men. Yet he was never a cardboard hero; there was always something going on behind those blue eyes.
Even as Fonda, an unapologetic Hollywood liberal, professed the ideals of many of his characters, he also wrestled with their—and his country's—contradictions. In one of his most iconic roles, Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, he played not only an honest, hard-working man but an ex-con, barely concealing his rage at Depression-era injustice. And in The Ox-Bow Incident, a film he fought hard to make amidst the patriotic fervor of World War II, he played a man consumed with guilt when he fails to stop a lynching. What no one knew at the time was that as a boy Fonda had witnessed a lynching; like many aspects of his life, it was something he didn't talk about. Much about Henry Fonda remained a mystery to the public, his friends, and even his family. Here, dozens of those who admired him, puzzled over him, and loved him talk about why he remains the most quintessentially American actor that Hollywood has ever produced.
HIDE THE BUTTONS
PETER FONDA, son; director and costar, Wanda Nevada (1979) He had a game called Hide the Buttons: You take common objects and hide them in plain sight. He could hide a matchstick, and you could not see it. I think he learned how to hide the matchstick in his life. And somehow was able to fire that sucker up when he walked onstage.
PAUL NEWMAN, director and costar, Sometimes a Great Notion (1971) What struck me was how easy he made it seem. He had his character at his fingertips, came in prepared, added and subtracted a little bit—and tried to quit early.
JOANNE WOODWARD, costar, A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966); director, "Thanksgiving" episode of TV's Family (1979) It's hard to say how he worked. It was truthful, lovely, involving, and yet you would have no idea what he had done. There was one scene towards the end [of "Thanksgiving"] that was just glorious to watch. I forgot to say cut. I was standing there with tears in my eyes. Finally, the cameramen said, "Do you wanna cut or not?"
LAUREN BACALL, costar, TV's Petrified Forest (1955) and Sex and the Single Girl (1964); author, By Myself and Then Some When he came to have his first dinner with us, he hardly spoke. I remember saying to Bogie, "God, I wonder if he's going to be able to talk to us."
SHIRLEY JONES, costar, Cheyenne Social Club (1970) I worked with him for three months and I don't think I had three words with him. He didn't talk to anyone on the set. I asked Jimmy Stewart about it, and he said, "That's just how he is when he is working. He's always in the character."
LEONARD NIMOY, costar, TV's The Alpha Caper (1973) On the set he would work on his draftsmanship. He was drawing screws. Just practicing drawing screws. I was fascinated with the care and the precision of the drawings.
ARTHUR PENN, director, Broadway's Two for the Seesaw (1958) The first time we walked into the rehearsal space, Hank was waiting for us standing on the stage, and I said, "My God, he looks like a stallion."
CLAUDIA CARDINALE, costar, Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) I always thought he was walking in slow motion. You cannot meet on the street someone like this. Some people are very handsome, but when they're onscreen, nothing. He had this magic and the way to cross the screen.
BETSY PALMER, costar, The Tin Star (1957) I found him quite similar to the roles he played. There was that easy, loping gait when he walked. But he had so much that happened in his life, there must have been turmoil going on underneath.
JANE FONDA, daughter; producer and costar, On Golden Pond (1981); author, My Life So Far In my early thirties, I realized that he wasn't Tom Joad or Clarence Darrow or young Abe Lincoln or the character in The Ox-Bow Incident, but that he had chosen to do them because he believed in those values. I think he hoped some of it would rub off—and it did. I loved that about him.
SIDNEY LUMET, director, 12 Angry Men (1957), Stage Struck (1958), Fail-Safe (1964) Olivier had to have a false nose to hide behind. Lee Cobb needed wigs and cigars.
Hank used himself. He needed no disguises to reveal these different facets
of himself. There is a kind of bravery in that. His performances are very naked.
Whatever it was he was hiding, it sure wasn't during performances.
AMERICAN IDOL
JANE FONDA In Europe, the way that people received me because I was his daughter made an impression on me. I didn't realize what an impact he had outside of our country. This is the America that they wanted to believe in.
PETER FONDA I forgot to ask him about The Grapes of Wrath: Was it John Ford who told him in that last speech to Ma Joad, "Don't do anything, just say the words"? Or was it my dad who did it instinctually? He doesn't fucking blink. If he put any emotional spin in his voice those words would have been the corniest ever spoken. But by doing nothing, they became so fucking powerful. They defined my dad as a political entity and as a person of the people.
SHIRLEY MILLS, actor, The Grapes of Wrath (1940) He did it one take. Ford called everyone out to be there, and I think we were all just a little overcome. This was the first hint we had that this was going to be a great movie.
KAY LINAKER, actor, Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) When he was cast in Young Mr. Lincoln, he said to Ford, "How can I play the Great Emancipator?" Ford said, "You're not playing the Great Emancipator. You're playing a jack-leg lawyer who's never had a case in court." The scene where he acquires the law books, he actually discovered those books as the character. It was not Hank Fonda getting ready to shoot. It was young Mr. Lincoln.
SIDNEY LUMET On Fail-Safe there was no work to do because he should have been President. He had a stern moral sense; he was honorable, loyal, and smart. So you want to compare that to now?
JANE FONDA [When] he was about twelve, his father made him [watch from a window] a very famous lynching in Omaha. I think it had a huge impression on him. His father brought him back home and never said a word. [They] never talked about it. But the message was delivered. I think that he was a lot like the character in 12 Angry Men. While he never articulated it, he was someone who firmly believed in justice.
"I THOUGHT ABOUT GROCERIES"
DOUG McKEON, actor, On Golden Pond (1981) We were rehearsing a scene where he tells me to go read Treasure Island. Henry wanted to talk to the director privately. The next day [director] Mark Rydell said, "Henry asked if he could borrow Treasure Island from the prop people to read it because he hadn't read it in quite a while." That's as Method as Henry got.
JANE FONDA There was a pretty emotional scene, and I asked him, "How did you prepare?" He said, "I thought about groceries."
RON HOWARD, costar, TV's The Smith Family (1971) He had a lot of cagey film actor tricks of the trade: how to do a dinner table scene and not be sick at the end of the day; if you want to pause in a moment, don't do it at the beginning of the line because the director can cut that out.
PAUL NEWMAN He taught me how to eat on film. You fill your mouth and someone yells cut and you have a garbage can by your feet and spit it all out.
LARRY HAGMAN, costar, Fail-Safe (1964) He says, "Are you really going to smoke cigarettes?" and I said, "Yeah," and he said, "Okay, great." I learned that as soon as they say cut, the prop man cuts the end of that cigarette and measures it. I was smoking three packs a day. He didn't say anything. He just let me do it and learn myself.
JANE FONDA He hated the Actors Studio because the Method requires plumbing your depths. Dad hated process and emotions and probing. He lumped religion, psychoanalysis, and Method acting under the category of crutches.
PETER FONDA He was learning lines for a stage play, and I gave him cue lines. I realized what he was doing was thinking about everything he was saying and would be doing while onstage. He was blocking it in his head in an emotional way, timing it with every little word. He always said, "I'm not a Method actor"; he couldn't see that he had a method.
ARTHUR PENN He wanted to play [Two for the Seesaw] on a light comedy level. He said, "I thought this was a play about two charming people." I said, "Gee, Hank, she's got an ulcer and is having an abdominal hemorrhage. It's hardly a light play." He thought magically he would be able to dance on top of it. He was sort of detached in that respect. There was one big dramatic scene where she was having a hemorrhage and trying to keep it from him. I said, "Hank, now you realize that, kiss her." And he said, "I can't kiss her. She's got snot running out of her nose."
RON HOWARD He told my father [Rance Howard, who appeared in the play Mr. Roberts on the road] for a long time he would reject roles if the character had to cry. As he got older and he had gone through some bumpy times in his personal life, he emotionally broke through.
THE QUIET MAN
EDDIE HODGES actor, Broadway's Critic's Choice (1960), Advise & Consent (1962) He was so quiet and distant most of the time that it was hard to really get to know him. I got the impression that he was rather shy. He was warm at times, but this seemed uncharacteristic. I often wondered in later years if he suffered from depression.
LAUREN BACALL Because of his wife who committed suicide, I suppose he was badly affected by all that. He sank into—I don't know if you'd call it depression—but where he didn't make an effort to communicate. There was nothing superficial about Hank. He took everything to heart.
JANE FONDA He told us what happened— didn't tell us the truth, but that she died of a heart attack—and then went right back onstage and performed. And when his mother died from complications resulting from rape he was on Broadway and kept right on going. Never even went to her funeral.
PETER FONDA I was 25 when I found out the entire [suicide] story.
BETSY PALMER There was always that isolation area around him and I don't know who broke through into that. Maybe the women he was in love with.
LAUREN BACALL After you got over the hurdle where he didn't speak at all, he was a wonderful, warm and friendly, adorable man. When he was married to Afdera, his Italian wife, he loosened up a lot.
DON MURRAY, costar, Advise & Consent (1962) He became enamored of Betty, my present wife. When we were on the presidential yacht with the Kennedy family, he came up to me and said, "Are you going to marry that girl? You better, because if you don't, I will." The only time I saw him outgoing was when he was relating to Betty as a beautiful woman. He just came out of himself and looked like a kid in a candy store.
LAUREN BACALL Shirlee [his fifth and last wife] was wonderful for him. Hank obviously was a man who didn't like living alone and he said to me, "I really lucked out to have such a great woman." People used to say to me, "How come when you were single and he was single, you never got together?" I don't think it ever occurred to either one of us to be anything but great friends. Funny, isn't it? I don't know. Another mistake in my life.
"YOU REALLY THINK THIS IS FUNNY?"
JANE FONDA I love to watch that side of him [in comedies]. He was dropdead gorgeous and had this innocence. Altogether the kind of male figure that a lot of women really like. He once said, "I'm not a seducer, but if a woman sets her mind to it, I can be easily seduced," and that's kind of the characters he played in the comedies.
PETER BOGDANOVICH, director, Directed by John Ford (1971); author, Who the Hell's In It The Lady Eve is one of the great comedy performances. He's brilliant in that. There are a number of scenes that are played without a cut. You've got to be awfully good to do that.
LAUREN BACALL We were going to play a scene in Sex and the Single Girl and he looked at me and said, "You really think this is funny?" He played comedy so brilliantly and yet he wasn't sure what was funny.
RON HOWARD I had a long speech, a laundry list of things I could barely remember. Right before the take he leaned over and told me everything backwards, and we rolled and I totally screwed it up. He got a big kick out of the fact that he undid me.
THE PROFESSIONAL
CLIFF ROBERTSON, costar, The Best Man (1964) He said to me, there's one word that's used handily in this business: difficult. Some of these hot-shot actors are just spoiled. But many times if the hardworking artist is really digging into his character, a director or producer or another actor will accuse him or her of being difficult. It's a way of trying to whitewash their ineptitude.
JACKIE COOPER, costar, The Return of Frank James (1940) I never heard Fonda raise his voice. Only when we were riding horses offstage, he would say to me, "If that son of a bitch doesn't stop, I'm going to lose my mind." It was always about Fritz Lang, a man who didn't know anything about Westerns. In one scene Lang said, "We're going to light it this way because of the shadows so you have to get on the horse on the right side." I said, "Mr. Lang, people don't get on on the right." He said, "Don't tell me what to do." Finally, Hank got the assistant director to take him aside, and he came out after a while and said, "Okay, you're going to get on the horse on the left side like you're supposed to."
EDDIE HODGES Otto Preminger was a tyrant, but never a cross word for Mr. Fonda. When Preminger was yelling at the other actors, Mr. Fonda looked down and was calmly silent until it was over.
MAUREEN O'HARA, costar, Immortal Sergeant (1943), Spencer's Mountain (1963), TV's The Red Pony (1973) All he had to do was wag his little finger and he could steal a scene from anybody. In Spencer's Mountain when we found out that our son was not going to get a scholarship, it was a bloody good scene. He let the tears come into his eyes and trickle down his cheek.
SUSAN SARANDON, costar and coproducer, The Great Smokey Roadblock (a.k.a. The Last of the Cowboys) (1977) It was naïveté that allowed us to approach him, especially with a first-time director. He couldn't have been sweeter or more cooperative. What were we thinking? We were kids and we just said, "Henry Fonda would be great, let's ask him." I think a few times he couldn't stand our ignorance and might have given us a hint on how to save ourselves, but not in a way that was offensive or ungenerous.
CLAUDIA CARDINALE We started shooting [Once Upon a Time in the West] in Cinecittà with the love scene. All the international press was seated around us. And the wife of Henry Fonda was next to the director. Can you imagine? I think he was a bit tense because the journalists were looking, but he didn't say a word. The cameraman was on top of us saying, "Claudia, you have to be sexy, sexy, sexy," and Henry was looking at him. It was very funny.
THE RIFT
SIDNEY LUMET He loved John Ford. I remember how sad he was when Ford left the movie Mister Roberts. But for all of the affection and love that he had, I think he may have been instrumental in getting the director changed.
PETER BOGDANOVICH Fonda, having done Mister Roberts onstage, knew the play inside and out. Ford, being a movie director, and a pretty good one, wanted to emphasize the visual things that you can't do in a play. Fonda was bothered by some of the visual humor that Ford was throwing in. So the tension started to build between them. Fonda started to enumerate the problems he had with what was happening. Ford let him get about two sentences into it and hit him with his fist and knocked him off his chair. Fonda said he ended up on his ass looking up at Ford and thought to himself, What am I going to do, hit this old man? Ford got sick shortly after that, and I always thought it was on purpose.
HARRY CAREY JR., actor, Mister Roberts (1955) A lot of people think that was fake, but he actually had a gallbladder problem. His belly was like he was pregnant. Ford called Fonda a traitorous son of a bitch. He would never forgive him.
BETSY PALMER On [Ford's next film] The Long Gray Line Mr. Ford asked me to come over to the hut where he and his wife were. He was in his pajamas and he rolled up the top and said, "See, I did have a gallbladder operation. You can see it with your own eyes." I never quite understood why he did that. Eventually, I found out.
JANE FONDA There was this group that included John Wayne, John Ford, and others who were real tight with my dad and they would come over in the evenings and play this card game, Pitch, with their pistols on the table. And then the '50s came, the McCarthy era. The fissures that had been invisible surfaced. People he was really close to, like Ward Bond and Jimmy Stewart, they just made an agreement not to talk about it. But with John Wayne and John Ford, I think they never could reconcile again. I would have thought because of the roles he played that my dad would have been one of the group that supported the Hollywood 10. While he was irate about what McCarthy was doing, he did not actively organize against it. We had similar opinions. We didn't agree on what to do about it.
PETER FONDA I don't think he ever patched up his relationship with Ford. And John Wayne and Ward Bond labeled him a pinko. So that whole gang fell apart because of politics.
CLOSURE
PETER FONDA [The day he shot his scene in Wanda Nevada] he's in makeup and he's angry. The beard he's got looks so bad. Then he said, "You can't get a close-up." I said, "Did I just hear an actor tell me where I could put my camera?" He said, "I think you did." Of course I shot him as tight as you can go. Those baby blues. He wrote me a letter a week later, and he went on and on lamenting the bad beard and he wouldn't blame me if I cut it out but it's too bad because it would have meant so much to him to have been a part of it, it would be such a gas. What a phrase to put in a letter: such a gas. And then he said, "In my 41 years in motion pictures I have never seen a crew so devoted to a director. You're a very good director, son. I love you very much." You know, I read that and I wept.
JANE FONDA When they turned around and did his closeup [in On Golden Pond], I said, "Are you okay, Dad, can you see me?" and he said, "I don't need to see you. I'm not that kind of actor." It would have devastated me except half of my brain said, "This is exactly what would happen to [my character] Chelsea." In my big scene with him I wanted to try to elicit emotion from him, so I waited for his close-up to touch his arm. When I said, "I want to be your friend," I could see the tears well up in his eyes, and he immediately turned away. Boy, that scene when he hugged me as we're getting in the car—oh, God, I can't even talk about it—for me it's worth its weight in gold.
DON MURRAY In [On Golden Pond] it was as if the man were unpeeling his whole life emotionally and standing there naked before the world.
"THERE WAS A REASON HE WAS A STAR"
RON HOWARD He said it was important to take creative risks, and if you didn't feel like you're putting your career on the line every couple of years, you're probably not challenging yourself and doing your profession justice. I took that to heart. He wanted to see my Super 8 movies and read my short scripts. He gave me my first film theory books. He was actually the first adult figure in my life to say, "Don't be afraid of chasing that dream."
NORMAN LEAR, producer, TV's The Deputy (1959), TV's Henry Fonda and the Family (1960) I bought a house from Paul Henreid, who'd bought it from Henry Fonda. I went down to the cellar for a fuse and the fuses were labeled Mr. Fonda's dressing room, Mr. Fonda's bedroom. I couldn't get over that. Paul Henreid had lived in the house for so many years. I called him and he said he couldn't bear to take Henry Fonda's name off, and I thought this was the sweetest tribute to an actor. Rob Reiner lives there now, and Rob wouldn't change those fuses for anything in the world.
SIDNEY LUMET He moved me always, this reserved man. There was a reason he was a star.
JANE FONDA Katharine Hepburn said that a star's job was to be fascinating. Except for Ted Turner, I've never met anybody who was so self-conscious about her image. It's exhausting. My father could not have cared less about being fascinating. He would sit quietly in his chair reserving his energy and wait until the director was ready. I really respected his quiet professionalism. I wouldn't have wanted to be the daughter of Katharine Hepburn. I'm glad I was his daughter.■
Al Weisel is the co-author, with Larry Frascella, of Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause.