New York is truly a city rich with celebrities. The metropolis is so captivating with its beauty and people that it’s easy to forget the price of success. The subject of our article is Jane Fonda. Read on at newyorkski to discover how she became one of the most famous and beautiful actresses of our time, and how throughout her career, she not only won numerous awards but also became a symbol of activism and social change.
Early Years
Jane Fonda was born on December 21, 1937, in New York City. She comes from a Hollywood dynasty; her father, Henry Fonda, was one of the greatest actors of the 20th century. Her brother, Peter, and her niece, Bridget, also had their share of success on the big screen.
Unfortunately, not everything in the Fonda family was as bright and colorful as it seemed. Her father was emotionally distant and demanding, and Jane often felt she didn’t receive enough paternal love, as he frequently criticized her appearance and career choices. At the same time, she admired her father and wanted to please him. For a time, Fonda and her father were estranged due to personal conflicts, but she reconciled with him before his death in 1982, telling him that she loved and forgave him.
Tragically, Fonda’s mother, socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, committed suicide when Fonda was 12 years old. Shortly after her mother’s death, Fonda developed an eating disorder that she battled for years. She attended boarding school and later enrolled at Vassar College before leaving to study art in Paris.
Upon returning to New York, Fonda worked as a model for a time but soon decided to follow in her father’s footsteps. In 1954, she co-starred with her father in a stage production of “The Country Girl.” A few years later, Fonda began studying acting with Lee Strasberg at the renowned Actors Studio.
Acting Career
Fonda’s career truly took off in 1960. She made her film debut in “Tall Story” (1960) with Anthony Perkins and earned a Tony Award nomination for her Broadway performance in “There Was a Little Girl.” Over the next few years, she continued to balance work in theater and film, starring in movies like the romantic comedy “The Chapman Report” (1962).
In the late 1960s, under the direction of her husband, French director Roger Vadim, Fonda reinvented her image as a sex kitten. This new persona was most famously showcased in the 1968 sci-fi fantasy “Barbarella.”
She soon shed that image for more serious dramatic roles. In 1969, she earned her first Academy Award nomination for “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”. Two years later, Fonda won her first Oscar for her work in the thriller “Klute.”
Later in her career, Fonda took on another landmark role, starring alongside her father, Henry, in the film “On Golden Pond” (1981). The movie, which depicts a family’s visit to their summer home, earned her father his first and only Academy Award for Best Actor.
The actress later took a hiatus from her career, stepping away from film roles for over a decade.
In 2005, Fonda returned to the public eye. She starred in her first film in nearly 15 years, “Monster-in-Law,” alongside Jennifer Lopez and Michael Vartan. That same year, Fonda published her autobiography, “My Life So Far.”
Working on the small screen, Fonda landed a recurring role in the drama series “The Newsroom” in 2012. She also played former First Lady Nancy Reagan in the film “The Butler.”
In 2015, Fonda teamed up with longtime friend Lily Tomlin for the series “Grace and Frankie.” The show follows two women trying to rebuild their lives after their husbands fall in love with each other and leave them.
Philanthropy and Activism
Fonda is not just a famous actress and model; she has also been actively involved in philanthropy for over 20 years.
The Jane Fonda Center at Emory University was established in 2001 thanks to a $2 million donation from Fonda. The center conducts research on adolescent reproductive health and provides training for healthcare professionals. She also gave $12.5 million for gender studies research at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and funded a youth reproductive health program at Grady Hospital with a $1.3 million donation.
Fonda is also a political activist and has spoken out publicly in the fight against violence toward women. Some of her past political activism has been controversial, particularly her protests against the Vietnam War. The most infamous incident occurred in 1972 when she was photographed sitting atop a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, leading some to accuse her of being a traitor.
Some people still resent her activism from that period, although she publicly apologized in 1988 and told journalist Barbara Walters in a “20/20” interview that she regretted the incident. The event has been brought up repeatedly throughout the actress’s life.
Fonda and Fitness
For her age, Fonda is energetic and full of the same charm that endeared her to millions of viewers decades ago.
Fonda is not only an actress and model but also a fitness guru, having released the “Jane Fonda’s Workout” videotapes in the 1980s. The videos had it all: Fonda’s aerobics exercises, iconic catchphrases like “Feel the burn!”, and, of course, a colorful collection of leotards and knit leg warmers.
In an interview with “Vogue,” Fonda explained that the videos were created primarily for women who couldn’t afford a gym membership, were too intimidated to exercise in public, or had no one to watch their young children.
So, Fonda came up with the idea of recording workouts on tapes so that any woman could maintain and improve her fitness and appearance right at home.
Fonda said in an interview that a video publisher’s wife read her first workout book and told her husband that these were the lessons they needed to sell on video.
The actress noted that she didn’t invest any money into the workout video; she wrote the script herself on a hotel room floor and did her own makeup.
Family Life and Children
Fonda has been married three times, with all three unions ending in divorce. Her marriage to director Roger Vadim lasted from 1965 to 1973, and they had a daughter, Vanessa.
Subsequently, she married activist and politician Tom Hayden in 1973. They had a son, Troy Garity, that same year. When Troy was a teenager, Fonda also informally adopted a young African American girl named Mary Williams, who later wrote about her life with Fonda in the 2013 memoir “The Lost Daughter.”
After her divorce from Hayden in 1990, Fonda began a relationship with media mogul Ted Turner. They married in 1991 and were together for ten years before divorcing in 2001. Fonda then dated music producer Richard Perry for nearly a decade until they split in 2017.
