1. Henry Fonda May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982

2. Early Life Henry Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska on May 16, 1905. Fonda worked part-time in his father's print plant and imagined a possible career as a journalist. When he was about 14, his father took him to observe a lynching of a young black man accused of rape. This angered Fonda and he kept a awareness of prejudice for his entire adult life.

3. Hollywood Fonda got the first break, he was hired to make his first film appearance in 1935 Janet Gaynor's leading man in 20th Century Fox's screen adaptation of The Farmer Takes a Wife. Fonda's film career grew as he costarred with Sylvia Sidney and Fred MacMurray in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936). Fonda's successes led Ford to recruit him to play "Tom Joad" in the film version of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wraith (1940).

4. Death and Legacy Fonda died from heart disease on August 12, 1982, at his home in Los Angeles. He asked that no funeral be held, and he was promptly cremated. The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, originally known as the Carter DeHaven Music Box, was named for the actor in 1985 by the Nederlander Organization. Fonda is widely recognized as one of the Hollywood greats of the classic era.