Born on December 21, 1937 in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight.

Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father’s trade, she was prompted by Joshua Logan to appear with her father in the 1954 Omaha Community Theatre production of “The Country Girl.” Her interest in acting grew after meeting Lee Strasberg in 1958 and joining the Actors Studio. Her screen debut in Tall Story (1960) (directed by Logan) marked the beginning of a highly successful and respected acting career highlighted by two Academy Awards (for her performances in Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978)and five Oscar nominations (for Best Actress in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), Julia (1977), The Morning After (1986) and On Golden Pond (1981), which was the only film she made with her father). Her professional success contrasted with her personal life, which was often laden with scandal and controversy. Her appearance in several risqué movies (including Barbarella (1968), directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim) was followed by what was to become her most debated and controversial period: Her espousal of anti-establishment causes and especially her anti-war activities during the Vietnam War. Her political involvement continued with fellow activist and husband Tom Hayden in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the 1980s she started the aerobic exercise craze with the publication of the “Jane Fonda’s Workout Book.” She and Hayden divorced, and she married broadcasting mogul Ted Turner in 1991.
Chosen as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars (#21) in film history by Empire magazine (1995).
Attended Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York. Her roommate was Lara Parker. Parker later co-starred with Jane’s brother Peter Fonda in the film Race with the Devil (1975).
Is the subject of an erroneous urban legend. When Vassar was a women’s college, the story goes, Jane Fonda refused to wear the elegant white gloves and pearls that were the attire for the daily Tea in the Rose Parlour. When confronted, Fonda returned to the parlour wearing the gloves and the pearls, and nothing else.
Ranked #83 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time” list (October 1997).
Announced her retirement from acting in 1991 but returned to the screen 14 years later in Monster-in-Law (2005).
Married Ted Turner on her 54th birthday in 1991.
Daughter of Henry Fonda and Frances Ford Seymour (14 April 1908 – 14 April 1950). Her mother committed suicide when Jane was age 12.

Older sister of Peter Fonda
Aunt of Bridget Fonda and Justin Fonda
Her birth was the cause of some interruptions during her father’s filming of Jezebel (1938) with Bette Davis.
She was, and still is, an exercise maven.
Fonda was arrested in 1970 after allegedly kicking a cop when she was found carrying a large amount of what appeared to be pills. All charges were dropped after the pills were identified as vitamins.
Attended Emma Willard School in Troy, New York.
Announced her separation from husband Ted Turner (January 2000).
Was offered the role of Chris MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973).
Jane now openly admits that she suffered from bulimia from age 13 to age 37. While modelling, she said she lived on cigarettes, coffee, speed and strawberry yogurt.

Shortly after her divorce from Ted Turner, she announced she had become a born-again Christian. Speculations are that this may have played a part in their separation, since Ted Turner has expressed highly critical opinions on religion in general.
The suicide of her socialite mother Frances Seymour Brokaw was kept from her as a teenager, and she was told that she’d died of heart failure. Household newspaper and magazine subscriptions were cancelled, and the staff and student body of Fonda’s high school were instructed not to discuss the incident. Fonda learned the truth months later while leafing through a movie magazine in art class.
Her out-of-retirement movie, Monster-in-Law (2005) came out the same time as her autobiography, “My Life So Far” and the same time her workouts are re-released to DVD format in stores.
Protested alongside fellow actresses Sally Field and Christine Lahti, and playwright Eve Ensler urging the Mexican government to re-investigate the slayings of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez, on the Mexico-Texas border (February 2004).
In addition to her half-sister Frances, she has an (adopted) half-sister, Amy, and a former stepsister, Pam.
She was voted the 51st Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Was nominated for Broadway’s 1960 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for “There Was a Little Girl.”
Premiere Magazine ranked her as #32 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature (2005).
Born on the same day Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) premiered.
In 1982, she accepted the Oscar for “Best Actor in a Leading Role” on behalf of her father Henry Fonda, who wasn’t present at the awards ceremony
Of the Oscar-winning father-daughter couples, she and her father are one of two couples (the other is Hayley Mills/John Mills) where the daughter won an Academy award before the father did. Hayley Mills’ Oscar was an honorary award for Pollyanna (1960), “…[T]he most outstanding juvenile performance during 1960.” Juveniles were not allowed to compete for Oscars until the late 1960s, when the juvenile award was abandoned.
She and her father were the first father-daughter couple to be Oscar-nominated the same year (1982).
She and The China Syndrome (1979) co-stars Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas have all won Oscars for Leading Roles. Fonda won for Klute (1971), Lemmon won for Save the Tiger (1973), and Douglas won for Wall Street (1987).
Her ancestry includes Dutch, English, Scottish, as well as French, Italian, and Norwegian.
Stepdaughter of Shirlee Fonda
Is fluent in French.
Passed on the title role in Norma Rae (1979), which won a Best Actress Oscar for its eventual star Sally Field.
Was listed as a potential nominee on the 2006 Razzie Award nominating ballot. She was listed as a suggestion in the Worst Actress category for her performance in the film Monster-in-Law (2005). She failed to receive a nomination, however. (Had she gotten the nomination, it would have been her first Razzie nomination in 16 years. She was previously nominated for Worst Actress at the 1990 Razzie Awards for her performance in the film Old Gringo (1989).)
In her modelling days after college, she was twice on the cover of Vogue magazine.
Her performance as Bree Daniels in Klute (1971) is ranked #91 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
Jane was mentioned on Sir Mix a Lot’s 1992 hit single, “Baby Got Back”.
She and Tom Hayden gave their son Troy Garity his paternal grandmother’s last name for the sake of anonymity
She and her father Henry Fonda are the only father-daughter couple to receive Oscars for leading roles.
A 1972 visit to Hanoi during the Vietnam war where Fonda campaigned in favour of the communist regime and the subsequent release of several photographs of her atop a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun used against American air crews earned her the nickname “Hanoi Jane.” As a result of her visit to Hanoi and the accompanying photographs, many Americans continue to regard Fonda with general resentment and hostility to this day.
Visited Sweden in September 2006 to support political party FI (Feministic Initiative) in the national election. FI focuses on issues that will benefit women and is led by the previous leader of Sweden’s communist party. Coincidentally, “fi” is also the Swedish military abbreviation for “enemy.”
Good friends with Catherine Schneider.
Was born double-jointed.
Turned down the role of Bonnie Parker, then played by Faye Dunaway, in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Living in France at the time, she did not want to relocate to the United States for the part.
In 1984, her wealth, generated from acting, producing, and fitness videos was estimated at $50 million.
Her aerobics video “Jane Fonda’s Workout” sold 17 million copies, making it the bestselling home video ever and an icon of this form of exercises (1982).
Considers They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) was a turning point in her career.
Danced ballet until she broke her foot in her 40s.
She was a close friend of Gregory Peck, and he frequently attended political rallies with her.
Was amongst those considered for the role of Lara Antipova in Doctor Zhivago (1965), but the part ultimately went to Julie Christie.
Nominated for the 2009 Tony Award for Best Performance for a Leading Actress in a Play for “33 Variations.”
Was offered the role of Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), but she turned it down. Louise Fletcher, who went on to win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance, was cast instead.
Recovering from left knee replacement surgery [June 17, 2009].
Claimed, after the Oscar ceremony on April 9, 1979, that the film The Deer Hunter (1978) was a racist film and that it presented the official version of the war in Vietnam.
Passed on the title role in Norma Rae (1979), which earned Sally Field an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Had hip and knee replacements. It is a genetic condition. Both her father and brother also had replacements.
In 1994, Fonda founded G-CAPP, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. The foundation advocates for safe-sex education, provides teens with support personnel before, during, and after childbirth, and runs a network of “Second Chance Homes” that help teenage mothers become self-sufficient by striving to reduce repeat teen pregnancies and providing teen mothers with a safe living environment, support for long-term economic independence, and child development, parenting and life skills.
Grandchildren: Malcolm (born 1999) and Viva (born 2002).
Jane Fonda was the first pick for the role of Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown (1974), which eventually was played by Faye Dunaway. Fonda was wanted by the film’s producer Robert Evans, who was also at the time chief of production at Paramount Pictures, and by director Roman Polanski and Paramount owner Charlie Bluhdorn. After lengthy negotiations, Fonda passed on the role. Evans then contacted Faye Dunaway’s agent Sue Mengers and got her for the rock bottom price of $50,000, telling Mengers — a close friend — that he wanted Dunaway whereas everyone else wanted Fonda. Saying that he had time to intercede before Fonda signed her contract, Mengers got Dunaway to agree to the insulting offer. (Evans had explained to Mengers that after three flops in a row, Faye was a cold property.) After signing Dunaway, he told Mengers that Fonda had actually passed on the role. Mengers slammed down the phone on him. Polanski had not wanted Dunaway as his female lead due to her reputation for being temperamental, which she lived up to on the “Chinatown shoot. She received an Oscar nomination for the role.
Claimed Michael Jackson visited the set of On Golden Pond (1981) in New Hampshire and went skinny-dipping with her [interview with Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003) on December 7, 2011].
Ranked #9 in Men’s Health 100 Hottest Women of All Time (2011).
Her daughter Vanessa Vadim was delivered via forceps. The traumatic birth then resulted in Fonda being diagnosed with post-partum depression.
In the late 1970s she took in a foster daughter, Mary Luana Williams, who had attended at a camp Fonda ran with then-husband Tom Hayden. Mary was the daughter of members of the Black Panther Party, and later reunited with her biological parents.
Gave birth to her 1st child at age 30, a daughter Vanessa Vadim on September 28, 1968. Child’s father is her now ex-1st husband, Roger Vadim.
Gave birth to her 2nd child at age 35, a son Troy O’Donovan Hayden (aka Troy Garity) on July 7, 1973. Child’s father is her now ex-2nd husband, Tom Hayden.
Was taught to play guitar by David Crosby.
Made a fortune launching the first exercise video.
Jane’s appearance in On Golden Pond (1981) with dad Henry Fonda and son Troy Garity marked the only time three generations of Fondas appeared in the same film.
Jane’s appearance with brother Peter Fonda in Spirits of the Dead (1968) marked the only time the siblings worked together in a feature.
Returned to work 3 months after giving birth to her daughter Vanessa Vadim in order to begin filming They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969).
Returned to work 2 years after giving birth to her son Troy Garity in order to begin filming Julia (1977).
Published her autobiography, My Life So Far. [April 2005]
Currently starring in ‘Moises Kaufman”s “33 Variations” on Broadway. [March 2009]
Has signed to do a film (main role) with Jennifer Lopez (aka J. Lo) in Monster-in-Law (2005) – filming starts May 2004. [August 2003]
She and Jodie Foster are the two actresses with the initials ‘J.F.’ who each won, two Academy Awards for Best Actress.
Louis Malle originally planned to direct Pretty Baby (1978), a film about photographer E.J. Bellocq, with Fonda and Jodie Foster to play the roles of “Hattie” and “Violet” respectively. In the end, both actresses were unavailable due to scheduling conflicts, and the roles of “Hattie” and “Violet” went instead to Susan Sarandon and Brooke Shields respectively.
While writing the movie that eventually became Contact (1997), both Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan originally envisioned Fonda in the role of Dr. Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway.

Personal quote: “I, a Socialist, think we should strive toward a Socialist society, all the way to Communism.
“If you understood what Communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that one day we would become Communist.” (Speaking to students at the University of Michigan in 1970)”