The Michigan Daily-Friday, August 13, 1982-Page 9
An American legend dies
LOS ANGELES (AP)- Actor Henry Fonda, who
for half a century captured the essence of the gentle
but strong American hero, died yesterday after a
long battle against heart disease. He was 77.
Fonda, who appeared in more than 80 movies, in-
cluding The Grapes of Wrath, Twelve Angry Men and
Mister Roberts, but won his first acting Oscar only
this year for On Golden Pond, died at 7:55 a.m. PDT
at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
From the beginning of his career, Fonda was one of.
the most versatile of screen performers, his lanky
frame and matter-of-fact Midwestern speech fittinga
wide range of roles-from the tragic, searching Abe
Lincoln in Young Mr. Lincoln to the light comedy of
The Lady Eve and The Male Animal.
Fonda's wife of 16 years, Shirlee, was at his side
when he died. Daughter Jane Fonda and son Peter
Fonda were en route to the hospital at the time of
death.
A family spokesman, Gary Springer, said there
would be no funeral. He said the body would be
cremated "as per Mr. Fonda's wishes."
Fonda, who had been in failing health for the past
18 months and had worn a heart pacemaker since
1974, entered the hospital for the final time Sunday to
have his heart medication checked after doctors said
his condition had worsened.
, Reaction from his colleagues in the film world
mingled grief and praise.
"Henry Fonda was my oldest and dearest friend,"
said actor James Stewart, who added that he knew
Fonda since 1932. "The world has lost a great talent."
The two men co-starred Firecreek in 1967 and The
Cheyenne Social Club in 1970.
"He was surely one of the best actors America's
produced in this century, and he proved it again and
again, both on the stage and on film," said actor
Charlton Heston, who filmed Midway with Fonda.
"I'm very proud that I had the pleasure of working
with him and knowing him."
Born Henry Jaynes Fonda in Grand Island, Neb. on
May 16, 1905, he grew up in Omaha, where his father
ran a printing plant. When he was 13 or 14, Fonda
witnessed a lynching in Omaha that deeply influen-
ced his commitment to justice.
Later, Fonda made a picture about lynching, The
Ox-Bow Incident, and similar themes carried
through many of his films and stage plays. In Mister
Roberts, he played a Navy cargo officer in World War
II who stood up for his men against a tyrannical cap-
tain. Fonda, himself a Navy officer in the war,
created the 1948 stage role, played in it for two years
on Broadway, then toured for years with the national
road company before making the movie in 1955.
In The Grapes of Wrath, Fonda won his only other
Oscar nomination as Tom Joad, an itinerant
Oklahoman displaced by dust storms and the
Depression into the vineyards of California.
Acting seemed an odd choice for a printer's son,
Eagle Scout, young clerk for Retail Credit and
aspiring journalist.
"But don't you see? It's therapy for me," he said
late in his life. "I loved the theater from the begin-
ning because it gave me a mask. It ain't me playing a
role up there; I'm Tom Joad or Mister Roberts or
Clarence Darrow. I've never been in analysis, and
nobody has ever suggested that I needed to be. I get
all the therapy I need just by playing roles."