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This remarkable, soft-spoken American began in films as a diffident juvenile. With passing years, he matured into a star character actor who exemplified not only integrity and strength, but an ideal of the common man fighting against social injustice and oppression. He was born in Grand Island, Hall, Nebraska, the son of Herberta Elma (Jaynes) and William Brace Fonda, who was a commercial printer, and proprietor of the W. B. Fonda Printing Company in Omaha, Nebraska. His distant ancestors were Italians who had fled their country and moved to Holland, presumably because of political or religious persecution. In the mid-1600s, they crossed the Atlantic and settled in upstate New York where they founded a community with the Fonda name.

Growing up, Henry developed an early interest in journalism after having a story published in a local newspaper. At the age of twelve, he helped in his father's printing business for $2 a week. Following graduation from high school in 1923, he got a part-time job in Minneapolis with the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company which allowed him at first to pursue journalistic studies at the University of Minnesota. As it became difficult to juggle his working hours with his academic roster, he obtained another position as a physical education instructor at $30 a week, including room and board. By this time, he had grown to a height of six foot one and was a natural for basketball.

In 1925, having returned to Omaha, Henry reevaluated his options and came to the conclusion that journalism was not his forte, after all. For a while, he tried his hand at several temporary jobs, including as a mechanic and a window dresser. Then, despite opposition from his parents, Henry accepted an offer from Gregory Foley, director of the Omaha Playhouse, to play the title role in 'Merton of the Movies'. His father would not speak to him for a month. The play and its star received fairly good notices in the local press. It ran for a week, after which Henry observed "the idea of being Merton and not myself taught me that I could hide behind a mask". For the rest of the repertory season, Henry advanced to assistant director which enabled him to design and paint sets as well as act. A casual trip to New York, however, had already made him set his sights on Broadway.

In 1928, he headed east and briefly played in summer stock before joining the University Players, a group of talented Princeton and Harvard graduates among whose number were such future luminaries as James Stewart (who would remain his closest lifelong friend), Joshua Logan and Kent Smith. Before long, Henry played leads opposite Margaret Sullavan, soon to become the first of his five wives. Both marriage and the players broke up four years later. In 1932, Henry found himself sharing a two-room New York apartment with Jimmy Stewart and Joshua Logan. For the next two years, he alternated scenic design with acting at various repertory companies. In 1934, he got a break of sorts, when he was given the chance to present a comedy sketch with Imogene Coca in the Broadway revue New Faces. That year, he also hired Leland Hayward as his personal management agent and this was to pay off handsomely.

It was Hayward who persuaded the 29-year old to become a motion picture actor, despite initial misgivings and reluctance on Henry's part. Independent producer Walter Wanger, whose growing stock company was birthed at United Artists, needed a star for The Farmer Takes a Wife (1935). With both first choice actors Gary Cooper and Joel McCrea otherwise engaged, Henry was the next available option. After all, he had just completed a successful run on Broadway in the stage version. The cheesy publicity tag line for the picture was "you'll be fonder of Fonda", but the film was an undeniable hit. Wanger, realizing he had a good thing going, next cast Henry in a succession of A-grade pictures which capitalized on his image as the sincere, unaffected country boy. Pick of the bunch were the Technicolor outdoor western The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), the gritty Depression-era drama You Only Live Once (1937) (with Henry as a back-to-the-wall good guy forced into becoming a fugitive from the law by circumstance), the screwball comedy The Moon's Our Home (1936) (with ex-wife Sullavan), the excellent pre-civil war-era romantic drama Jezebel (1938) and the equally superb Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), in which Henry gave his best screen performance to date as the 'jackleg lawyer from Springfield'. Henry made two more films with director John Ford: the pioneering drama Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940), with Henry as Tom Joad, often regarded his career-defining role as the archetypal grassroots American trying to stand up against oppression. It also set the tone for his subsequent career. Whether he played a lawman (Wyatt Earp in My Darling Clementine (1946)), a reluctant posse member (The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), a juror committed to the ideal of total justice in (12 Angry Men (1957)) or a nightclub musician wrongly accused of murder (The Wrong Man (1956)), his characters were alike in projecting integrity and quiet authority. In this vein, he also gave a totally convincing (though historically inaccurate) portrayal in the titular role of The Return of Frank James (1940), a rare example of a sequel improving upon the original.

Henry rarely featured in comedy, except for a couple of good turns opposite Barbara Stanwyck -- with whom he shared an excellent on-screen chemistry -- in The Mad Miss Manton (1938) and The Lady Eve (1941). He was also good value as a poker-playing grifter in the western comedy A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966). Finally, just to confound those who would typecast him, he gave a chilling performance as one of the coldest, meanest stone killers ever to roam the West, in Sergio Leone's classic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Illness curtailed his work in the 1970s. His final screen role was as an octogenarian in On Golden Pond (1981), in which he was joined by his daughter Jane. It finally won him an Oscar on the heels of an earlier Honorary Academy Award. Too ill to attend the ceremony, he died soon after at the age of 77, having left a lasting legacy matched by few of his peers.

Guy Busick was born on 1 November 1975 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for Ready or Not (2019), Scream (2022) and Abigail (2024).

Davey Johnson was born on 8 December 1978 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for The Art of Self-Defense (2019), Father Stu (2022) and Gabby! (2020).

Holly Lewis was born on December 26, 1965 in Grand Island, Nebraska. The daughter of Cortez and Rita Lewis, Holly grew up in Litchfield, Nebraska participating in such activities as speech, drama, and athletics. Lewis won the outstanding performer in a Nebraska State one-act play production in 1983. After graduating from Arizona University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Holly moved to San Francisco, California to work in commodity brokering. Lewis eventually quit that particular job and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a more fulfilling career as both an actress and a film producer. Besides acting in an assortment of movies and television shows, Holly also acted in TV commercials for Prilosec (as an obsessed football fan character who was subsequently featured in numerous print ads), Dave's Place, and American Express. In addition, Lewis wrote and produced as well as starred in the short film Oscar (2004) in collaboration with her husband Raider Rhotenacher. In her spare time Holly enjoyed taking daily strolls and climbing mountains (she scaled twelve out of thirteen of the highest peaks in Southern California including Mt. Whitney, which is the highest mountain in forty-eight contiguous states). Lewis died at the tragically young age of forty-six at her home in Murdock, Nebraska on June 22, 2012. She was survived by her husband Raider Rhotenacher, parents Cortez and Rita, brother Mark, and sister Lori.

Joe Feeney was born on 14 August 1931 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He was married to Georgia Lee Betty Gryva Feeney. He died on 16 April 2008 in Carlsbad, California, USA.

Bil Baird and his wife Cora Baird, the driving forces behind the Bil & Cora Baird Puppets, were pioneer entertainers in U.S. TV, when commercial television in the States was taking its first baby steps. Much of what early viewers could view on that seven-inch screen, with its eerie, whitish glow in a darkened room where a family gathered round to watch in wonder, had come from radio. But the Bairds' medium - their marionettes - was strictly visual, and the audience was regaled. Their first venture on TV, a 15-minute program called Life with Snarky Parker (1950) was directed by none other than Yul Brynner. They and their puppets went on to star in other shows, and the Bairds were featured performers on CBS's attempt to wrest away some of the audience from NBC's "Today" show with its "The Morning Show" (1954), which initially featured their principal newsman, Walter Cronkite. As well, delineated marvelously by the music of Ukrainian-born composer Sergei Prokofiev, the Baird Puppets provided the visual enhancement for Art Carney's narration of the 1958 ABC-TV special, "Art Carney Meets Peter and the Wolf."

Mary Jane Carey was born on 15 March 1915 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for Border Vengeance (1935), How to Marry a Millionaire (1957) and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952). She was married to Michael Herdan. She died on 11 January 1990 in Pasadena, California, USA.

Gayle Kellogg was born on 16 April 1921 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor, known for Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952), The Loretta Young Show (1953) and Crime Wave (1953). He died on 13 December 1997 in Tarzana, California, USA.

InkMonstarr was born on 18 August 1993 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He was previously married to Helen Chimon.

George Wilson was born in 1927 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. George died on 12 October 2021.

Philip Larson was born on 10 February 1939 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor, known for The Happy Hooker (1975) and Cannon (1971). He died on 29 April 1986 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Tom Rathman was born on 7 October 1962 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He is an actor, known for Deadly Games (1995), NFL Monday Night Football (1970) and The NFL on CBS (1956).

Chad Schlund was born on 24 July 1973 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. Chad is known for Your Lucky Day (2010), Touchy Feely (2013) and Fat Kid Rules the World (2012).

Carl Samuelson was born on 11 April 1923 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor. He died on 17 August 1995 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.

Stefan Wiese was born on 14 September 1972 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA.

Tom McElhaney was born on 11 November 1898 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor, known for Lux Video Theatre (1950), Shadow of the Cloak (1951) and Lights Out (1946). He died on 19 November 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

T.J. Roe was born on 11 May 1980 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He is an actor, known for Outpost Doom (2009), Chills Down Your Spine (2020) and Silent Night, Zombie Night (2009).

Brittany Jo Robertson was born on September 24, 1993 in Grand Island, Nebraska. She acted in plays and did speech in high school, where she found a love of acting. She attended a four-year college after graduating high school in 2012, and obtained a Bachelor of Science in English Creative Writing and a minor in Art. She hopes to become a published author.

George Baird was born on 5 March 1907 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He is an actor, known for Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958).

Betty Laird was born on 19 December 1925 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991), Skylark (1993) and Sarah, Plain & Tall: Winter's End (1999). She was married to Roy D. Laird. She died on 5 November 2024 in Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

Benise was born on 10 January 1965 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for His Name Is Bobby (2005), Benise: Nights of Fire (2005) and Benise: Fuego! Spirit of Spain (2018).

Corinne Opsahl was born on 7 February 1925 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for Hawaii Five-O (1968). She died on 29 August 1999 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

Colton Samuel Hough was born on 18 October 1995 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA.

Robert Kister was born on 5 April 1964 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. He is an actor, known for The Grand Horror (2006).

William Seaman was born on 19 January 1925 in Grand Island, Nebraska, USA. William is known for Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992). William died on 6 December 1997 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.