Jane Fonda: The sex symbol, aerobics, “Mr. CNN” and the comeback

Her transformations in her personal life, but also in the cinema, could also be described as Ovidian, but they certainly had a common element, passion, an unprecedented drive. THE Jane Fonda, who happily turns 85 (born on December 21, 1937), in the beginning she had it all as she possessed beauty, charm, sparkle in the lens, a fighting personality, the luck to fall into the hands of excellent directors, but also one of the heaviest names in the field of show biz. Her father Henry Fondawas one of the biggest stars of Hollywood’s golden age, but also one of the most important and influential American actors of all time, while her brother Peter Fondathe most “naughty” child in the family, had his own remarkable career in cinema.

Jane’s transformations
Jane Fonda, came to the fore as a model, quickly became a love symbol, achieved artistic success by making great films, fell headlong into politics and went to extremes as a defender of the North Vietnamese, in the Vietnam War, characterized and “Hanoi Jane». Then, she turned it all upside down, making aerobics and… 45s, earning millions of dollars, crossed over to the other side, with a spectacular wedding, with “Mr. CNN», Ted Turner, whom she divorced and in her old age returned to a more conventional activism, for the environment, democracy, women’s emancipation, human rights. And of course, having to manage a career that spans six decades, it is full of honors and awards (two Oscars, numerous Golden Globes, etc.) and several memorable performances in great films that marked eras.

The blue-blooded mother and suicide

She was born in New York in 1937, to Frances Ford Seymour, a distant descendant of Jane Seymour, who was the third wife of England’s King Henry IV and Henry Fonda, when the leading actor was making his way into the movie studios. Sadly, her mentally challenged mother committed suicide when Jane was 13, and her father remarried Susan Blanchard.

Love symbol and Actor’s Studio

In her youth, Fonda worked as a model, even making two covers of Vogue, while at 17, her heart began to beat for acting, when she appeared alongside her father, in Clifford Odets’ play “The Country Girl”. Graduating from the prestigious Vassar College, she traveled to Paris, where she studied art history, for two years and returned to the US to meet pioneering acting teacher Lee Strasberg of the Actor’s Studio, who encouraged her to pursue acting. Thus, in 1960 she will make her debut on the stage, while in the same year she will appear in her first film alongside Anthony Perkins in the comedy “Women Go Crazy for Tall”. Some interesting films would follow, including “Marriage on Trial” for which she received her first Golden Globe nomination.

Rose and “Barbarella”

In 1965, however, he will enter the avenue of stars starring in the western “The Listarchina”, alongside an unlikely Lee Marvin (Oscar for A’ Male Role), a film that was loved by the young audience. Soon after, Fonda married French director and heartthrob Roger Vadim, who had made up the name of his first wife Brigitte Bardot. In 1968 and while France was boiling, Vadim will shoot the cult fantasy film “Barbarella” with which Fonda established herself as a sex symbol. In the same year, she will have her first child, Vanessa Vadim, while at the same time as a mother, she will also begin to be introduced to politics and mature in acting. However, her relationship with Vadim also had periods of pain, as in front of him she felt at a disadvantage and with the fear of losing him she accepted his romantic desires, even her participation in sexual extremes…

Oscar and Vietnam

Artistically, however, Fonda had already hit the ground running, making major films such as Arthur Penn’s classic dramas The Chase, with Marlon Brando and Robert Redford, and Barefoot in the Park, a huge commercial success, alongside and Redford again. In 1969, she will shoot the sensational drama “They Kill Horses When They Are Old”, while in 1971, the first Oscar for Best Actress will come, in Alan Pakula’s wonderful thriller “The Disappearance”, with the amazing Donald Sutherland next to her.

On Oscar night, Jane Fonda received tepid applause as she began to annoy ultra-conservative Hollywood with her vocal opposition to the “dirty war” in Vietnam. In 1972, she will even visit North Vietnam, be photographed with fighters, make ten radio broadcasts calling the highest officials of the American military war criminals and be targeted, primarily by the press who call her “Hanoi Jane”.

Watergate

The sequel will not be so pleasant for Fonda, as her political views will be distorted, and she will also divorce Vadim in 1973, to marry the activist Tom Hayden, with whom she had a son, Tom. It would take the political rot being exposed with the Watergate scandal and the delightful 1977 High Society Goldfingers to come back into the limelight. Immediately after, she will shoot the dramatic “Julia” directed by the great Fred Chineman, a film based on the novel by Lillian Hellman, in which she played the woman who crossed the whole of Hitler’s Germany, transferring money to the communist fight against Hitler. She will be nominated for an Oscar, but will lose to Diane Keaton of “Nervous Lover”. The following year, she will be honored by the Academy, starring, along with Yot Voight, in the excellent film “The Turn”, with which she will win the second Oscar of her career.

The Aerobic Syndrome

And where everyone thought he would continue this crescendo of success, since he will shoot the excellent ecological thriller “The China Syndrome”, alongside Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas, and the tender drama “On Golden Lake”, playing alongside her father, for the one and only time, receiving yet another nomination for an Oscar, will make an incredible turn by marketing with enormous, admittedly successful, aerobic exercise, which he made fashionable, with her videotapes.

Turner’s marriage and absence

A turn, which will go even further, creating anarchies for her fans and those who adored her for her political action, with the wedding of the decade. She will marry in 1991 Ted Turner, the wealthy founder and owner of CNN, with whom they will remain together for a decade, while she will retire from the sets, until they divorce in 2001. Having lost her political prestige, she will return to the cinema at the beginning of the new millennium, mainly acting in indifferent films, having added several millions to her account and even more facial plastics.

The return and the legacy

In the next decade, politics will reawaken within her and she will mobilize for the Palestinian issue, the war in Iraq, women’s rights, the environment, while she will also be handcuffed three or four times, for her participation in protests and stressing that “she must to leave social media and take to the streets.” However, her voice has probably lost its dynamism, as the beautiful rebellious girl, today looks more like a “capricious” old lady. However, you can hardly forget her wonderful understated performances, the expressiveness of her eyes, her body pulsing with passion, all that the great Henry Fonda left her as a legacy.

RES-EMP

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