He Was A Bad Boy
When Peter Fonda hit the big screen riding a motorcycle in Easy Rider, he changed the way Americans looked at their heroes. He was irresponsible, immoral, and looked really good in sunglasses. But sustaining a bad boy image is hard, and Fonda soon lost himself in forgettable action movies. Then one film changed everything.
Easy Rider (1969), Columbia Pictures
1. There Was Trouble At Home
Peter Fonda was born in New York City on February 23, 1940. Dad was the Academy Award-winning actor, Henry Fonda, and Mom was Frances Ford Seymour, a socialite originally from Canada. Seymour had had a very troubled youth, and the victimization she suffered at home had led to a brutal series of terminated pregnancies.
Sadly, Seymour was unable to be a stable mother to her children.
2. He Lost His Mom
Fonda’s mother ended up at a sanitarium, and, one day, Dad told the kids that their mother had passed. The cause was a heart attack. Life quickly went back to normal. Maybe a little too normal. Peter Fonda noticed that no one talked about his mom and, worse still, no one seemed to miss her. He and his sister Jane didn’t attend a funeral, and had no idea where Dad had buried her.
The aftermath was devastating.
3. He Missed Her Terribly
Peter Fonda was too young to process his mother’s loss—especially since the rest of his family had seemed to move on so quickly, without really talking in depth about what had happened. The year after, when Christmas rolled around, this became apparent when Fonda made a heartbreaking gesture. He arranged presents and a letter to his mother on a chair, expecting her to show up and spend the holiday with her family.
It would take many years, but as we’ll see, Fonda would one day find out the disturbing truth.
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4. He Hit The Big Screen
After high school, Fonda distracted himself from his family troubles by throwing himself into his career. He began acting on Broadway and on TV, and then he got a part in a movie. This was the light-hearted comedy Tammy and the Doctor, where he played opposite the very popular Sandra Dee. Critics said that Fonda resembled James Stewart in that they were both tall and had boy-next-door looks. Coincidentally, Stewart was a good friend of Fonda’s dad.
Doing a light comedy seemed easy for Fonda. Next, he'd have to prove himself in something much heavier.
5. He Stood Out
In the gritty WWII film The Victors, Peter Fonda was just a small fish among the all-star cast, including names like Albert Finney and Jeanne Moreau. It was going to be hard for Fonda to stand out, but stand out he did. He was the only actor up for an award. He took home the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.
The world was Fonda’s oyster.
6. It Was Too Close To Home
After some more TV work, Peter Fonda got a big break. Director Robert Rossen was making a film called Lilith, but this was going to be tough on Fonda’s emotions. You see, this film is set in a mental institution and involves a patient dying. It sounds a little too close to Fonda’s mother’s real-life tragedy. Fonda made it through the shoot, but the film did not get great reviews.
Next he’d meet up with someone just like him: another son of an icon.
7. He Got Chosen
Samuel Goldwyn Jr was a celebrated movie producer and the son of Hollywood mogul Samuel Goldwyn. He only directed one film in his career, and he wanted Peter Fonda for the lead role. The film was The Young Lovers, and it deals with a pregnancy outside of marriage. While this film didn't do much with critics or audiences, it changed Fonda’s career forever.
Underwood & Underwood, Wikimedia Commons
8. He Was A Contrast
Because Fonda’s dad was a big star, and the director’s father was a Hollywood icon, people saw The Young Lovers as a contrast to old Hollywood. It was something new and maybe a little bit dangerous. Some called it counterculture. What Fonda could call it was a path to instant fame.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
9. He Was A Dropout
In those days, leading men presented themselves as responsible and upstanding—or at least, they tried to, much like Peter Fonda’s father, Henry Fonda. The new generation of actors were more like dropouts. They had long hair and experimented with illicit substances.
This was a breath of fresh air—except no one in Hollywood was ready to hire this new breed of actor. Fonda had to go elsewhere.
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10. He Made Some Famous Friends
With no acting jobs coming his way, Fonda started hanging out with musicians. He found his way to the Beatles, who were living in Benedict Canyon, LA. While in an altered state, Fonda told John Lennon that he knew what it was like to be among the non-living.
And then he told him the shocking reasons why.
Tony Barnard, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
11. He Inspired A Song
Back when he was just 11 years old, Peter Fonda had shot himself. This was an accident while he was skeet shooting. He told Lennon and George Harrison about the incident, and they incorporated it into their song "She Said She Said”. They used “she” instead of “he” to hide Fonda’s identity.
Fonda was associating himself with the counterculture movement, and there would be some consequences.
12. He Was On the Wrong Side Of The Law
In 1966, officers found that Peter Fonda was in possession of marijuana. Luckily for Fonda, a judge acquitted him of the charge a few months later. That same year, Fonda got in trouble with authorities for joining a riot. They were fighting against curfew laws on the Sunset Strip in LA. On that night, Fonda ended up in handcuffs.
The world was seeing what kind of man Fonda was. Maybe they were ready to see him in a different kind of movie.
13. He Took A Smaller Role
Because the big Hollywood studios were not ready to make counterculture films, smaller independent projects began tackling the topics no bigwig would touch. Cult director Roger Corman was making the motorcycle drama The Wild Angels, and he wanted Fonda in a smaller role.
Then, a surprising twist pushed Fonda from supporting actor to the lead role.
14. He Took The Lead
The lead actor of The Wild Angels had to be a tough guy. The planned star, George Chakiris, certainly fit the bill except for one thing: he couldn’t ride a motorcycle. Fonda had that skill, and so he moved up to the starring role. The Wild Angels was a kind of film that most moviegoers had never seen before.
Fonda’s career depended on their reaction.
CBS Television, Wikimedia Commons
15. They Called Him An Amateur
The Wild Angels did very well at the box office, but some critics were not on board. They called it “an embarrassment” and one called Fonda’s acting “amateurish”. The US State Department also became involved. It did what it could to stop the film from screening at the Venice Film Festival because it didn't show America at its best.
Fonda was a bona fide counterculture hero—and as it turns out, he was just getting started.
The Wild Angels (1966), American International Pictures
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16. He Went Out On A Limb
People were starting to associate Peter Fonda with psychedelics, and he certainly wasn't the only one. Roger Corman had enlisted rising star Jack Nicholson to write a screenplay about using acid, and he knew Fonda would be able to play the role with credibility. The result was 1967’s The Trip. Fonda was taking a chance participating in a film that depicted illicit substance use without the usual punishment attached.
This was the kind of thing that can end a career.
Screenshot from The Trip, American International Pictures (1967)
17. He Made Money
Roger Corman made The Trip for just $300,000, and it grossed a whopping $6 million. Of course, critics were torn about this very different kind of film. What this meant for Peter Fonda was that his name would forever have an association with psychedelics. But it also showed the entertainment world that these counterculture films could actually make money.
He was a rising star, and he was ready to travel.
Unknown author, Wikimedia Commons
18. He Joined Forces With His Sister
While Peter Fonda was making a name for himself in Hollywood, his sister Jane was doing the same. Their fame came together in Italy, where Jane was making a movie with her then-husband, Roger Vadim. The film was Spirits of the Dead, and it was an artsy horror anthology based on the stories of Edgar Alan Poe.
The role for these siblings was a little creepy.
Screenshit from Spirits of the Dead, Les Films Marceau (1968)
19. They Played Cousins
In this film, Peter Fonda plays Baron Wilhelm Berlifizing, and Jane Fonda plays his cousin. Jane’s character is a wild woman, and she falls for her own cousin. Yuck. Making things even more bizarre is the fact that the actors playing the roles were siblings. The critical reception to this morally challenged film was a resounding…meh.
But Fonda wasn’t wasting his time. Not one bit.
Screenshot from Spirits of the Dead, Les Films Marceau (1968)
20. He Had Time To Write
Fonda’s role in the film with his sister was small, so he had free time on his hands. He spent that time working on a script that he said was like a “modern Western”. While working on the script, he met up with his brother-in-law’s associate Terry Southern, who was one of the writers on Barbarella, which starred Jane and was directed by Roger Vadim.
Fonda showed his unfinished script to Southern and waited for his opinion.
Associated Press, Wikimedia Commons
21. His Film Became A Classic
Southern showed some interest, but Fonda was sure he couldn’t afford to pay him for his help. Southern simply told Fonda, “I’m your man”. It was a good thing, as the script they were working on soon became the cult classic Easy Rider. Fonda quickly brought on Jack Nicholson to support and Dennis Hopper to direct. These guys were out to break every rule in Hollywood.
And they were going to have a blast doing it.
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22. He Broke The Rules
The first Hollywood rule Fonda broke was about the script. The truth was, he didn’t really have one. He also decided they didn’t need a film crew. Instead, they used friends, random strangers and hippies to do the crew work. The final broken rule was a doozy. Many of the actors were high or inebriated while working on the film.
Making Easy Rider was absolute chaos, and it was also dangerous.
23. He Got Squeezed
The motorcycle Peter Fonda rides in Easy Rider was heavily modified, and because of this, a little tricky to ride. When Nicholson got on the back with Fonda, he was very scared. Nicholson was so afraid that he squeezed his legs around Fonda’s midsection. In fact, he squeezed so hard he broke one of Fonda’s ribs.
But there was no shortage of fun on this set as well.
Easy Rider (1969), Columbia Pictures
24. He Got Caught In Bed
While filming Easy Rider, a fight erupted between Hopper and one of the cameramen at the motel where they were all staying. The fight was getting out of control, and it eventually broke into the next room. To the fighters’ surprise, there was Peter Fonda. But that wasn’t all. He was in bed with costars Karen Black and Toni Basil.
But Easy Rider was not all fun and games. Fonda had to face a childhood trauma to get a scene right.
Easy Rider (1969), Columbia Pictures
25. He Spoke To His Mom
In one scene, Hopper was trying to get the best performance out of Fonda. He told Fonda to speak like he was speaking to his mother. Fonda was hesitant because he had never fully dealt with his mother’s loss. When he agreed, Fonda made the mistake of saying the word “mother” during his monologue. And it’s still in the film.
Of course, Fonda must have been curious to see what people would think of this very un-Hollywood movie.
Easy Rider (1969), Columbia Pictures
26. He Showed It To Dad First
Peter Fonda had the idea to show Easy Rider to his father before anyone else. His dad was certainly a symbol of old Hollywood, and his opinion would be worthwhile. Henry Fonda sat his son down and told him that Easy Rider was “inaccessible” and that he “didn’t think many people would get it”.
Fonda must have been in shock. Had he really wasted his time and money on a bad movie?
Easy Rider (1969), Columbia Pictures
27. It Broke A Record
On its opening night, Easy Rider broke the house record at the Beekman Theater in NYC. By the 14th week, it was the highest-grossing film in the US and stayed there for three more weeks. The budget of the film was under $400,000 and the box office totaled out at about $60 million. Fonda’s dad had been wrong. Easy Rider was an unqualified hit.
Now Fonda could choose any project he wanted. Sadly, he messed up big time.
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28. He Didn’t Want To Do Romance
In 1970, director Arthur Hiller was looking for a leading man for his romance movie Love Story. Ali McGraw was already on board, and finding a leading man was turning out to be difficult. Among the many actors who refused were Michael Douglas, Jon Voight and both Beau and Jeff Bridges. Even though they offered him 10% of the box office, Fonda said no.
This may not have been the best decision.
Screenshot from Love Story, Paramount Pictures (1970)
29. He Lost A Fortune
The male lead in Love Story ended up in the hands of Ryan O’Neal, and the movie was a huge hit and money maker. The budget was just over $2 million, and the box office reached over $170 million. Let’s just say, if Fonda’s goal was getting rich, he’d made the wrong decision.
Instead, Fonda stayed true to his counterculture cred. But the results were dismal.
Screenshot from Love Story, Paramount Pictures (1970)
30. He Was In A Dud
Fonda’s first movie after Easy Rider had him working with Dennis Hopper again. After all, look at what Easy Rider had become. Sadly, The Last Movie would not achieve the same success. In fact, it would almost be Hopper’s literal last movie, as he exiled himself from Hollywood for years after the disappointment.
After seeing Hopper fail miserably—and a brutal falling out between the two collaborators—Fonda decided to put himself in the director’s chair.
31. He Got Angry
Fonda’s first try at directing was the western The Hired Hand. Fonda also stars in this film, and Universal Pictures was ready to cash in on Fonda’s fame. They planned to construct a huge billboard on Sunset Blvd that would show a shirtless Fonda with a pistol in his jeans. The caption on the billboard would read: “That Easy Rider Rides Again”. Fonda threatened to remove the billboard with explosives if it went up.
As it turned out, the billboard was exactly what this film needed.
Screenshot from The Hired Hand, Universal Pictures (1971)
32. He Was Surprised By Success
After a few more failures, including The Hired Hand, it was starting to look like Easy Rider had been a one-hit wonder. Regardless, Fonda soldiered on, and his next film was called Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. This is a road movie that Fonda didn’t think would become a hit film. When he found out that some audience members were seeing it more than once, he was completely surprised.
There was an eerie coincidence in this film.
Screenshot from Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, 20th Century Fox (1974)
33. It Was A Dark Omen
One of Fonda’s costars in Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry was Vic Morrow, who was terrified of helicopters. The only thing that could get Morrow in a helicopter was a $1 million life insurance policy. Morrow survived the helicopter scene in this film—but tragically perished years later in a helicopter accident on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
Strangely, Fonda and Morrow’s respective daughters would later meet up as the two leads in 1992’s thriller Single White Female. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry sent Fonda’s career in a different direction.
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34. He Faded Away
With the success of Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, Peter Fonda embarked on a career away from counterculture. He was now a big action movie draw. What followed for Fonda was two decades of mostly action movies. Sadly, a lot of them were forgettable. It looked as though Fonda was going to fade into mediocrity—and then something surprising happened.
35. He Found A Connection
Writer/director Victor Nunez was looking around for a leading man. Nick Nolte had already turned him down, and he approached Fonda. The film he was working on was Ulee’s Gold, and there was something about the story of a lonely beekeeper that Fonda connected to.
It took him back to his family.
36. He Found The Role Of A Lifetime
As Peter Fonda read the script for Ulee’s Gold, he started making connections to his father. Henry Fonda had also taken up beekeeping, and Fonda started to channel his father for the character of Ulee. Fonda also found the complexity of the character attractive. He even said it was the kind of character an actor would pay to play.
Ulee’s Gold was a huge departure for Fonda. He had to risk it all on this film.
37. He Struck Gold
Ulee’s Gold was a critical darling, and Fonda’s performance received great praise. It also did well at the box office, earning a very respectable $9 million. When awards season came around, the film received one Academy Award nomination. It was for Best Actor for Fonda.
This was the kind of thing that could ignite a faltering career.
38. It Was Time For A Change
While Fonda did not take the Academy Award home—he lost to his buddy Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets—he did take home a Golden Globe. This was a turning point for Fonda. He could say goodbye to the crazy action movies of the past decades. It was time to get serious about acting.
And he got as serious as he could.
39. He Couldn’t Get his Tongue Around The Words
Now that he was a serious actor, Fonda decided to go full-on dramatic with the king of drama: William Shakespeare. The TV movie The Tempest, directed by Jack Bender, changes the setting of the Bard’s play into a time when America was battling within itself. Sadly, it received mostly negative reviews, with one critic noting that Fonda was not "comfortable with a language”.
No matter, there was still a lot of other high-brow material for Fonda to work on.
BatyrAshirbayev98, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
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40. He Took Home His Second
In 1999, Peter Fonda appeared again on television as philosopher Ayn Rand’s husband in The Passion of Ayn Rand. Fonda was among some big stars like Helen Mirren and Eric Stoltz. While the reception of the film was only so-so, Fonda walked away with his second Golden Globe win. Fonda was approaching 60, and some saw him as a Hollywood icon.
Fonda’s sister Jane also had her pop culture moment, and it dragged Fonda in as well.
Everett Collection, Shutterstock
41. He Was A Protective Brother
In the 1980s, those in favor of nuclear power were getting angry at Jane Fonda for her anti-nuclear stance. Haters of Jane created signs that read: “Feed Jane Fonda to the Whales”. Ever the protective brother, when Peter Fonda saw one of the signs at a Denver airport, he began to destroy it with his pocketknife. He missed his flight and ended up in court.
He also had a chance to give his dad some much-needed help.
Getty Images42. He Gave Dad A Helping Hand
Back in 1979, Peter Fonda received a call from his dad saying that he was out of work. As it turned out, Fonda was in the middle of directing a film. He hired his dad and paid him $1,000 for just one day of work. He also employed his co-star’s relative: Brooke Shields’ mom, Teri.
But there was something very creepy about this film.
43. She Was Too Young
In Wanda Nevada, Brooke Shields plays Fonda’s love interest. At the time of filming, Fonda was 38—and Shields was just 13 years old. Shields had already played the love interest of an older man. In Pretty Baby, she was with Keith Carradine and also did a scene sans clothing. The controversial addition of Shields did nothing to help this film. It was a financial and critical failure.
But Fonda had interests outside of movies. He wanted to save the world.
Screenshot from Pretty Baby, Paramount Pictures (1978)
44. He Criticized An Oil Company
Peter Fonda continued to make movies up until the end of his life, but he was also political. In 2011, he joined with Tim Robbins to make The Big Fix, where he blamed BP for an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While making this film, Fonda interviewed Omar Mateen, who would later gain infamy as the perpetrator of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida.
45. He Kept It Quiet
Over his lifetime, Peter Fonda had three wives. All three of his marriages—and any other relationship he may have had—seemed to somehow stay under the radar. We do know that he had two children with his first wife, Susan Brewer, and a stepson from her as well. Two of his children, Bridget and Justin Fonda, have followed in Dad’s footsteps.
While Jane Fonda may have been older, she would sadly outlive her baby brother.
Photographer not credited, Wikimedia Commons
46. He Was With His Sister At The End
In August of 2019, Peter Fonda passed at home with his sister Jane after a battle with lung cancer. Jane Fonda later said: "I am very sad. He was my sweet-hearted baby brother. The talker of the family. I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. He went out laughing”.
Fonda left behind an incredible legacy, being an integral part of the shift from the so-called “Golden Age of Hollywood” to a new and groundbreaking style of filmmaking that may just have saved the industry. He also left behind a rocky history full of heartbreak and scandal.
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47. He Met A Stranger
Peter Fonda was devastated by the death of his mother in 1950. In the years after this tragic loss, however, Fonda’s grief transformed into a profound sense of betrayal. He discovered that his father had kept a heartbreaking secret from everyone about that fateful day. In 1960, Fonda had been apprenticing in summer stock theater when he went to a diner in Fishkill, New York.
That’s when the owner of the diner, for whatever reason, decided it was time that Fonda knew the truth about his mother. He pulled out his wallet and changed Fonda’s life forever.
48. He Found Out The Truth
The owner of the diner had a newspaper clipping in his wallet, and it was a story about Fonda’s mother. It contained the truth about her dark end. While she was at the sanitarium, she’d taken her own life. Peter’s father Henry had lied about the heart attack. It was a lot for a young man of 20 to take in.
49. They Had A Falling Out
When Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper made their legendary film Easy Rider, the two young rebels were inseparable. Yet after tensions in their relationship caused a bitter falling out, Hopper was so vengeful that he actually barred Fonda from attending his own funeral while lying on his deathbed.
Loyal to the very end, Fonda went anyway. He walked right up to the chapel door and begged Hopper’s family for one final goodbye—but their response was chilling.
50. He Got Turned Away
Not only did Hopper’s family tell Fonda that they weren’t going to let him in—they said that Hopper had specifically made arrangements barring Fonda and anyone associated with the making of Easy Rider from his funeral. On top of all that, according to Fonda, the reason for the feud was surprisingly petty.
51. It Was All About Money
Hopper's biggest reasons for the decades-long grudge were tragically petty. According to an interview Fonda gave in 2014, it was all because Hopper thought he got a raw deal when it came to doling out the Easy Rider money and getting proper credit as a screenwriter on the film. Fonda explained, "I just think that he was so caught up in his own megalomania".
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Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
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