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Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an
Academy Award-winning United States|American
actor|actress, model, writer, fitness guru,
producer, and political activist. 

== Biography ==
Jane Fonda was born in New York, New York|New York
City, to actor Henry Fonda and socialite Frances
Brokaw (née Seymour).  She was named after Lady
Jane Seymour, the third wife of Henry VIII of
England|King Henry VIII.

Jane's mother, Frances, was the second of Henry
Fonda's five wives, and was formerly married to
millionaire George Brokaw, the onetime husband of
writer Clare Boothe Luce. After voluntarily
seeking help at an asylum, Frances Fonda committed
suicide in October 1950, when Jane was 12 years
old. In Fonda's 2005 memoir, the actress wrote
that while researching the book, she was granted
access to her mother's psychiatric records and
discovered that her mother had been sexually
molested as a child, a trauma that doubtless
contributed to her later emotional and mental
instabilty.

Her nickname as a youth—Lady Jane—was
one she reportedly disliked. She traveled to
Russia in 1964 and was impressed by the people,
who welcomed her warmly as Henry's daughter.  In
the mid-1960s she bought a farm outside of Paris,
had it renovated and personally started a garden. 
She visited Andy Warhol's Factory in 1966.  About
her 1971 Oscar win, her father Henry said: "How in
hell would you like to have been in this business
as long as I and have one of your kids win an
Oscar before you do?" Jane was on the cover of
Life magazine, March 29, 1968.  

While early she had grown both distant from and
critical of her father for much of her young life,
in 1980, she bought the play "On Golden Pond" for
the purpose of acting alongside her
father—hoping he might win the Oscar that
had eluded him throughout his career. He won, and
when she accepted the Oscar on his behalf, she
said it was "the happiest night of my life." 
Director Roger Vadim once said about her: "Living
with Jane was difficult in the beginning...she had
so many, how do you say, 'bachelor habits.' Too
much organization. Time is her enemy. She cannot
relax. Always there is something to do."  Vadim
also said, "There is also in Jane a basic wish to
carry things to the limit."

In 2005, Fonda published her memoirs, "My Life, So
Far." In it, she candidly examines her life from
early childhood, through her controversial
Opposition to the Vietnam War|anti-Vietnam War
years, through her later life, and marriage to Ted
Turner. She described herself as being affected by
an internalized misogyny, which she said
contributed to her lifelong habit of quickly
conforming to the habits, desires, and ambitions
of the men in her life at the expense of her own
character.

Fonda, who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, describes
herself as a liberal, "feminist Christian."

;See  also #Family members|Family members

== Acting career ==
While growing up she had no acting ambitions, but
she got interested in 1954 when she performed with
her famous father in a charity performance of The
Country Girl, at the Omaha, Nebraska|Omaha
Community Theatre.  As the performance required a
crying scene, in order to stimulate tear|tearing
she reportedly had a stagehand hit|smack her
before she walked onstage. She attended Vassar
College in New York, was introduced to Lee
Strasberg by her father in 1958, and joined his
Actors Studio.  She would later receive an
Honorary Degree from Emerson College in May, 2000.


Her stage work in the late 1950s led to an
impressive film career that only gained momentum
after the 1960s.  She averaged almost two movies a
year throughout the decade, starting in 1960 with
Tall Story, in which Fonda recreated her Broadway
role of a cheery college student opposite gangly
Anthony Perkins. Period of Adjustment, in which
she first appeared as a blonde, and Walk on the
Wild Side, (1962) with Sunday in New York
following a year later. Critics grew quickly
impressed with her. Walk on the Wild Side, in
which Fonda played the young temptress Kitty
Twist, earned her a Golden Globe for Most
Promising Newcomer.
 
In 1962, Newsday called her "the loveliest and
most gifted of all our new young actresses."
Fonda's big-screen breakthrough was in Cat Ballou
(1965), in which she played the sweet title role
that had been offered to Ann Margret but rejected.
The "rootin'-tootin' Western" got five Oscar
nominations, was one of the year's top ten
moneymaking films, and made her a established star
at age 28. After Any Wednesday (1966) and Barefoot
in the Park (1967) with Robert Redford, came the
dazzling Barbarella (1968), which brought her
status as a leading female sex symbol|"sexpot". By
contrast, the grim They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
(1969) showcased her serious acting talent,
bringing her the first of what would be  a total
of seven career Oscar nominations. One more role
for which she was supposedly first choice, but she
didn't take was Rosemary in Rosemary's Baby, in a
part that would be played by Mia Farrow.
She eventually won her first Academy Award for
Best Actress in 1971 for Klute, and yet another
win in 1978 for Coming Home.

After her activism in opposition of the
controversial Vietnam War, many believed Fonda's
acting career was in sharp decline. A low point
was her brief role in the disastrously
unsuccessful The Blue Bird, but Fonda had an
unexpected comeback with the 1976 comedy Fun With
Dick and Jane. 
Fonda claimed she would only make films which
focused on important issues, and she generally
stuck to her word. Her career soon revived with
popular and successful films such as The China
Syndrome (1979, on nuclear power plants) and the 9
to 5 (1980) in which she played a meek divorcee
reentering the workforce.
Although cast as a supporting actress after the
legendary Katharine Hepburn, On Golden Pond (1982)
brought Fonda a degree of success and personal
satisfaction. She had long wanted to work with her
father, Henry, hoping it would help their
sometimes strained relationship. On Golden Pond
brought Henry Fonda his first Academy Award, which
Jane accepted on his behalf, as he was ill and
homebound. He died several months later.

Her acting career waning, Fonda continued to make
sporadic film appearances until 1990, when she
stopped acting altogether. In the public view,
this period of her life was most notable for her
workout videos and her much-publicized and turbid
marriage to CNN founder Ted Turner.
Her most recent film was "Monster-in-Law" (2005),
a comedy costarring Jennifer Lopez and Wanda
Sykes.

== Political activism ==
Fonda became involved in political activism during
the time of the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Reforms
and significant rebellion against the
"Establishment."  Her activism and philanthropy in
anti-war|opposition to the Opposition to the
Vietnam War|Vietnam War, as well as perceived
support of the North Vietnamese, made her infamous
among pro-war and pro-military Americans.

Fonda and other celebrities were supporters of the
Alcatraz Island occupation in 1969, which was
intended to call attention to Native American
issues.

She likewise supported Huey Newton and the Black
Panthers in the early 1970s. She said "revolution
is an act of love; we are the children of
revolution, born to be rebels. It runs in our
blood." She called the Black Panthers "our
revolutionary vanguard. We must support them with
love, money, propaganda and risk."

=== Opposition to the Vietnam War ===
see details|Opposition to the Vietnam War
In April 1970, Fred Gardner, Fonda and Donald
Sutherland formed *FTA* ("Free The Army," a play
on the troop expression "Fuck The Army"), an
antiwar road show designed as an answer to Bob
Hope's USO tour.  The tour, referred to as
"political vaudeville" by Fonda, visited military
towns along the West Coast, with the goal of
establishing a dialog with soldiers to get their
thoughts on their upcoming deployments (which were
later made into a movie).

Also in 1970, Fonda spoke out against the war at a
rally organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the
War, in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.  She offered
to help raise funds for VVAW, and was bestowed the
title of Honorary National Coordinator for her
efforts. Beginning November 3, she toured college
campuses and raised funds for the organization. As
noted by the New York Times, Fonda was a "major
patron" of the VVAW.

In March 1971, Fonda traveled to Paris (some claim
alone, some claim with an unnamed VVAW
representative) to meet with NLF foreign minister
Madam Nguyen Thi Binh. According to a transcript
in which she was translated to Vietnamese and back
to English, she told Binh at one point "Many of us
have seen evidence proving the Nixon
administration has escalated the war causing death
and destruction perhaps as serious as the, bombing
of Hiroshima."  Afterwards, she travelled to
London.  A speech that she gave in London was
criticized for her discussion of the US use of
torture in Vietnam.  Her financial support to VVAW
at this time was apparently not significant, as
within a month VVAW was broke and one of its
prominent leaders, John Kerry, raised the needed
funds.  

Sixteen months later, Fonda went on her well-known
trip to Hanoi.

=== "Hanoi Jane" ===


In Vietnam, Fonda was photographed seated on an
anti-aircraft battery used to fire at American
pilots, and participated in several radio
broadcasts of the Communist regime, asking US
pilots to turn around without dropping their
bombs. In her 2005 autobiography she said that she
had been manipulated into sitting on the battery,
having previously rejected any visits to military
installations, which the Vietnamese ignored. She
said that at the time of the photo she had been
manipulated into sitting on the battery whilst
laughing about an unrelated joke, not realising
immediately what she was sitting on - and was
immediately horrified at the implications of the
photo that was swiftly taken. 

She also visited American prisoners of war, who
she claims assured her they had been neither
tortured nor brainwashed. Fonda advanced these
claims and relayed them to the American public.
When cases of torture began to emerge among POWs
returning to the United States, Fonda called them
liars.  She also added, concerning the POWs she
met, "These were not men who had been tortured.
These were not men who had been starved. These
were not men who had been brainwashed." 
Concerning torture in general, Fonda told the New
York Times in 1973, "I'm quite sure that there
were incidents of torture...but the pilots who
were saying it was the policy of the Vietnamese
and that it was systematic, I believe that's a
lie."  Her stance has some backing, as former vice
presidential candidate and POW James Stockdale
wrote that no more than 10% of US pilots in
captivity received more than 90% of the torture,
usually for acts of resistance.  Additionally,
John Hubbel's research into the conflict indicates
that the majority (but certainly not all) of the
torture occurred before 1969.

Fonda's visit to Hanoi was not until July of 1972,
and the Paris Peace Accords were signed less than
six months later. Fonda delivered home letters
from many American POWs in Vietnam.  She also is
often credited with publicly exposing the strategy
of Bombing of Vietnam's Dikes|bombing the dikes in
Vietnam, for which she was at the time called a
"liar" by then-UN ambassador George H. W. Bush.  

Although the war was largely protested at home by
this time, and many Americans were against the
war, her actions in July, 1972, were widely
perceived as over the top.  The anti-war movement
of the time was not characterized by a single
motivation: some, such as Quakers and other
traditionally pacifism|pacifist groups were
opposed to war in any circumstances; some felt
that the war was not an American responsibility or
concern, arguing especially that it was a civil
war in which the United States|US was choosing
sides; some, such as young men of
conscription|draft age, their parents and friends,
didn't want their lives risked in an unpopular
war; but some expressed a partisanship for the
opposing side in the war, including Jane
Fonda—and this made her a polarizing figure.

Rumors that Fonda handed over information from
U.S. prisoners of war to National Front for the
Liberation of Vietnam|National Liberation Front
(NLF) insurgents (better known in the U.S. as the
"Viet Cong") were never confirmed, as were reports
that a pilot spat at Fonda and was beaten for it
and that one POW was beaten to death for refusing
to meet with her. The latter story, though, may be
an exaggeration of the true account of Michael
Benge, a civilian advisor captured by the NLF in
1968 and held as a POW for 5 years. He wrote "When
Jane Fonda was in Hanoi, I was asked by the camp
communist political officer if I would be willing
to meet with her. I said yes, for I would like to
tell her about the real treatment we POWs were
receiving, which was far different from the
treatment purported by the North Vietnamese, and
parroted by Jane Fonda, as 'humane and lenient.'
Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky
floor on my knees with outstretched arms with a
piece of steel re-bar placed on my hands, and
beaten with a bamboo cane every time my arms
dipped." http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.htm
http://www.pownetwork.org/fonda/fonda_benge_letter
.htm

Her detractors labeled her Hanoi Jane, comparing
her to war propagandists Tokyo Rose and Hanoi
Hannah.  She has often been associated with
contributing to a perceived anti-soldier sentiment
among Vietnam War protesters, such as Spitting on
soldiers during the Vietnam War|spitting on
soldiers.  Because of her actions, actor John
Wayne cut off contact with her, even though he was
a close friend of her father, and the Fonda
children considered him an uncle.

===Fonda's regrets===

In 1988, Fonda admitted some regret to former
American POWs and their families, stating, "I
would like to say something, not just to Vietnam
veterans in New England, but to men who were in
Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I caused to
deepen because of things that I said or did.  I
was trying to help end the killing and the war,
but there were times when I was thoughtless and
careless about it and I'm very sorry that I hurt
them. And I want to apologize to them and their
families."  She stated: "I will go to my grave
regretting the photograph of me in an
anti-aircraft gun, which looks like I was trying
to shoot at American planes. It hurt so many
soldiers. It galvanized such hostility. It was the
most horrible thing I could possibly have done. It
was just thoughtless." On the Charlie Rose
programme, Fonda made the distinction that her
apology was limited to the photo appearance with
the NVA AA-gun, and that she was "proud" of her
activism against "the bombing of the dikes."

When Jane Fonda was honored by Barbara Walters in
1999 as one of the 100 great women of the century,
sentiments regarding Fonda's actions in Vietnam
were rekindled.  

In U.S. presidential election, 2004|2004, her name
was used as a disparaging epithet against Kerry,
the former VVAW leader, who was then the United
States Democratic Party|Democratic Party
presidential candidate. Republican Party of the
United States|Republican National Committee
Chairman Ed Gillespie called Kerry a "Jane Fonda
Democrat".  In addition, Kerry's opponents
circulated a photograph showing Fonda and Kerry in
the same large crowd at a 1970 anti-war rally,
although they were sitting several rows apart.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry.asp
Some also circulated a faked composite photograph
to give the false impression that the two had
shared a speaker's platform.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp
Fonda appeared on CNN to defend Kerry against
these attacks.

Fonda funded and organized the Indochina Peace
Campaign.  It continued to mobilize antiwar
activists across the nation after the 1973 Paris
Peace Accords|Paris Peace Agreement when most
other antiwar organizations closed down.

In a 60 Minutes interview on March 31, 2005, Jane
Fonda says she has no regrets about her trip to
North Vietnam in 1972, with one exception: her
visit to a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun
site.  She says the incident that brought her the
nickname "Hanoi Jane," was a "betrayal" of
American forces and of the "country that gave me
privilege."  Fonda was quoted as saying "The image
of Jane Fonda, `Barbarella,' Henry Fonda's
daughter ... sitting on an enemy aircraft gun was
a betrayal ... the largest lapse of judgment that
I can even imagine."

Fonda made the distinction between regret over the
use of her image as propaganda, and pride for her
anti-war activism; visiting Hanoi and being
photographed with American prisoners of war there.
"There are hundreds of American delegations that
had met with the POWs," says Fonda. "Both sides
were using the POWs for propaganda....It's not
something that I will apologize for."  Nor is she
sorry for the broadcasts she made on Radio Hanoi,
something she asked the North Vietnamese to do. 
"Our government was lying to us and men were dying
because of it, and I felt I had to do anything
that I could to expose the lies and help end the
war," she tells 60 Minutes.

In April of 2005, a man named Michael A. Smith
from Kansas City, Missouri took advantage of one
of Jane Fonda's book signings by spitting tobacco
juice in her face. Minutes later, Michael Smith
was caught by police and charged with disorderly
conduct. He went to court on May 27, 2005. He said
the reason he spat in Fonda's face was because
Fonda was a "traitor", and said his actions were
"absolutely worth it". Smith disagreed with her
active support of North Vietnam and what was
percieved as a betrayal of American POWs during
the Vietnam War. After being spat in the face,
Fonda kept signing books without getting up.

In May 2005, Kentucky resident Irving Bouthwell
http://www.news24.com/News24/Entertainment/Abroad/
0,,2-1225-1243_1706758,00.html announced that his
two movie theaters would not show Fonda's new film
Monster-in-law. Bouthwell (who had in the past
banned other Fonda films and Fahrenheit 9/11) hung
photos outside the theater of Fonda clapping with
a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft crew.

=== Slayings of women in Ciudad Juárez ===
Fonda led the march through Ciudad Juárez, urging
Mexico to provide sufficient resources to newly
appointed officials helping investigate the
slayings of hundreds of women in the rough border
city. (February 16, 2004)

=== Campaign against genital mutilation ===
V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women,
sparked by the off-Broadway hit The Vagina
Monologues, held its first summit Friday, bringing
together Fonda, Afghan women and a Kenyan
campaigning to save girls from genital mutilation.
(September 21, 2002)

=== Israeli-Palestinian conflict ===
Fonda continues to participate in peace activism,
in particular regarding the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.  Fonda has been criticized by right-wing
Israel|Israelis during a trip to Jerusalem in 2002
to promote world peace— the actress and
activist was heckled as she arrived for a meeting
with leading Israeli feminists.  Three hecklers,
members of Women in Green, criticized her
controversial stance during the Vietnam War and
said that she "came to Israel as a guest of Peace
Now, Israeli traitors"
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1202/jane_jeru.ht
ml.

=== Opposition to the Iraq War ===
see details|Opposition to the Iraq War
Fonda says that the military campaign in Iraq will
turn people all over the world against America.
She has also asserted that a global hatred of
America will result in more terrorist attacks in
the aftermath of the war. (April 11, 2003) 
In July 2005, Fonda said that war veterans she had
met while on her book tour had urged her to speak
out against the Iraq War. As a result of their
wishes, and in spite of her own "baggage"
regarding her opposition to Vietnam, Fonda
announced plans for a March 2006 anti-war bus tour
with her daughter and families of military
veterans.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/200507
25/ap_en_mo/people_fonda

== Later career ==
In the early 1980s she reinvented herself as a
health guru, setting up the Jane Fonda Workout
studio in Beverly Hills and creating best-selling
books and tapes (her "Jane Fonda's Workout" is one
of the best-selling videos of all time).  Leading
the aerobics craze, she was particularly noted in
this regard for popularising the phrase "go for
the burn", for which she was criticised. While
retired from acting in the late 1980s (she
announced that she would never act again in April
1991), her latest endeavors have been
philanthropic. She works to prevent adolescent
pregnancy, and in July of 2001 this item ran in
the L.A. Times:

"Atlanta's Emory University unveiled the Jane
Fonda Center Thursday, using a $2-million donation
from the actress and former fitness guru to study
adolescent reproductive health research, training
and program development. Fonda's gift will include
an endowment to create a research position
specializing in teen sexuality and reproductive
health. Earlier this year, Fonda gave $12.5
million to Harvard's Graduate School of Education
for a study of gender in education."

In early 2004, she announced she'd return to
acting after a fourteen-year absence. Her recent
movie, Monster-in-Law, released in May 2005, was a
comedy in which she plays Jennifer Lopez's
prospective mother-in-law. Fonda received rave
reviews for her performance, and the film debuted
at #1 in the American box office, making over $23
million in its opening weekend. That same month
there were
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?i
d=84484&cat=Entertainment reports she was in talks
to film a sequel to 9 to 5.

== Family members ==
* Brother: Peter Fonda, actor, director, producer
* Daughter: Vanessa Vadim; born in 1968; father,
Roger Vadim; named after Vanessa Redgrave
* Son: Troy Garity, actor; born in 1973; father
Tom Hayden; named after a Vietnamese resistance
leader and given paternal grandmother's surname
* Daughter: Mary Williams, foster child, raised
with Tom Hayden
* Niece: Bridget Fonda, actor; born in 1964;
daughter of Peter Fonda

=== Marriages and relationships ===
Jane Fonda has been married three times: 

* Her first husband (1965-73) was French film
director Roger Vadim (b.1928-d.2000) with whom she
had a daughter, Vanessa Vadim|Vanessa, named for
Vanessa Redgrave, the well-known actor and
activist member of the Workers' Revolutionary
Party. According to Fonda's 2005 memoir, she
participated in sexual threesomes at Vadim's
insistance.

* Her second husband (1973-1990) was author and
politician Tom Hayden, by whom she has a son, Troy
Garity. With Hayden, she also raised a foster
daughter, Mary Luana Williams, who is an activist
born to members of the Black Panthers.

* Her third husband (1991-2001) was American
cable-television tycoon Ted Turner.

She has also had romantic relationships with:
* Alexander "Sandy" Whitelaw, director; involved
1960
* Donald Sutherland, actor; costarred in Klute;
together 1970s
* Barry Matalon, hairdresser; together 1990s

== Film awards and nominations ==

===Academy Awards===
*1970: Academy Award Nomination; Best Actress,
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
*1971: Academy Award; Best Actress, Klute
*1978: Academy Award Nomination; Best Actress,
Julia
*1979: Academy Award; Best Actress, Coming Home
*1980: Academy Award Nomination; Best Actress, The
China Syndrome
*1982: Academy Award Nomination; Best Supporting
Actress, On Golden Pond
*1987: Academy Award Nomination; Best Actress, The
Morning After

===Golden Globes===
*1971: Golden Globe; Best Actress in a Motion
Picture (Drama), Klute
*1972: Golden Globe; World Film Favorite - Female
*1977: Golden Globe; Best Actress in a Motion
Picture (Drama), Julia
*1978: Golden Globe; World Film Favorite - Female
*1978: Golden Globe; Best Actress in a Motion
Picture (Drama), Coming Home
*1961: Golden Globe; Most Promising Newcomer -
Female

===Others===
*1983: Emmy; Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited
Series or a Special, The Dollmaker

==Selected Filmography==
*Walk on the Wild Side (Algren)|Walk on the Wild
Side (1962 in film|1962)
*La Ronde (1964 in film|1964)
*Cat Ballou (1965 in film|1965)
*The Chase (1966 in film|1966)
*Barefoot in the Park (1967 in film|1967)
*Barbarella (1968 in film|1968)
*They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969 in
film|1969)
*Klute (1971 in film|1971)
*Tout va bien (1972 in film|1972)
*A Doll's House (movie)|A Doll's House (1973 in
film|1973)
*The Blue Bird (movie)|The Blue Bird (1976 in
film|1976)
*Julia (movie)|Julia (1977 in film|1977)
*Coming Home (1978 in film|1978)
*Comes a Horseman (1978 in film|1978)
*California Suite (1978 in film|1978)
*The China Syndrome (1979 in film|1979)
*The Electric Horseman (1979 in film|1979)
*Nine to Five|9 to 5 (1980 in film|1980)
*On Golden Pond (1981 in film|1981)
*Agnes of God (1985 in film|1985)
*The Morning After (film)|The Morning After (1986
in film|1986)
*Leonard Part 6 (1987 in film|1987) (cameo
appearance|cameo)
*Old Gringo (1989 in film|1989)
*Monster-in-Law (2005 in film|2005)

==External links==
*imdb name | id=0000404 | name=Jane Fonda
* nndb name | id = 637/000022571 | name= Jane
Fonda 

*
http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donati
ons/Jane_Fonda.php Jane Fonda's campaign
contributions
* http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.htm
Snopes.com article about Fonda's Vietnam era
activities
*
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa110
399.htm?once=true& About.com article about Fonda's
Vietnam era activities
* The Observer, July 31, 2005,
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,690
3,1539671,00.html "Baghdad Jane"