Jane Fonda Through the Years: Oscar Wins, TV Stardom, Activism and More
usmagazine.comSecond generation Hollywood royalty. Jane Fonda comes from a family of actors, but she quickly made a name for herself and became an icon in her own right.Born in 1937 to Frances Ford Seymour and movie legend Henry Fonda, Jane became interested in acting as a teen after starring alongside her dad in a charity performance in Nebraska.
After dropping out of Vassar College, she moved to Paris to study art, then returned to the U.S. and began studying acting in earnest with method pioneer Lee Strasberg.Jane worked steadily on the stage in the late 1950s before making her film debut in 1960’s Tall Story.
While the Golden Globe winner appeared in several films in that decade, her breakout role came in 1965’s Cat Ballou, in which she played a schoolteacher-turned-outlaw trying to protect her father’s ranch.
The movie was nominated for five Oscars (and won one), but its lead actress was surprised that it was a hit.“When we did Cat Ballou, neither [costar] Lee [Marvin] nor I thought it was going to be any good,” Jane told the Star Tribune in June 2019. “We made it on a shoestring and shot it very fast.
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