Henry Fonda Movies

Want to know the best Henry Fonda movies?  How about the worst Henry Fonda movies?  Curious about Henry Fonda’s box office grosses or which Henry Fonda movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Henry Fonda movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

Whew!….After almost two months I have finally finished my Henry Fonda movie page.  Before getting to his massive 83 movie table…let’s look at some possibly interesting facts about his life.

1. Henry Fonda (1905-1982) was born in Grand Island, Nebraska. One of his first acting jobs was with the Omaha Community Playhouse. One of his fellow actors was Dodie Brando, the mother of screen legend Marlon Brando. He attended the University of Minnesota, but dropped out, and headed to Cape Cod and New York seeking stage work.

2. After eight years of stage acting, Fonda appeared in his first movie, 1936’s The Farmer Takes A Wife. He did not have to wait long for a box office hit. As Trail of the Lonesome Pine  (his 4th movie) was the 4th biggest hit of 1936. Fonda would appear in 114 movie and television projects over the next 46 years.

3. During his days as a struggling actor, his roommate was another struggling actor, James Stewart. After Fonda had moved to Hollywood, he encouraged Stewart to take a screen test. The result of the screen test earned Stewart his first movie contract and a move to Hollywood. They would remain lifelong friends and appear in 4 movies together over the years.

4. After starring in 40 movies from 1935 to 1948, Fonda left Hollywood for seven years to return to the stage. His greatest success on stage is the movie that brought him back to making movies in 1955. That movie was the classic film…..Mister Roberts.

5. Henry Fonda was married 5 times in his life. He had three children;….daughter Jane Fonda (two time Oscar® winning actress), son Peter Fonda (Oscar® nominated actor) and daughter Amy. His granddaughter, Bridget Fonda, is also an actress. The three generations of Fonda actors have 301 acting credits on IMDB.

His IMDb page shows 115 acting credits from 1935-1981. This page will rank 83 Henry Fonda movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies that were not released in theaters were not included in the rankings.

Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn in 1981's On Golden Pond
Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn in 1981’s On Golden Pond

Henry Fonda Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Henry Fonda Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Henry Fonda movies by the co-stars of his movies
  • Sort Henry Fonda movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Henry Fonda movies by actual domestic box office rank by year
  • Sort Henry Fonda movies how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Henry Fonda movie received.
  • Sort Henry Fonda movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Henry Fonda in 1968's Once Upon A Time in the West
Henry Fonda in 1968’s Once Upon A Time in the West

5 More Possibly Interesting Facts About Henry Fonda.

1. Surprisingly Henry Fonda was only nominated two times for an acting Oscar®. He received his first nomination for The Grapes of Wrath in 1940 then had to wait 41 years for his second nomination for On Golden Pond. The wait was worth it as he took home the Oscar® for On Golden Pond. Fonda did receive an Honorary Oscar® in 1981 and a producer’s nomination for 1957’s 12 Angry Men.

2. The American Film Institute named Henry Fonda as the 6th greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends. In 2005 the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative postage stamp to honor Fonda.

3. Henry Fonda worked with legendary director, John Ford, on 7 movies. Those movies were Drums Along the Mohawk, The Young Lincoln, The Grapes of Wrath, My Darling Clementine, The Fugitive, Fort Apache and Mister Roberts.

4. Did you know that the brown Fedora worn by Fonda in On Golden Pond belonged to Spencer Tracy and was given to Fonda by Katharine Hepburn on the first day on the set.

5. Check out Henry Fonda‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Check Out Steve’s Henry Fonda You Tube Video

 
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186 thoughts on “Henry Fonda Movies”

  1. Another great movie page! I love Henry Fonda and enjoy the trivia that you add – loved the story about Kathryn Hepburn giving him Spencer Tracy’s hat to wear in On Golden Pond.

    Reply

    1. Hey Dolores Monet…nice to hear from you again and I am glad you liked my Fonda page…..I like the hat story as well…when I stumbled on that information I knew I would have to include it in the hub. Thanks for the comment.

      Reply

  2. No question Henry Fonda belongs right up there with the greats, but I have a very difficult time watching his movies. He reminds me of my first employer…an absolute madman who would stomp his feet, yank his hair out and cuss at the top of his voice. Some things you just never get over. 🙂

    Reply

    1. Hey FayPax…interesting comment. I think he was one of the great screen legends. But I think his personal life had lots of downs…and he was not close to his kids at all….which sounds some of the traits your old boss might have possessed as well….thanks for stopping by.

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  3. Hi Bruce; Henry Fonda has made so many great films. “My Darling Clementine”, “the Grapes of Wrath” and “Mr. Roberts” are probably my favorites of his.

    I enjoyed seeing him play against type in ‘Once Upon a Time in the West” because he made one of the more dastardly screen villains ever.

    Another entertaining movie page. well done,

    Rob

    Reply

    1. Hey Rob…thanks for checking out my Henry Fonda hub. I think the four movies you mentioned are some of his best….since I wrote this hub I have re-watched Once Upon A Time In The West and watched The Wrong Man for the very first time. Not too impressed with The Wrong Man…but you are 100% correct his villain in Once Upon In The West is one of the best ever.

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  4. Bruce, I wouldnt mind watching Once Upon a Time in the West again and watch those sweaty, stubble-jawed men staring at each other for 3 hours.. eee luckily lovely Claudia Cardinale is in there too. 😉

    She was in The Professionals if I remember right, another great western starring Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin and has nothing to do with this movie page whatsoever… 😉

    Reply

    1. Hey Steve…I am sure I will being watching that classic movie sometime in the next week….you are correct about Cardinale being in the Professional. She is very lovely in Once Upon A Time….makes up for all those sweaty men…lol.

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  5. Once Upon a Time in the West is an artistic western. It is beautifully made. There are several reasons I watched it. One of them is Fonda in a nasty role. We are so used to seeing him as a good guy and he does an excellent job of being a real rotter. If you have never seen Fonda play a bad guy in a great film, you need to see this. He is evil and very good at it.

    Bronson and Robards are good actors. I’ve seen a lot more of Bronson’s films than I have of Robards’ films. I went through a period when I actually saw even Bronson’s bad films. But he was a strong actor who always added weight to films like The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape and The Dirty Dozen. He plays Harmonica in this, so called because he plays the harmonica. And this brings up a third reason.

    The music in this is haunting. I love the score. The first time I saw the movie I just wanted to hear the score and then change the channel. Not a chance. I couldn’t move.

    Reply

    1. Flora, I was a big Bronson fan in my youth, like you I would watch any movie with his name on it. I loved Ennio Morricone’s score to OUATITW bought it on LP and CD. Henry Fonda shooting that kid at the start of the film, wow what a shocker! I’ll have to do a hub on that film one day.

      Bruce, I think Jaws the Revenge was Caine’s most infamous film what do you think? He did admit to making them only for the money.

      Reply

      1. Yeah, I couldn’t pass up seeing him as a completely bad character. His character in Warlock had dark tones, but like a lot of western characters by then, he was neither bad nor good, but rather complicated. To be all bad, I had to see it.

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        1. Hey Flora….excellent that you got so much enjoyment out of Once Upon A Time in the West. I can not get any of my kids to watch this movie….we get through about half of the opening scene and they give up….they are so used to 3 action scenes in the first five minutes…they can not handle a movie that actually works up to the action. I agree with you about the music….one of the theories about the movie that I liked is….the main characters…Bronson, Robards and Fonda…are really gods walking the earth and can only be killed by another god….the same theme can be seen in the Eastwood/Leone trilogy.

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        2. Hey Flora….Fonda was evil to the core…and the actor really seemed to enjoy playing the part…all this talk about Once Upon A Time has we thinking I should watch it again very soon.

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      2. Hey Steve…Fonda does an excellent job of playing the bad guy in Once Upon A Time….I agree when he shot the boy it put him in the same class as Lee Van Cleef in the Good Bad and The Ugly.

        From the Manly Movie Guide”

        Once Upon A Time In The West(1968).

        “Henry Fonda, the who had portrayed Lincoln and Wyatt Earp on screen, plays an utterly despicable, child-killing gunman in this Leone masterpiece. Opposing Fonda, is Charles Bronson, who plays the harmonica a lot to show he is a mysterious guy. Pushing the envelope of virile filmmaking to its creative limits, Leone manages to tell his story almost entirely through scenes of sweaty, stubble-jawed men staring at each other.”

        As for Caine….I think Jaws the Revenge is close to the bottom of his barrell….he missed picking up his Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters…to film this horrible movie…I think The Hand by Oliver Stone is down there with his Jaws movie.

        Reply

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