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

 
Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences.

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186 thoughts on “Henry Fonda Movies”

  1. By the way, Bruce – while you are vacation and away from your beloved database and cannot create new pages – some of your newer fans can catch up on your old pages.

    Really, there should be more comments on this page.

    How old is it?

    I know you did all the top 50 AFI legends starting with whomever was easiest to find box office.

    I cannot remember anymore…..did you this Henry Fonda page first or the Gregory Peck page first?

    I do remember that the first “no pulse” actor as Sunshine likes to call them was Clark Gable which your grandmother requested.

    You thought nobody would like it.

    You failed in that belief.

    You forgot that some of us are very much interested in “no pulse actors.”

    And yes, you are right.

    Only you, me, and Steve Lensman would have got the joke if you had had referred on your home page your tendency to alternate between today’s stars and the stars of yesterday as “pulse” and “no pulse.”

    You are of course referring to whether or not an artist is alive or dead.

    Not respectful when nobody gets the joke.

    But yes, you do like to keep everyone happy.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora.
      1. I think you are right…without new pages…..it seems like older ones are getting more attention.
      2. I would say this page is closing in on 5 years old….it was written at Hub Pages originally. And it was among the first 100 written.
      3. If I had to guess I would sat the Peck page wa first……but at this point there is no way to be sure….as almost all the HubPages stats are long gone…..I kept the view totals but that is about…other than moving over the comments.
      4. The pulse no pulse comment came from Scotty…..when I told him about another classic page being done….He said….”Dad why don’t you do a page on somebody with a pulse.”
      5. Actually it was mother-in-law that suggested Clark Gable….I am currently hanging out with her this week. I was giving her credit for the success of the classic pages just last night.
      As for this page ….I need to find some Henry Fonda fan clubs out there….not sure if he has a Facebook page. But some of those pages are filled with people that really like pages like this one….as always…thanks for your movie thoughts.

      Reply

      1. Well, Bruce. Peter Fonda has a facebook fanclub page on Facebook that is open. So does Jane Fonda. You do not need to become a member. However, I would suggest sharing this page on your UMR site anyway.

        Reply

      2. So Scotty was the pulse person. I just remember that Sunshine always used your pages for fan letters of people who were her favourites. It is not that she did not know who Ingrid Bergman was, she just knew she was already dead.

        So she would make comments on your Bergman page like ” Ingrid who? I know I’ve heard of her..”

        Of course, I am in fact the person who convinced you to do a page on James Garner while he was still alive, we all made various comments about him, and his daughter found it, attached it to her Mavarick’s Daughter website, and I actually emailed her about her father’s interest in getting a lifetime achievement Oscar since on Richard Widmark’s fan club of which I was a member on yahoogroups Widmark’s daughter contacted us to say that he did not want one and we stopped trying to get him one.

        Miss Garner emailed me back, of course.

        I was talking to a friend of mine today on the phone who did not realize I was a fan of the golden age of Hollywood until today.

        I wonder – perhaps the reason why I am so found of Henry Fonda and Gregory Peck’s generation is that my grandparents were WWII era, and I lived far away from them when I was a child/teenager and rarely saw them except in the summer?

        I cannot be entirely sure.

        But I think it is likely, considering the fact that one of the reasons that I see you very much as an “adopted” brother is the fact that you are – actually – only a few months older than my actual brother.

        I do not think it is coincidence.

        As for your mother -in-law suggesting Mr. Gable.

        I may have gotten the wrong relative – but I did remember that it was, in fact, a FEMALE relative.

        LOL.

        Seriously, Bruce.

        I do find it amazing, every time I think of it, that your father actually died days before we met on hubpages and I never actually knew him. meanwhile, you did know my father online.

        Reply

        1. Hey Flora
          1. Yep it was Scotty….but Sunshine picked up on it and started using it all the time,
          2. Gigi Garner commenting on her dad’s page has been one of the highlights of doing these pages.
          3. Gigi Garner seems to be a down to Earth person for sure.
          4. Wow…shocked your friend did not know you were a big classics fan.
          5. I think you might be right about your connection to Peck and Fonda through your grandparents. My grandmother that I knew the best loved two movies…The African Queen and The Wizard Of Oz….so I of course like those movies too.
          6. That means your brother and your adopted brother are both facing 50….I am sure he is like me….wondering how that happened so quickly….lol.
          7. I give Debbie’s mom all the credit….heck I might not even still have a page if the classic ones did not take off so well.
          8. Yep…it is amazing how time flies….I had a few conversations with him about HubPages before he passed……as I am sure you did with your father.
          Thanks as always for the comment.
          Working on Walter Pidgeon during down times…..have gone from 1978 to 1940….it is going to be a massive page…already up to 58 movies….and have 14 years to go.

          Reply

  2. Okay, Bruce. In the interest of statistics, I looked up the comments to count up the number of comments that were made by either you OR me, regardless of the topic or to whom we were talking.

    When I finish this comment, there will be 64 comments.

    Combined, we make up more than 40 comments.

    That is not even counting the comments made by Steve Lensman.

    My earliest comment makes reference to a new “hub” – it was made on April 20th, 2015.

    Reply

    1. To paraphrase Sydney Greenstreet in The Maltese Falcon – You’re a woman who likes commenting to people who like to comment !!.

      Reply

    2. Hey Flora….very interesting. Seems like the page had more comments at HubPages. I admit….that I left off some comments when I was moving the pages off…..me thinks…this Henry Fonda was one of those pages. But comment away. There is no comment limits here…lol.

      Reply

  3. Watching Fort Apache on TCM right now.

    I expect there to be a lot of Henry Fonda films during the TCM western festival.

    Reply

      1. Hey Flora….my avatar does not show up when I am on my ipad….seems I am spending my day in the backyard on my ipad and watching the girls swim….when the avatar pops up….that means I am in my autograph room…lol.

        Reply

        1. And what an autograph room it is. It is fantastic.

          As I said before I thought that my autograph collection was quite a lot.

          But you – you have an entire room full of wall space with autographs of people whose pages you have done.

          May I point out that a lot of my autographs were from people whom I met in person?

          Also, most of my wall space is taken up by paintings.

          What does this have to do with Henry Fonda?

          Nothing.

          In looking at the number of comments on this page, I have to wonder how many comments are simply the two of us only. Apparently, there are 62 comments on this page.

          I’ll count how many are you and me alone.

          Reply

  4. Quick update on my TCM profile here = I did end up contacting the man in question with “Mr. Roberts” as his screen name.via pm. and I went back to being GregoryPeckFan from Columbofan – my original name.

    Reply

  5. Okay, you will have to bear with me here. This message will be a more than a little ironic.

    I have mentioned on several pages on this website that Bruce and Steve Lensman and I originally met on Hubpages where I was freelance writing. I have since been banned from that site.

    Earlier this year, after realizing that Cogerson was on TCM forums, after reading the forums for years without joining them and having watching TCM since it became available in Canada, I decided to join the site on forums. I did this simply to advertise this website. A nd during the time that I have been on that site – since late January – this website has gone up in over 1,000,000,00 views. So I believe my aim was successful.

    Originally, I referred to myself as GregoryPeckfan – for obvious reasons as he is my favourite actor of all time.

    For reasons I won’t go into, although I refer to Gregory Peck as My darling Greg in my Signature, I decided to change my name to ColumboFan. I am a big fan of Peter Falk and that TV show.

    I’ve met many friends on that TCM website and do have contact information for most of them.

    One of the people that I don’t have outside contact outside of TCM is a man who lives in P.A.

    And here is the connection to Henry Fonda after my long essay here –

    This man’s screen name is “mrrobberts.” His avatar is the picture you have at the top of the page. His favourite actor is William Powell who made his last appearance in that film. He us also a fan of both Henery Fonda – obviously – and Richard Widmark.

    And – I don’t know how to contact him. I have no idea what his name is.

    I don’t know if he reads this website at all.

    But:

    As you know, I’ve been on a break from TCM until today.

    I need to tell people on this site that I am no longer allowed to create any new content on TCM forums. don’t ask me why. I won’t tell you.

    All I am allowed to do, is PM people.

    So: Here is my message to “Mr. Roberts’ from P.A.:

    If I never talk to you again, it’s been fun being TCM friends with you. And thanks again for the link to the Peter Falk interview on Johnny Carson on youtube.

    Bye.

    Reply

    1. Five fun years of movie talk…….sorry for all of your issues with TCM. But don’t worry we have plenty of pages that you can talk about classic movies….lol.

      Reply

      1. I’m not sorry. Basically, few people are actually talking movies on that site right now. They are all in off topic section talking about elections and doom and gloom world situations.

        Reply

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