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. FLOPRA
    The Best Man with Cliff Robertson and Advise and Consent with Charles Laughton are two other good Fonda political films

    BOB

    Reply

    1. Yes, I know.

      I should be asleep now but have a very bad cold and have insomnia again.

      LOL!

      Yes.

      Your typing skills look like mine.

      LOL.

      I’ve seen The BEST Man.

      Of the Henry Fonda films I’ve not yet seen, most of them are on the bottom of this chart or they are films that were produced by Walter Wanger and I don’t know them.

      I’ve seen Advise and Consent years ago- likely only once?

      I’ve seen The BEst Man several times.

      It is airing Sunday night on TCM at 5pm Pacific Sunday – yes today-

      Right before it on AMC is the final episode of Norman Reedus and Peter Fonda is on that episode –

      I will have a Fonda family double feature- if TV is a feature?

      1.Peter Fonda and Norman
      2. Henry Fonda on TCM in The BESt Man

      There are only about 5 films in the top 25 that I have not seen.

      I’ve seen about – 60 of them now?

      That’s a guess. Maybe 55.

      Reply

    1. Hey Flora and Bob.
      1. (Flora) Fail Safe is a very good movie….with Fonda making a great President.
      2. (Flora) Sorry you were not sleeping….but UMR is open 24 hours a day.
      3. (Flora) Henry is in the UMR Top 100….sitting in 73rd place….that is out of 971 pages, posts, and comment pages (for some reason the count separates comments from views). His count does not include the views this page got from HubPages and CogersonMovieScore…..if I included them his number would be much higher. I will add to my list of things to do…..those numbers are in one of my old filled up notebook.
      4. (Bob) I saw Advise and Consent years ago….I have been trying to rewatch….but my library DVD copies of that movie have not worked….I am 0-2 in the last few months when it comes to that movie. As for The Best Man….I admit I am not too familiar with that movie at all.
      5. (Flora)…hope you are feeling better today.

      Reply

      2. Flora seems to have perked up considerably since her insomnia. When I read about that I was beginning to worry

        Reply

  3. As for letterboxd, I see that my site has gone up in the Bing search engine.

    I have reviewed two Henry Fonda films which have him tagged:

    1. Mr. Roberts was the very first one I did on that site
    2. Battle of the Bulge.

    re: His son I have reviewed Lilith and Love and a Colt 45 (ha, Bruce did not know who Rory Cochrane was hahahahahahahahaha)

    Most of my reviews are war films or film noir.

    Of course, there is a large number of Greg’s films, as well as Olivia’s, Robert Ryan (who? didn’t he die in 1973?), Glenn Ford, and Richard Widmark…

    Reply

  4. Henry Ford….is no longer listed in the Possibly Interesting Facts anymore….thanks for the catch.

    Reply

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