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. I would be very interested in knowing , Bruce, how many views your site has seen, regardless of the page, since you and I tried to figure out how to get Henry’s page views.

    I mean, – are you at 7.5 million, 8 million?

    How many view do you have now?

    Reply

  2. By the way- the autograph room for new people is a room in his home where his database is.

    His wall is covered by letters and photographs of the famous people or their families thanking him for their beloved family members being treated to wonderful respect.

    In most cases, the autographs have been obtained by secret by Cogerson’s wife Debbie as a birthday present to him.

    However, sometimes the letters are actually written to her instead as was the letter that Clint Eastwood wrote.

    I have not sen that one as it was written to Debbie.
    However, I have been sent photographs of the covered wall and recently, he sent me a gorgeous photo of an autographed picture of Matthew M. – of Dazed and Confused fame.

    Reply

  3. Now for some silliness.

    Steve Lensman mentioned in the Walter Wanger page that the Henry Fonda movie You Only Live Once Sounds Like a James Bonda film.

    the “Lost James Bond film”
    LOL.

    Of course Henry Fonda being American could not have played James Bond.

    But since it is not really a James Bond film, who cares?

    On the Steen Seagal page it was noted that Seagal accidently (?)broke Connery’s arm during the filming of Never Say Never Again as a martial arts expert.

    I don’t really recall the theme song of that film.

    So I rewrote the lyrics of the song Goldfinger to reflect this.

    The lyrics I wrote are here partially: the can in their entirety be found on the steven Seagal page on UMR.

    Here are some of them:

    GOLDFINGER
    HE’S THE MAN, THE MAN WITH THE MIDAS TOUCH
    THE JAMES BOND TOUCH….

    …………………………………………………….

    FOR A JAMES BOND FILM
    IS VERY EXPENSIVE
    IT’S THE KISS OF DEATH
    FOR STEVEN SEAGAL’S CAREER

    ……………………………………………………………..

    STEP AWAY FROM OUR SEAN
    WE LOVE ONLY SEAN…

    anyway:

    Another Glenn Ford is about to start, so I’m getting offline.

    Let’s movie.

    Reply

  5. I understand that there has been a lot of great talk on TCM about the wonderful films that Mr. Fonda has done.

    Reply

    1. Hey Flora.
      1. Happy is the way to go. Hopefully Peter will see your thanks.
      2. You gotta respect his decision….maybe he will change his mind in the future.

      Reply

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