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Peter Fonda, ‘Easy Rider’ Actor and Screenwriter, Is Dead at 79 Peter Fonda, ‘Easy Rider’ Actor and Screenwriter, Is Dead at 79
(32 minutes later)
Peter Fonda, the tall, lanky actor and screenwriter who became a star and a counterculture sex symbol in the film “Easy Rider,” carrying on the Hollywood dynasty begun by his father, Henry Fonda, and his sister, Jane Fonda, died on Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 79. Peter Fonda, the tall, lanky actor who became a star and a counterculture sex symbol in the film “Easy Rider,” carrying on the Hollywood dynasty begun by his father, Henry Fonda, died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 79.
His family confirmed the death in a statement, saying the cause was respiratory failure resulting from lung cancer. The death was confirmed by his family, who said the cause was respiratory failure because of lung cancer.
“In one of the saddest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our hearts,” the statement said. Mr. Fonda was the father of the actress Bridget Fonda. During his acting and filmmaking career, Mr. Fonda earned two Oscar nominations, almost three decades apart. He shared, along with Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern, a best original screenplay nomination for “Easy Rider,” the story of two hippie bikers on a cross-country trip fueled by drugs and the thrill of youthful freedom.
In a long but sporadic acting and filmmaking career, he earned two Oscar nominations, almost 30 years apart. He shared the first with Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern for “Easy Rider,” for best original screenplay. From the time Mr. Fonda made his first Broadway and television appearances in the early 1960s, his looks and style — piercing blue eyes, firm jaw and imposing frame — were inevitably compared to his father’s, and it seemed that he might be the breakout star of his generation. But his career cooled — while that of his sister, Jane Fonda, flourished — and his next appearance on the list of Oscar nominees was in 1997 for “Ulee’s Gold.” He was nominated for best actor for his role as a widowed beekeeper with grandchildren.
That movie tells the story of two hippie bikers on a cross-country trip fueled by drugs and the thrill of youth and freedom. It came to be seen as emblematic of the freewheeling, anti-establishment spirit of the 1960s. “Peter is all deep sweetness, kind and sensitive to his core,” Jane Fonda wrote in “My Life So Far,” her 2005 memoir. “He would never intentionally harm anything or anyone. In fact, he once argued with me that vegetables had souls. It was the ’60s.”
Mr. Hopper directed the film, which featured Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest film roles. Peter Henry Fonda was born on Feb. 23, 1940, in Manhattan, the younger of two children of the film star Henry Fonda and Florence Seymour (Brokaw) Fonda, a New York socialite. His mother committed suicide in 1950, when he was 10 and Jane was 13.
Mr. Fonda’s next appearance on a list of Oscar nominees was for best actor in “Ulee’s Gold” (1997), in which he played a beekeeper. Less than a year later, Mr. Fonda shot himself in the stomach with a pistol. Interviewed by The New York Times decades later, he insisted that it was an accident, not a suicide attempt or even a warning. “You shoot yourself in the hand or foot if you want attention,” he said, “not the way I did.”
From the time he made his first Broadway and television appearances in the early 1960s, his looks and style — piercing blue eyes, firm jaw and imposing frame — inevitably drew comparisons to his father’s, and it seemed that he might be the breakout star of his generation. After attending the University of Nebraska, in his father’s home state, Mr. Fonda began his theater career the old-fashioned way, in regional theater. In 1960 he starred in “The Golden Fleece” at the Omaha Community Playhouse. His Broadway debut, only a year later, was in “Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole,” an army comedy for which he won a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award. He made his television debut in a 1962 episode of “Naked City.”
But his career cooled after “Easy Rider,” while Jane Fonda’s flourished. Hollywood saw him as a sort of male ingénue at first, casting him as a boyish, clean-cut physician in “Tammy and the Doctor” (1963), opposite Sandra Dee. He starred with Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg in “Lilith” (1964), a drama set at a psychiatric hospital. But it was a very different genre in which he seemed to find his true persona.
Peter Henry Fonda was born on Feb. 23, 1940, in Manhattan, the younger of two children of Henry Fonda and Florence Seymour (Brokaw) Fonda, a New York socialite. His mother committed suicide in 1950, when Peter was 10 and Jane was 13. In 1967, Roger Corman, then the king of the low-budget movies, directed “The Trip” from a script by an up-and-coming actor, Jack Nicholson. Alongside Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper and Susan Strasberg, Mr. Fonda starred as a mild-mannered television commercial director who uses LSD for the first time and makes the most of it. “Easy Rider,” which he also produced, came two years later.
Besides his sister and daughter, Mr. Fonda is survived by his third wife, Margaret DeVogelaere; a son, Justin; two stepsons, Thomas McGuane and Wills DeVogelaere; a stepdaughter, Lexi DeVogelaere; and a grandchild. Decades later, The Times asked him about his personal experience with the drug. “For me, it solved a great deal,” he said. “However, I didn’t take it and go out running through the city looking at lights. I was very circumspect and lay down on a couch.” Luckily, he added, “I don’t have an addictive character, and nothing except pot stayed with me.”
A complete obituary will appear soon. That period was the height of Mr. Fonda’s fame, but he maintained a busy screen career over the next 50 years. He starred in television movies, including “The Passion of Ayn Rand” (1999) and “Back When We Were Grown-Ups” (2004). His films included “Futureworld” (1976), Steven Soderbergh’s crime drama “The Limey” (1999) and the 2007 remake of “3:10 to Yuma.” His final film appearance was in “The Last Full Measure,” a war drama, scheduled to be released in October.
He had two children with his first wife, Susan Brewer, whom he married in 1961. They were divorced in 1974, and the following year he married Portia Rebecca Crockett. They were divorced in 2011, the same year he married Margaret DeVogelaere.
In addition to his wife and his sister, his survivors include a daughter, the actress Bridget Fonda; a son, Justin Fonda; two stepsons, Thomas McGuane and Wills DeVogelaere; a stepdaughter, Lexi DeVogelaere; and one grandson.
Mr. Fonda appeared never to abandon his 1960s attitudes and openness, even as he prepared for the 50th anniversary this fall of “Easy Rider,” which will include a Radio City Music Hall screening. The “about” section of his current website includes this thought:
“I believe that one is only truly free when learning, and one can only learn when one is free.”