Sidney Lumet
Directing in 1955
Born	(1924-06-25)June 25, 1924 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	April 9, 2011(2011-04-09) (aged 86) New York City, New York
Cause of death	Lymphoma
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Columbia University
Occupation	Director, producer, screenwriter, actor
Years active	1939–2007
Spouse	Rita Gam (m. 1949–1955, divorced) Gloria Vanderbilt (m. 1956–1963, divorced) Gail Jones (m. 1963–1978, divorced) Mary Gimbel (m. 1980–2011, his death)
Children	Amy, Jenny
Parents	Baruch Lumet Eugenia Wermus

Sidney Lumet ( /luːˈmɛt/ loo-MET; June 25, 1924 - April 9, 2011) was an American director, producer and screenwriter with over 50 films to his credit. He was nominated for the Academy Award as Best Director for 12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) and The Verdict (1982). He did not win an individual Academy Award, but he did receive an Academy Honorary Award and 14 of his films were nominated for various Oscars, such as Network, which was nominated for 10, winning 4.

The Encyclopedia of Hollywood states that Lumet was one of the most prolific directors of the modern era, making more than one movie per year on average since his directorial debut in 1957.^[1] He was noted by Turner Classic Movies for his "strong direction of actors", "vigorous storytelling" and the "social realism" in his best work.^[2] Film critic Roger Ebert described him as having been "one of the finest craftsmen and warmest humanitarians among all film directors."^[3] Lumet was also known as an "actor's director," having worked with the best of them during his career, probably more than "any other director."^[4] Sean Connery, who acted in five of his films, considered him one of his favorite directors, and a director who had that "vision thing."^[5]

Lumet began his career as an Off-Broadway director, then became a highly efficient TV director. His first movie was typical of his best work: a well-acted, tightly written, deeply considered "problem picture," 12 Angry Men (1957). From that point on Lumet divided his energies among other idealistic problem pictures along with literate adaptations of plays and novels, big stylish pictures, New York-based black comedies, and realistic crime dramas, including Serpico and Prince of the City. As a result of directing 12 Angry Men, he was also responsible for leading the first wave of directors who made a successful transition from TV to movies.

In 2005, Lumet received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement for his "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers, and the art of the motion picture." Two years later, he concluded his career with the acclaimed drama Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). A few months after Lumet's death in April 2011, a retrospective celebration of his work was held at New York's Lincoln Center with the appearance of numerous speakers and film stars.^[6]

Early years[link]

In 1940 play, "Journey to Jerusalem"

Lumet was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied theater acting at the Professional Children's School of New York and Columbia University.^[7][8]

His parents, Baruch Lumet and Eugenia Wermus, were both veteran players of the Yiddish stage.^[9] His father was an actor, director, producer and writer, while his mother was a dancer. His mother died when he was a child. Lumet made his professional debut on radio at age four and stage debut at the Yiddish Art Theatre at five.^[10] As a child he also appeared in many Broadway plays,^[9] including 1935's Dead End and Kurt Weill's The Eternal Road. In 1935 at age 11, Lumet appeared in a Henry Lynn short film, Papirossen (meaning "Cigarettes" in Yiddish) co-produced by radio star Herman Yablokoff. The film was shown in a theatrical play with the same title, based on a hit song, "Papirosn". The play and short film appeared in the Bronx McKinley Square Theatre.^[11] In 1939 he made his only feature-length film appearance, at age 15, in One Third of a Nation.^[12][13] In 1939, World War II interrupted his early acting career, and he spent three years with the US army.

After returning from World War II service (1942–1946) as a radar repairman stationed in India and Burma, he became involved with the Actors Studio, and then formed his own theater workshop.^[14] He organized an Off-Broadway group and became its director, and continued directing in summer stock theatre, while teaching acting at the High School of Performing Arts.^[12] He was the senior drama coach at the new 46th St. (Landmark) building of "Performing Arts' ("Fame"). The 25 year old Lumet directed the drama department in a production of "The Young and Fair".^{[citation needed]}

Personal life[link]

Lumet was married four times; the first three ended in divorce. He was married to actress Rita Gam from 1949–1955;^[2] to socialite Gloria Vanderbilt from 1956–1963; to Gail Jones (daughter of Lena Horne) from 1963–1978, and to Mary Gimbel from 1980 until his death. He had two daughters by Jones: Amy, who was married to P. J. O'Rourke from 1990–1993, and actress/screenwriter Jenny who had a leading role in his film Q & A. She also wrote the screenplay for the 2008 film Rachel Getting Married.^[12][15]

Career in directing[link]

Early career[link]

Lumet began his career as a director with Off-Broadway productions and then evolved into a highly respected TV director. After gaining valuable experience working Off-Broadway and in summer stock theatre, he began to direct in the new medium of television in 1950, after working as an assistant to friend and then-director Yul Brynner. He soon developed a "lightning quick" method for shooting due to the high turnover required by television. As a result, while working for CBS he directed hundreds of episodes of Danger (1950–1955), Mama (1949–1957), and You Are There (1953–1957), a weekly series which co-starred Walter Cronkite in one of his earliest leading roles. He chose Cronkite for the role of anchorman "because the premise of the show was so silly, was so outrageous, that we needed somebody with the most American, homespun, warm ease about him," Lumet said.^[16]

He also directed original plays for Playhouse 90, Kraft Television Theatre and Studio One, filming around 200 episodes, which established him as "one of the most prolific and respected directors in the business," according to Turner Classic Movies. His ability to work quickly while shooting carried over to his film career.^[2] Because the quality of many of the television dramas was so impressive, several of them were later adapted as motion pictures.

Directing Anna Magnani in The Fugitive Kind (1959)

His first movie, 12 Angry Men, was an auspicious beginning for Lumet. It was a critical success and established Lumet as a director skilled at adapting theatrical properties to motion pictures. For US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, seeing the film for the first time, became a "pivotal moment" in her life, as she was at that time considering a career in law. "It told me that I was on the right path," she said.^[17]

Fully half of Lumet's complement of films have originated in the theater."^[18] He divided his energies among other idealistic problem pictures, adaptations of plays and novels, big stylish pictures, tense melodramas, and New York-based black comedies dealing with society and American culture.

Directing Marlon Brando in The Fugitive Kind (1959)

A controversial TV show he directed in 1960 gained him notoriety: The Sacco-Vanzetti Story on NBC; According to The New York Times, "the drama drew flack from the state of Massachusetts (where Sacco and Vanzetti were tried and executed) because it was thought to postulate that the condemned murderers were, in fact, wholly innocent. But the brouhaha actually did Lumet more good than harm, sending several prestigious film assignments his way."^[19]

He began adapting classic plays for both film and television. In 1959, he directed Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward and Anna Magnani in the feature film The Fugitive Kind, based on the Tennessee Williams play Orpheus Descending. He later directed a live television version of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, which was followed by his 1962 film, A View from the Bridge, another psychological drama from a play written by Arthur Miller.

This was followed by another Eugene O'Neill play turned to cinema, Long Day's Journey into Night, in 1962, with Katharine Hepburn gaining an Oscar nomination for her performance as a drug-addicted housewife; the four principal actors swept the acting awards at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.^[20] It was also voted one of the year's "Ten Best Films" by The New York Times.

Directing style and subjects[link]

Realism and energetic style[link]

Film critic Owen Gleiberman observes that Lumet was a "hardboiled straight shooter," who, because he was trained during the golden Age of television in the 1950s, became noted for his energetic style of directing. The words "Sidney Lumet" and "energy," he adds, became synonymous: "The energy was there in the quietest moments. It was an inner energy, a hum of existence that Lumet observed in people and brought out in them. . . [when he] went into the New York streets . . . he made them electric:^[21]

It was a working class outer-borough energy. Lumet's streets were just as mean as Scorsese's, but Lumet's seemed plain rather than poetic. He channeled that New York skeezy vitality with such natural force that it was easy to overlook what was truly involved in the achievement. He captured that New York vibe like no one else because he saw it, lived it, breathed it – but then he had to go out and stage it, or re-create it, almost as if he were staging a documentary, letting his actors square off like random predators, insisting on the most natural light possible, making offices look as ugly and bureaucratic as they were because he knew, beneath that, that they weren't just offices but lairs, and that there was a deeper intensity, almost a kind of beauty, to catching the coarseness of reality as it truly looked.^[21]

Collaboration[link]

Lumet generally insisted on the collaborative nature of film, sometimes ridiculing the dominance of the "personal" director, writes film historian Frank P. Cunningham. As a result, Lumet became renowned among both actors and cinematographers "for his flexibility in the sharing of creative ideas with the writer, actor, and other artists."^[22] According to Cunningham, Lumet "has no equal in the distinguished direction of superior actors," many coming from the theater. He was thereby able to draw "remarkable performances" from acting luminaries such as Ralph Richardson, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Katharine Hepburn, James Mason, Sophia Loren, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Blythe Danner, Rod Steiger, Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Newman, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Dustin Hoffman, Albert Finney, Simone Signoret, and Anne Bancroft. "Give him a good actor, and he just might find the great actor lurking within," writes film critic Mick LaSalle.^[23]

When necessary, Lumet would choose untrained actors, but stated, "over ninety percent of the time I want the best tools I can get: actors, writers, lighting men, cameramen, propmen."^[22] Nonetheless, when he did use less "fully dimensional" actors in the cast of his film, he was still able to bring out superior and memorable acting performances, as he did with Nick Nolte, Anthony Perkins, Armand Assante, Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, Timothy Hutton and Ali MacGraw, who herself referred to him as "every actor's dream."^[24] In Jane Fonda's opinion, "he was a master. Such control of his craft. He had strong, progressive values and never betrayed them."^[25]

Lumet believed that movies are an art and once stated that "The amount of attention paid to movies is directly related to pictures of quality."^[27] Because he started his career as an actor, he became known as an "actor's director," and worked with the best of them over the years, a roster probably unequaled by any other director."^[4] Acting scholar Frank P. Tomasulo agrees, and points out that many directors who are able to understand acting from an actor's perspective, were all "great communicators."^[28]

According to film historians Gerald Mast and Bruce Kawin, Lumet's "sensitivity to actors and to the rhythms of the city have made him America's longest-lived descendant of the 1950s Neorealist tradition and its urgent commitment to ethical responsibility."^[29] They cite his early film The Hill (1965) as "one of the most politically and morally radical films of the 1960s."

They add that beneath the social conflicts of Lumet's films lies the "conviction that love and reason will eventually prevail in human affairs," and that "law and justice will eventually be served – or not."^[29] His debut film, Twelve Angry Men, was an acclaimed picture in its day: it was a model for liberal reason and fellowship in the Eisenhower era; or maybe it was an alarming example of how easily any jury could be swayed."^[30] The film and its director were nominated for Academy Awards. Lumet was nominated for the Director's Guild Award and the film was widely praised by critics.^[12]

The Encyclopedia of World Biography states that his films often featured actors who studied "Method acting", "characterized by an earthy, introspective style. A leading example of such "Method" actors would be Al Pacino, who, early in his career, studied under Method acting guru Lee Strasberg. Lumet also preferred the appearance of spontaneity in both his actors and settings, an "improvisational look achieved by shooting much of his work on location."^[31]

Rehearsal and preparation[link]

Lumet was a strong believer in rehearsal, and felt that if you rehearse correctly the actor will not lose spontaneity. According to acting author Ian Bernard, he felt that it gives actors the "entire arc of the role," which gives them the freedom to find that "magical accident."^[32] Director Peter Bogdanovich asked him whether he rehearsed extensively before shooting, and Lumet replied "I like to rehearse a minimum of two weeks before I shoot."^[4]

He was able to prepare and execute a production in rapid order, allowing him to consistently stay within a modest budget. When filming Prince of the City, for example, although there were over 130 speaking roles and 135 different locations, he was able to coordinate the entire shoot in 52 days. As a result, write historians Charles Harpole and Thomas Schatz, performers were eager to work with him as they considered him to be an "outstanding director of actors." And they note that "whereas many directors disliked rehearsals or advising actors on how to build their character, Lumet excelled at both."^[27] As a result, he was able to give his performers a cinematic showcase for their abilities and help them deepen their acting contribution. Actor Christopher Reeve, who co-starred in Deathtrap, also pointed out that Lumet "knows how to talk technical language – if you want to work that way – he knows how to talk Method, he knows how to improvise, and he does it all equally well."^[4]

Joanna Rapf, writing about the filming of The Verdict, states that Lumet gave a lot of personal attention to his actors, "listening to them, touching them." She describes how Lumet and star Paul Newman sat on a bench secluded from the main set, where Newman had taken his shoes off, in order to privately discuss an important scene about to be shot. . . . The actors walk through their scenes before the camera rolls. This preparation was done because Lumet likes to shoot a scene in one take, two at the most. "I call him "Speedy Gonzales," the only man I know who'll double-park in front of a whorehouse," kids Paul Newman privately. "He's arrogant about not shooting more than he has to. He doesn't give himself any protection. I know I would," Newman adds.^[4] Film critic Betsey Sharkey agrees, adding the "he was a maestro of one or two takes years before Clint Eastwood would turn it into a respected specialty." Sharkey recalls, "[Faye] Dunaway once told me that Lumet worked so fast it was as if he were on roller skates. A racing pulse generated by a big heart."^[33]

Character development[link]

Biographer Joanna Rapf observes that Lumet had always been an "independent director," and liked to make films about "men who summon courage to challenge the system, about the little guy against the system."^[4]:Intro This also includes the women characters in his films, such as Garbo Talks. "Anne Bancroft embodies the kind of character to whom Lumet is attracted – a committed activist for all kinds of causes, who stands up for the rights of the oppressed, who is lively, outspoken, courageous, who refuses to conform for the sake of convenience, and whose understanding of life allows her to die with dignity ... Garbo Talks in many ways is a valentine to New York."^[4]

Throughout a 2006 interview, he reiterated that "he is fascinated by the human cost involved in following passions and commitments, and the cost those passions and commitments inflict on others." This theme is at the "core" of most of his movies, notes Rapf, "including his stories of corruption in the New York City Police Department and family dramas such as in Daniel.

Psychodramas[link]

Directing Michael Caine in suspense thriller, Deathtrap (1982)

According to film historian Stephen Bowles, Lumet proved himself "most comfortable and effective as a director of serious psychodramas and was most vulnerable when attempting light entertainments. His Academy Award nominations, for example, were all for character studies of men in crisis, from his first film, Twelve Angry Men, to The Verdict. Lumet was, literally, a child of the drama." He notes that "nearly all the characters in Lumet's gallery are driven by obsessions or passions that range from the pursuit of justice, honesty, and truth to the clutches of jealousy, memory, or guilt. It is not so much the object of their fixations but the obsessive condition itself that intrigues Lumet."^[18]

Therefore, Bowles adds, "Lumet's protagonists tend to be isolated, unexceptional men who oppose a group or institution. Whether the protagonist is a member of a jury or party to a bungled robbery, he follows his instincts and intuition in an effort to find solutions. Lumet's most important criterion is not whether the actions of these men are right or wrong but whether the actions are genuine. If these actions are justified by the individual's conscience, this gives his heroes uncommon strength and courage to endure the pressures, abuses, and injustices of others. Frank Serpico, for example, is the quintessential Lumet hero in his defiance of peer group authority and the assertion of his own code of moral values."^[18] Lumet in his autobiography described the film Serpico as "a portrait of a real rebel with a cause."^[34]

Issues of social justice[link]

Turner Classic Movies states that "it was the social realism which permeated his greatest work that truly defined Lumet  – the themes of youthful idealism beaten down by corruption and the hopelessness of inept social institutions allowed him to produce several trenchant and potent films that no other director could have made."^[2] Serpico (1973) was the first of four "seminal" films he made in the 1970s that marked him as "one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation." It was the story of power and betrayal in the New York City police force, and was coupled with the "idea that innocence is lost in the face of corruption." The movie became a blueprint that Lumet would use to portray the inner world of cops, lawyers and street criminals, with only an "idealistic lone wolf battling seemingly impossible odds."^[2]

At press conference with William Holden, costar of Network (1976)

"As a child of the Depression," writes Joanna Rapf, "growing up poor in New York City with poverty and corruption all around him, Lumet became concerned with the importance of justice to a democracy. He says he likes questioning things, people, institutions, what is considered by society as 'right' and 'wrong.'"^[4] He admits, however, that he does not believe that art itself has the power to change anything. "There is, as he says, a lot of 'shit' to deal with in the entertainment industry, but the secret of good work is to maintain your honesty and your passion."^[4]

Film historian David Thomson writes "He has steady themes: the fragility of justice, and the police and their corruption.". He adds, "Lumet quickly became esteemed ... [and he] got a habit for big issues – Fail-Safe, The Pawnbroker, The Hill, – and seemed torn between dullness and pathos. ... Network ...  was the closest he had come to a successful comedy. He was that rarity of the 1970s, a director happy to serve his material – yet seemingly not touched or changed by it. ... His sensitivity to actors and to the rhythms of the city have made him "America's longest-lived descendant of the 1950s Neorealist tradition and its urgent commitment to ethical responsibility."^[30]

Lumet, discussing one of his primary film subjects, police corruption, described his feelings for film magazine, Cinema Nation:

New York City settings[link]

Lumet always preferred to work in New York, noted Lumet biographer Joanna Rapf, "shunning the dominance of Hollywood. By refusing to "go Hollywood," he soon became strongly identified with New York and filmed the majority of his films there. Like Woody Allen, he defined himself as a New Yorker. "I always like being in Woody Allen's world," he said. He claimed "the diversity of the City, its many ethnic neighborhoods, its art and its crime, its sophistication and its corruption, its beauty and its ugliness, all feed into what inspires him."^[4] He felt that in order to create it is important to confront reality on a daily basis. For Lumet, "New York is filled with reality; Hollywood is a fantasyland."^[4]

He used New York time and again as the backdrop – if not the symbol – of his "preoccupation with America's decline," according to film historians Scott and Barbara Siegel.^[1] In discussing the significance of urban settings to Lumet, Bowles notes, "Within this context, Lumet is consistently attracted to situations in which crime provides the occasion for a group of characters to come together. Typically these characters are caught in a vortex of events they can neither understand nor control but which they must work to resolve."^[18]

In a 2007 interview with New York magazine, he was asked, "Almost all of your films – from The Pawnbroker to your latest – have an intense level of that famous New York grit. Is being streetwise really such a difference between us and Hollywood?" Lumet replied: "In L.A., there's no streets! No sense of a neighborhood! They talk about us not knowing who lives in the same apartment complex as us – bullshit! I know who lives in my building. In L.A., how much can you really find out about anybody else? ... Really, it's just about human contact. It seems to me that our greatest problems today are coming out of the increasing isolation of people, everywhere."^[35]

Use of contemporary Jewish themes[link]

Like those of other Jewish directors from New York, such as Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, and Paul Mazursky, Lumet's characters often spoke overtly about controversial issues of the times. They felt unconstrained as filmmakers and their art became "filtered through their Jewish consciousness," notes film historian David Desser. Lumet, like the others, sometimes turned to Jewish themes in order to develop ethnic sensibilities that were characteristic of contemporary American culture,^[36]:3 by dynamically highlighting its "unique tensions and cultural diversity." This was partly reflected in Lumet's preoccupation with city life.^[36]:6 His film A Stranger Among Us, for example, is the story of a woman undercover police officer and her experiences in a Hasidic community within New York City.

The subject of "guilt," explains Desser, dominates many of Lumet's films. From his first feature film, 12 Angry Men (1957), in which a jury must decide the guilt or innocence of a young man, to Q & A (1990), in which a lawyer must determine the question of guilt and responsibility on the part of a maverick policeman, "guilt," writes Desser, "links the diverse parts of Lumet's varied and complex canon." Whereas in films like Murder on the Orient Express (1974), all of the suspects are guilty.^[36]:172 There are aspects of Lumet's conception of guilt, adds Desser, that are biblical in nature, whereby Lumet explores Old Testament questions of guilt and responsibility: "Lumet's conception of guilt, that of a father's guilt being passed on to his sons and implicating them profoundly. . . are rampant in Lumet's cinema." According to Desser, such focus on guilt and responsibility which dominates Lumet's themes, "comes directly from Jewish tradition, specifically Judaism: the injunction to remember." This aspect of "remembrance" is explicitly seen in The Pawnbroker and Daniel, both of which "commemorate, they do not celebrate."^[36]:173

His films were also characterized by a strong emphasis on tensions within the "family," with his apparent "insistence on the centrality of family life."^[36]:172 This emphasis on the family also included "surrogate families," as in the police trilogy, Serpico (1973), Prince of the City (1981), and Q&A. An "untraditional family" is also inherent in Dog Day Afternoon (1975).^[36]:172 According to Desser, the centrality of the family to the Jewish experience – and the way in which a family passes its values on to its children – were an important part of Lumet's worldview.^[36]:209

Directing techniques[link]

Lumet had always preferred naturalism and/or realism, according to Joanna Rapf. He did not like the "decorator's look"; rarely did he want "the camera to call attention to itself; the editing must be unobtrusive." His cinematographer, Ron Fortunato, said "Sidney flips if he sees a look that's too artsy."^[4]

Partly because he was willing and able to take on so many significant social issues and problems, "he can deliver powerhouse performances from lead actors, and fine work from character actors," writes film historian Thomson. He is "one of the stalwart figures of New York moviemaking. He abides by good scripts, when he gets them."^[30]

According to Katz's Film Encyclopedia, "Although critical evaluation of Lumet's work wavered widely from film to film, on the whole the director's body of work has been held in high esteem. Critical opinion has generally viewed him as a sensitive and intelligent director who possesses considerable good taste, the courage to experiment with a variety of techniques and styles, and an uncommon gift for handling actors."^[12] Lumet, unlike some other directors, tried to keep a professional distance from his actor's personal lives: "Elia Kazan used to really try to get inside the head and psyche of everybody he worked with," Lumet told The New York Times in 2007, referring to the influential director. "I'm the exact opposite school. I don't like to get involved."^[37]

In a quote from his book, Lumet emphasized the logistics of directing:

In 1970, Lumet said, "If you're a director, then you've got to direct ... I don't believe that you should sit back and wait until circumstances are perfect before you and it's all gorgeous and marvelous ... I never did a picture because I was hungry ... Every picture I did was an active, believable, passionate wish. Every picture I did I wanted to do ... I'm having a good time."

Lumet, in a statement posted on IMDB, said, "If I don't have a script I adore, I do one I like. If I don't have one I like, I do one that has an actor I like or that presents some technical challenge." Critic Justin Chang adds that Lumet's skill as a director and in developing strong stories, continued up to his last film in 2007, noting that his "nimble touch with performers, his ability to draw out great warmth and zesty humor with one hand and coax them toward ever darker, more anguished extremes of emotion with the other, was on gratifying display in his ironically titled final film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."^[39]

Vision of future films[link]

In the same interview with New York magazine, when asked what he foresaw as the next wave of filmmaking, he responded, "Well, we were shooting out in Astoria, and one day I was watching all these kids standing outside a school near the studio. It was just marvelous: Indian girls in saris, kids from Pakistan, Korea, kids from all over. So I think you'll see more directors from these communities, telling their stories. You know, I started out making films about Jews and Italians and Irish because I didn't know anything else."^[35]

Death[link]

Lumet died at the age of 86 on April 9, 2011 in his residence in Manhattan, New York from lymphoma.^[7][26] When asked in a 1997 interview about how he wanted to "go out," Lumet responded, "I don't think about it. I'm not religious. I do know that I don't want to take up any space. Burn me up and scatter my ashes over Katz's Delicatessen."^[40]

Following his death, numerous tributes have been paid for his enduring body of work, marked by many memorable portrayals of New York City. Fellow New York directors Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese both paid tribute to Lumet. Allen called him the "quintessential New York film-maker", while Scorsese said "our vision of the city has been enhanced and deepened by classics like Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and, above all, the remarkable Prince of the City."^[41] Lumet also drew praise from New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who called him "one of the great chroniclers of our city".^[41]

Lumet was called "the last of the great movie moralists" in a tribute remembering a career in which he "guided many of the world’s most respected actors through roles that connected with the conscious of multiple generations."^[42]

Legacy[link]

According to film historian Bowles, Lumet succeeded in becoming a leading drama filmmaker partly because "his most important criterion [when directing] is not whether the actions of his protagonists are right or wrong, but whether their actions are genuine." And where those actions are "justified by the individual's conscience, this gives his heroes uncommon strength and courage to endure the pressures, abuses, and injustices of others." His films have thereby continually given us the "quintessential hero acting in defiance of peer group authority and asserting his own code of moral values."^[18]

Lumet's published memoir about his life in film, Making Movies (1996), is "extremely lighthearted and infectious in its enthusiasm for the craft of moviemaking itself," writes Bowles, "and is in marked contrast to the tone and style of most of his films. Perhaps Lumet's signature as a director is his work with actors – and his exceptional ability to draw high-quality, sometimes extraordinary performances from even the most unexpected quarters"^[18] Jake Coyle, Associated Press writer, agrees: "While Lumet has for years gone relatively underappreciated, actors have consistently turned in some of their most memorable performances under his stewardship. From Katharine Hepburn to Faye Dunaway, Henry Fonda to Paul Newman, Lumet is known as an actor's director,"^[43] and to some, like Ali MacGraw, he is considered "every actor's dream."^[24]

Academy of Motion Pictures President Frank Pierson said, "Lumet is one of the most important film directors in the history of American cinema, and his work has left an indelible mark on both audiences and the history of film itself."^[44] Boston Herald writer James Verniere observes that "at a time when the American film industry is intent on seeing how low it can go, Sidney Lumet remains a master of the morally complex American drama."^[45]

Lumet at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival

Noting that Lumet's "compelling stories and unforgettable performances were his strong suit," director and producer Steven Spielberg believes that Lumet was "one of the greatest directors in the long history of film."^[46] Al Pacino, upon hearing of Lumet's death, stated that with his films, "he leaves a great legacy, but more than that, to the people close to him, he will remain the most civilized of humans and the kindest man I have ever known."^[46]

He did not win an individual Academy Award, although he did receive an Academy Honorary Award in 2005 and 14 of his films were nominated for various Oscars, such as Network, which was nominated for 10, winning 4. In 2005, Lumet received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement for his "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers, and the art of the motion picture." Upon winning recognition from the Academy, Lumet said, "I wanted one, damn it, and I felt I deserved one."^[42] Nonetheless, director Spike Lee commented that "his great work lives on with us forever. Much more important than Oscar. Ya-dig?"^[47]

A few months after Lumet's death in April 2011, TV commentator Lawrence O'Donnell aired a tribute to Lumet,^[48] and a retrospective celebration of his work was held at New York's Lincoln Center with the appearance of numerous speakers and film stars.^[6] In October 2011, the organization Human Rights First inaugurated its "Sidney Lumet Award for Integrity in Entertainment" for the TV show, The Good Wife, along with giving awards to two Middle East activists who had worked for freedom and democracy. Lumet had worked with Human Rights First on a media project related to the depiction of torture and interrogation on television.^[49]

Filmography[link]

Academy Awards[link]

The following films directed by Lumet have received Academy Awards and nominations:

Other awards[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (April 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sidney Lumet

• Sidney Lumet at the Internet Movie Database
• Sidney Lumet at the Internet Broadway Database
• Sidney Lumet at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• "The Films of Sidney Lumet", 4 minute compilation of film clips
• "Last Word" New York Times April 21, 2011, video (14 minutes)
• Archive of American Television, TV Legends interview, 1999 video, 6-parts, 3 hours
• Cinematographer Owen Roizman discusses working with Lumet, 2 minutes
• TV interview about "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" video, 5 min.
• FilmForce profile
• A serious voice in American Cinema
• FilmStew interview
• On the digital revolution NYFF07
• Fresh Air interview from 2006 (audio)
• DGA Quarterly interview
• sidneylumet.tv New site for fans and experts to upload reviews and essays, launched Nov 2010
• Obituary in The New York Times

Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American film and stage actor.^[1]

Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins.^[2] He made his Hollywood debut in 1935, and his career gained momentum after his Academy Award-nominated performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath, a 1940 adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about an Oklahoma family who moved west during the Dust Bowl. Throughout six decades in Hollywood, Fonda cultivated a strong, appealing screen image in such classics as The Ox-Bow Incident, Mister Roberts and 12 Angry Men. Later, Fonda moved both toward darker epics as Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and lighter roles in family comedies like Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball.

Fonda was the patriarch of a family of famous actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda, and grandson Troy Garity. His family and close friends called him "Hank". In 1999, he was named the sixth-Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute.

Family history and early life[link]

Fonda was born in Grand Island, Nebraska,^[3] to advertising-printing jobber William Brace Fonda and his wife, Elma Herberta (née Jaynes), in the second year of their marriage.^[4] The Fonda family had migrated from Genoa, Italy, to the Netherlands in the 15th century. In 1642 they emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland. The Fondas were among the first Dutch population to settle in what is now upstate New York, establishing the town of Fonda, New York. By 1888, most of the Fondas had relocated to Nebraska.^[5]

Fonda was brought up as a Christian Scientist, though he was baptized an Episcopalian at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church^{[citation needed]} in Grand Island. He said, "[M]y whole damn family was nice." They were a close family and highly supportive, especially in health matters, as they avoided doctors due to their religion.^[6] Fonda was a bashful, short boy who tended to avoid girls, except his sisters, and was a good skater, swimmer, and runner. He worked part-time in his father's print plant and imagined a possible career as a journalist. Later, he worked after school for the phone company. He also enjoyed drawing. Fonda was active in the Boy Scouts of America; Teichmann reports that he reached the rank of Eagle Scout.^[7] When he was about 14, his father took him to observe a lynching, from the window of his father's plant, of a young black man accused of rape.^[8] This so enraged the young Fonda that he kept a keen awareness of prejudice for his entire adult life.^[9] By his senior year in high school, Fonda had grown to more than six feet tall, but remained a shy teenager. He attended the University of Minnesota, majoring in journalism,^[10] but he did not graduate. He took a job with the Retail Credit Company.

Career[link]

Early stage work[link]

At age 20, Fonda started his acting career at the Omaha Community Playhouse, when his mother's friend Dodie Brando (mother of Marlon Brando) recommended that he try out for a juvenile part in You and I, in which he was cast as Ricky.^[3] He was fascinated by the stage, learning everything from set construction to stage production, and embarrassed by his acting ability.^[11] When he received the lead in Merton of the Movies, he realized the beauty of acting as a profession, as it allowed him to deflect attention from his own tongue-tied personality and create stage characters relying on someone else's scripted words. Fonda decided to quit his job and go East in 1928 to strike his fortune.

He arrived on Cape Cod and played a role at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts; a friend took him over to Falmouth, where he quickly became a valued member of the new University Players, an intercollegiate summer stock company. There he worked with Margaret Sullavan, his future wife.^[12] James Stewart joined the Players months after Fonda left, and they later became lifelong friends.^[13] He landed his first professional role in the University Players production of The Jest, by Sem Benelli. Joshua Logan, a young sophomore at Princeton who had been double-cast in the show, gave Fonda the part of Tornaquinci, "an elderly Italian with long, white beard and heavy wig." Also in the cast of The Jest with Fonda and Logan were Bretaigne Windust, Kent Smith, and Eleanor Phelps.^[14]

The tall (6'1.5") and slim (160 lbs) Fonda headed for New York City, where he was soon joined by Stewart (after Fonda's short marriage to Margaret Sullavan ended.) The two men were roommates and honed their skills on Broadway. Fonda appeared in theatrical productions from 1926 to 1934. They fared no better than many Americans in and out of work during the Great Depression, sometimes lacking enough money to take the subway.^[15]

Entering Hollywood[link]

Fonda in Jezebel (1938)

Fonda got the first break, as he was hired to make his first film appearance in 1935 as Janet Gaynor's leading man in 20th Century Fox's screen adaptation of The Farmer Takes a Wife; he reprised his role from the Broadway production of the same name, which had gained him critical recognition. Suddenly, Fonda was making $3,000 a week and dining with Hollywood stars such as Carole Lombard.^[16] Stewart soon followed him to Hollywood, and they roomed together again, in lodgings next door to Greta Garbo. In 1935 Fonda starred in the RKO film I Dream Too Much with the opera star Lily Pons. The New York Times announced him as "Henry Fonda, the most likable of the new crop of romantic juveniles."^[17] Fonda's film career blossomed as he costarred with Sylvia Sidney and Fred MacMurray in The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936), the first Technicolor movie filmed outdoors.

He starred with ex-wife Margaret Sullavan in The Moon's Our Home, and a short re-kindling of their relationship led to a brief but temporary consideration of re-marriage. Fonda got the nod for the lead role in You Only Live Once (1937), also costarring Sidney, and directed by Fritz Lang. He was a critical success opposite Bette Davis, who had picked him, in the film Jezebel (1938). This was followed by the title role in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), his first collaboration with director John Ford, and that year he played Frank James in Jesse James (1939). Another 1939 film was Drums Along the Mohawk, also directed by Ford.

Henry Fonda in The Lady Eve (1941)

Fonda's successes led Ford to recruit him to play "Tom Joad" in the film version of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1940). A reluctant Darryl Zanuck, who preferred Tyrone Power, insisted on Fonda's signing a seven-year contract with his studio Twentieth Century-Fox.^[18] Fonda agreed, and was ultimately nominated for an Academy Award for his work in the 1940 film, which many consider to be his finest role. Fonda starred in The Return of Frank James (1940) with Gene Tierney. He then played opposite Barbara Stanwyck in Preston Sturges' The Lady Eve (1941), and again teamed with Tierney in the successful screwball comedy Rings on Her Fingers (1942 ). She was one of Fonda's favorite co-stars, and they appeared in three films together. He was acclaimed for his role in The Ox-Bow Incident (1943).

Fonda after enlisting in United States Navy in November 1942.

Fonda enlisted in the Navy to fight in World War II, saying, "I don't want to be in a fake war in a studio."^[19] Previously, he and Stewart had helped raise funds for the defense of Britain.^[20] Fonda served for three years, initially as a Quartermaster 3rd Class on the destroyer USS Satterlee. He was later commissioned as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Central Pacific and was awarded the Navy Presidential Unit Citation and the Bronze Star.^[21]

Post-war career[link]

After the war, Fonda took a break from movies and attended Hollywood parties and enjoyed civilian life. He and Stewart would listen to records and invite Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Dinah Shore, and Nat King Cole over for music, with the latter giving the family piano lessons.^[22] Fonda played Wyatt Earp in John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946) and appeared in the film Fort Apache (1948) as a rigid Army colonel, along with John Wayne and Shirley Temple in her first adult role. Fonda did seven post-war films until his contract with Fox expired, the last being Otto Preminger's Daisy Kenyon (1947), opposite Joan Crawford.

Fonda in naval guise

Refusing another long-term studio contract, Fonda returned to Broadway, wearing his own officer's cap to originate the title role in Mister Roberts, a comedy about the Navy, where Fonda, a junior officer, wages a private war against the captain. He won a 1948 Tony Award for the part. Fonda followed that by reprising his performance in the national tour and with successful stage runs in Point of No Return and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. After a few years almost completely absent from films, he starred in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts opposite James Cagney, William Powell and Jack Lemmon, continuing a pattern of bringing his acclaimed stage roles to life on the big screen. On the set of Mister Roberts, Fonda came to blows with John Ford, who punched him during filming, and Fonda vowed never to work for the director again. While he kept that vow, Fonda spoke glowingly of Ford in Peter Bogdanovich's documentary Directed by John Ford.

Fonda next acted in Paramount Pictures's production of the Leo Tolstoy epic War and Peace (1956), in which he played Pierre Bezukhov opposite Audrey Hepburn; it took two years to shoot. Fonda worked with Alfred Hitchcock in 1956, playing a man falsely accused of robbery in The Wrong Man; the unusual semi-documentary work of Hitchcock's was based on an actual incident and partly filmed on location.

Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, and Fonda in a live 1955 TV version of The Petrified Forest

In 1957, Fonda made his first foray into production with 12 Angry Men, based on a teleplay and a script by Reginald Rose and directed by Sidney Lumet. The low-budget production was completed in seventeen days of filming, mostly in one claustrophobic jury room. It had a strong cast, including Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, and E. G. Marshall. The intense film about twelve jurors deciding the fate of a young Puerto Rican man accused of murder was well-received by critics worldwide. Fonda shared the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations with co-producer Reginald Rose and won the 1958 BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his performance as "Juror #8", who with logic and persistence eventually sways all the jurors to an acquittal. Early on the film drew poorly, but after winning critical acclaim and awards, it proved a success. In spite of the good outcome, Fonda vowed that he would never produce a movie again, fearing that failing as a producer might derail his acting career.^[23] After acting in the western movies The Tin Star (1957) and Warlock (1959), Fonda returned to the production seat for the NBC western television series The Deputy (1959–1961), in which he starred as Marshal Simon Fry. His co-stars were Allen Case and Read Morgan.

Fonda in How the West Was Won

During the 1960s, Fonda performed in a number of war and western epics, including 1962's The Longest Day and How the West Was Won, 1965's In Harm's Way and Battle of the Bulge. In the Cold War suspense film Fail-Safe (1964), Fonda played the President of the United States who tries to avert a nuclear holocaust through tense negotiations with the Soviets after American bombers are mistakenly ordered to attack the USSR. He also returned to more light-hearted cinema in Spencer's Mountain (1963), which was the inspiration for the TV series, The Waltons.

Fonda appeared against type as the villain 'Frank' in 1968's Once Upon a Time in the West. After initially turning down the role, he was convinced to accept it by actor Eli Wallach and director Sergio Leone, who flew from Italy to the United States to persuade him to take the part. Fonda had planned on wearing a pair of brown-colored contact lenses, but Leone preferred the paradox of contrasting close-up shots of Fonda's innocent-looking blue eyes with the vicious personality of the character Fonda played.

Fonda's relationship with Jimmy Stewart survived their disagreements over politics — Fonda was a liberal Democrat, and Stewart a conservative Republican. After a heated argument, they avoided talking politics with each other. The two men teamed up for 1968's Firecreek, where Fonda again played the heavy. In 1970, Fonda and Stewart costarred in the western The Cheyenne Social Club, a minor film in which they humorously argued politics. They had first appeared together on film in On Our Merry Way (1948), a comedy which also starred William Demarest and Fred MacMurray and featured a grown-up Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, who had acted as a child in Our Gang.^[24]

Late career[link]

Despite approaching his seventies, Fonda continued to work in theater, television and film through the 1970s. In 1970, Fonda appeared in three films, the most successful The Cheyenne Social Club. The other two films were Too Late the Hero, in which Fonda played a secondary role, and There Was a Crooked Man, about Paris Pitman Jr. (played by Kirk Douglas) trying to escape from an Arizona prison.

Fonda returned to both foreign and television productions, which provided career sustenance through a decade in which many aging screen actors suffered waning careers. He starred in the ABC television series ''The Smith Family between 1971 and 1972. 1973's TV-movie The Red Pony, an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, earned Fonda an Emmy nomination. After the unsuccessful Hollywood melodrama, Ash Wednesday, he filmed three Italian productions released in 1973 and 1974. The most successful of these, My Name is Nobody, presented Fonda in a rare comedic performance as an old gunslinger whose plans to retire are dampened by a "fan" of sorts.

Fonda continued stage acting throughout his last years, including several demanding roles in Broadway plays. He returned to Broadway in 1974 for the biographical drama, Clarence Darrow, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Fonda's health had been deteriorating for years, but his first outward symptoms occurred after a performance of the play in April 1974, when he collapsed from exhaustion. After the appearance of a heart arrhythmia brought on by prostate cancer, he had a pacemaker installed following cancer surgery. Fonda returned to the play in 1975. After the run of a 1978 play, First Monday of October, he took the advice of his doctors and quit plays, though he continued to star in films and television.

Fonda appeared in a revival of The Time of Your Life that opened in March 17, 1972 at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles where Fonda, Richard Dreyfuss, Gloria Grahame, Ron Thompson, Strother Martin, Jane Alexander, Lewis J. Stadlen, Richard X. Slattery and Pepper Martin were among the cast with Edwin Sherin directing.^[25][26]

In 1976, Fonda appeared in several notable television productions, the first being Collision Course, the story of the volatile relationship between President Harry Truman (E. G. Marshall) and General MacArthur (Fonda), produced by ABC. After an appearance in the acclaimed Showtime broadcast of Almos' a Man, based on a story by Richard Wright, he starred in the epic NBC miniseries Captains and Kings, based on Taylor Caldwell's novel. Three years later, he appeared in ABC's Roots: The Next Generations, but the miniseries was overshadowed by its predecessor, Roots. Also in 1976, Fonda starred in the World War II blockbuster Midway.

Fonda finished the 1970s in a number of disaster films. The first of these was the 1977 Italian killer octopus thriller Tentacoli (Tentacles) and Rollercoaster, in which Fonda appeared with Richard Widmark and a young Helen Hunt. He performed again with Widmark, Olivia de Havilland, Fred MacMurray, and José Ferrer in the killer bee action film The Swarm. He also acted in the global disaster film Meteor (his second role as a sitting President of the United States after Fail-Safe), with Sean Connery, Natalie Wood and Karl Malden, and the Canadian production City on Fire, which also featured Shelley Winters and Ava Gardner. Fonda had a small role with his son, Peter, in Wanda Nevada (1979), with Brooke Shields.

As Fonda's health declined and he took longer breaks between filming, critics began to take notice of his extensive body of work. In 1979, the Tony Awards committee gave Fonda a special award for his achievements on Broadway. Lifetime Achievement awards from the Golden Globes and Academy Awards followed in 1980 and 1981, respectively.

Fonda continued to act into the early 1980s, though all but one of the productions he was featured in before his death were for television. The television works included the critically acclaimed live performance of Preston Jones' The Oldest Living Graduate and the Emmy nominated Gideon's Trumpet (co-starring Fay Wray in her last performance).

On Golden Pond in 1981, the film adaptation of Ernest Thompson's play, marked one final professional and personal triumph for Fonda. Directed by Mark Rydell, the project provided unprecedented collaborations between Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, along with Fonda and his daughter, Jane. The elder Fonda played an emotionally brittle and distant father who becomes more accessible at the end of his life. Jane Fonda has said that elements of the story mimicked their real-life relationship, and helped them resolve certain issues. She bought the film rights in the hope that her father would play the role, and later described it as "a gift to my father that was so unbelievably successful."^[27]

Premiered in December 1981, the film was well received by critics, and after a limited release on December 4 On Golden Pond developed enough of an audience to be widely released on January 22. With 11 Academy Award nominations, the film earned nearly $120 million at the box office, becoming an unexpected blockbuster. In addition to wins for Hepburn (Best Actress), and Thompson (Screenplay), On Golden Pond brought Fonda his only Oscar - for Best Actor (he was the oldest recipient of the award; it also earned him a Golden Globe Best Actor award). Fonda was by that point too ill to attend the ceremony, and his daughter Jane accepted on his behalf. She said when accepting the award that her dad would probably quip, "Well, ain't I lucky." After Fonda's death, some film critics called this performance "his last and greatest role".^[who?]

Fonda's final performance was in the 1981 television drama Summer Solstice^[28] with Myrna Loy. It was filmed after On Golden Pond had wrapped and Fonda was in rapidly declining health.

Personal life[link]

Marriages and children[link]

Fonda was married five times and had three children, one of them being adopted. His marriage to Margaret Sullavan in 1931 soon ended in separation, which was finalized in a 1933 divorce.

In 1936, he married Frances Ford Seymour Brokaw, widow of a wealthy industrialist, George Tuttle Brokaw.^[29] The Brokaws had a daughter, Frances de Villers, nicknamed "Pan," who had been born soon after the Brokaws marriage in 1931.^[30]

Fonda met his future wife Frances at Denham Studios in England on the set of Wings of the Morning,^[31] the first British picture to be filmed in technicolor. They had two children, Peter and Jane, both of whom became successful actors in their own rights. They have each had Oscar nominations and wins.

In August 1949 Fonda announced to Frances that he wanted a divorce so he could remarry; their thirteen years of marriage had not been happy ones for him.^[32] Devastated by Fonda’s confession, and plagued by emotional problems for many years, Frances went into the Austen Riggs Psychiatric Hospital in January 1950 for treatment. She committed suicide there on April 14. Before her death she had written six notes to various individuals, but left no final message for her husband. Fonda quickly arranged a private funeral with only himself and his mother-in-law, Sophie Seymour, in attendance.^[33] Years later Dr. Margaret Gibson, the psychiatrist who had treated Frances at Austen Riggs, described Henry Fonda: “He was a cold, self-absorbed person, a complete narcissist.” ^[34]

Later in 1950, Fonda married Susan Blanchard, with whom he had been having an affair since sometime in 1948. She was twenty-one years old and the stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II.^[35] Together, they adopted a daughter, Amy Fishman (born 1953).^[36] They divorced three years later. Blanchard was in awe of Fonda, and she described her role in the marriage as “a geisha,” doing everything she could to please him, dealing with and solving problems he did not acknowledge.^[37]

In 1957, Fonda married the Italian countess Afdera Franchetti;^[38] they divorced in 1961. Soon after, Fonda married Shirlee Mae Adams, and remained with her until his death in 1982.

Fonda's relationship with his children has been described as "emotionally distant." Fonda loathed displays of feeling in himself or others, and this was a consistent part of his character. Whenever he felt that his emotional wall was being breached, he had outbursts of anger, exhibiting a furious temper that terrified his family.^[39] In Peter Fonda's 1998 autobiography Don't Tell Dad (1998), he described how he was never sure how his father felt about him. He never volunteered to his father that he loved him until he was elderly, and Peter finally heard, "I love you, son."^[40] His daughter Jane rejected her father's friendships with Republican actors such as John Wayne and James Stewart. Their relationship became extremely strained as she became politically active.

Jane Fonda reported feeling detached from her father, especially during her early acting days. In 1958 she met Lee Strasberg while visiting her father at Malibu, as the families were neighbors, and she knew his daughter Susan. Jane Fonda started studying acting with him, which was a turning point in her career. He taught the techniques of "The Method."^[41] As Jane Fonda developed as an actress, she was frustrated by being unable to understand her father's effortless acting style.

Politics[link]

Fonda was an ardent supporter of the Democratic party, and "an admirer" of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.^[42] In 1960, Fonda appeared in a campaign commercial for Democratic Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. The ad focused on Kennedy's naval service during World War II, specifically the famous PT-109 incident.^[42]

On acting[link]

In the late 1950s, when Jane Fonda asked her father how he prepared before going on stage, she was baffled by his answer, "I don’t know, I stand there, I think about my wife, Afdera, I don't know."

The writer Al Aronowitz, while working on a profile of Jane Fonda for The Saturday Evening Post in the 1960s, asked Henry Fonda about Method acting: "I can't articulate about the Method", he told me, "because I never studied it. I don't mean to suggest that I have any feelings one way or the other about it...I don't know what the Method is and I don’t care what the Method is. Everybody's got a method. Everybody can’t articulate about their method, and I can't, if I have a method—and Jane sometimes says that I use the Method, that is, the capital letter Method, without being aware of it. Maybe I do; it doesn’t matter."^{[citation needed]}

Aronowitz reported Jane saying, "My father can't articulate the way he works. He just can't do it. He's not even conscious of what he does, and it made him nervous for me to try to articulate what I was trying to do. And I sensed that immediately, so we did very little talking about it...he said, 'Shut up, I don't want to hear about it.’ He didn’t want me to tell him about it, you know. He wanted to make fun of it."^{[citation needed]}

Death and legacy[link]

Fonda died at his Los Angeles home on August 12, 1982, from heart disease. Fonda's wife Shirlee, his daughter Jane and his son Peter were at his side when he died.^[43] He also suffered from prostate cancer, but this did not directly cause his death; it was noted only as a concurrent ailment on his death certificate.

In the years since his death, Fonda has become more highly regarded as an actor than during his life. He is widely recognized as one of the Hollywood greats of the classic era. On the centenary of his birth, May 16, 2005, Turner Classic Movies honored him with a marathon of his films. Also in May 2005, the United States Post Office released a 37-cent postage stamp with an artist's drawing of Fonda as part of their "Hollywood legends" series.^[19] The Henry Fonda Theater (now called the Music Box) is located at 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. 34°06′07″N 118°20′27″W / 34.101944°N 118.340972°W / 34.101944; -118.340972

Filmography[link]

From the beginning of his career in 1935 through his last projects in 1981, Fonda appeared in 106 films, television programs, and shorts. Through the course of his career he appeared in many critically acclaimed films, including such classics as 12 Angry Men and The Ox-Bow Incident. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in 1940's The Grapes of Wrath and won for his part in 1981's On Golden Pond. Fonda made his mark in westerns (which included his most villainous role as Frank in Once Upon a Time in the West), war films, and made frequent appearances in both television and foreign productions late in his career.

Broadway stage performances[link]

• The Game of Love and Death (November 1929 – January 1930)
• I Loved You, Wednesday (October – December 1932)
• New Faces of 1934 (Revue; March – July 1934)
• The Farmer Takes a Wife (October 1934 – January 1935)
• Blow Ye Winds (September – October 1937)
• Mister Roberts (February 1948 – January 1951)
• Point of No Return (December 1951 – November 1952)
• The Caine Mutiny (January 1954 – January 1955)
• Two for the Seesaw (January 1958 – October 1959)
• Silent Night, Lonely Night (December 1959 – March 1960)
• Critic's Choice (December 1960 – May 1961)
• A Gift of Time (February – May 1962)
• Generation (October 1965 – June 1966)
• Our Town (November – December 1969)
• Clarence Darrow (March – April 1974; March 1975)
• First Monday in October (October – December 1978)

Awards[link]

Henry Fonda received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1978.

See also[link]

World War II portal

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Collier, Peter (1991). The Fondas: A Hollywood Dynasty. Putnam. ISBN 0-399-13592-8. 
• Fonda, Henry (1982). Fonda: My Life. Fulcrum Publishing. ISBN 0-453-00402-4. 
• Fonda, Jane (2005). My Life So Far. Random House. ISBN 0-375-50710-8. 
• Fonda, Peter (1998). Don't Tell Dad. Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-6111-8. 
• Houghton, Norris (1951). But Not Forgotten: The Adventure of the University Players. New York: William Sloane Associates. 
• James, John Douglas (1976). The MGM Story. Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-52389-2. 
• Roberts, Allen and Max Goldstein (1984). Henry Fonda: A Biography. McFarland & Co.. ISBN 0-89950-114-1. 
• Sweeney, Kevin (1992). Henry Fonda: A BioBibliography. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-26571-2. 
• Thomas, Tony (1990). The Films of Henry Fonda. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-1189-3. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Henry Fonda

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Henry Fonda

• Henry Fonda at the Internet Broadway Database Retrieved on 2008-07-26
• Henry Fonda at the Internet Movie Database Retrieved on 2008-07-26
• Henry Fonda at the TCM Movie Database Retrieved on 2008-07-26 Retrieved on 2008-07-26
• Henry Fonda as found in the 1910 US Census, 1920 US Census, 1930 US Census, 1931 Maryland Marriages, and Social Security Death Index.
• Literature on Henry Fonda