Home> Facts and Trivia > Stars > Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda Facts
| Sign | Sagittarius |
| Born |
Dec 21, 1937 New York City, NY |
| Age | 88 |
| Total Facts | 73 |
A 1972 visit to Hanoi during the Vietnam war where Fonda campaigned in favor of the communist regime and the subsequent release of several photographs of her atop a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun used against American air crews earned her the nickname "Hanoi Jane." As a result of her visit to Hanoi and the accompanying photographs, many Americans continue to regard Fonda with general resentment and hostility to this day.
Adopted a daughter, Mary Luana Williams, with Tom Hayden in the 1970s.
Announced her retirement from acting in 1990 but returned to the screen 15 years later in Monster-in-Law (2005).
Announced her separation from husband Ted Turner (January 2000).
Announced that she became a Christian (2001).
Attended Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Her roommate was Lara Parker.
Atttended Emma Willard School in Troy, New York.
Aunt of Bridget Fonda and Justin Fonda
Born at 9:14 AM EST
Born on the same day Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) premiered.
Chosen as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars (#21) in film history by Empire magazine (1995).
Claimed Michael Jackson visited the set of On Golden Pond (1981) in New Hampshire and went skinny-dipping with her [interview with Jimmy Kimmel on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" (2003) on December 7, 2011].
Claimed, after the Oscar ceremony on April 9th, 1979, that the film The Deer Hunter (1978) was a racist film and that it presented the official version of the war in Vietnam.
Considers They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) as a turning point in her career.
Danced ballet until she broke her foot in her 40s.
Daughter of Henry Fonda and Frances Ford Seymour (14 April 1908 - 14 April 1950).
Ex-sister-in-law of Susan Brewer.
Fonda was arrested in 1970 after allegedly kicking a cop when she was found carrying a large amount of what appeared to be pills. All charges were dropped after the pills were identified as vitamins.
Had hip and knee replacements. It is a genetic condition. Both her father and brother also had replacements.
Has been romantically linked to Lynden Gillis, whom she met at a book signing in New York, since 2007.
Has two grandchildren, Malcom and Viva, by her daughter Vanessa Vadim.
Her aerobics video "Jane Fonda's Workout" sold 17 million copies, making it the best-selling home video ever and her an icon of this form of exercises (1982).
Her birth was the cause of some interruptions during her father's filming of Jezebel (1938) with Bette Davis.
Her father was of Italian and Dutch descent and her mother was of Irish and German descent.
Her out-of-retirement movie, Monster-in-Law (2005) came out the same time as her autobiography, "My Life So Far" and the same time her workouts are re-released to DVD format in stores.
Her performance as Bree Daniels in Klute (1971) is ranked #91 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
In 1982, she accepted the Oscar for "Best Actor in a Leading Role" on behalf of her father Henry Fonda, who wasn't present at the awards ceremony
In 1984, her wealth, generated from acting, producing, and fitness videos was estimated at $50 million.
In 1994, Fonda founded G-CAPP, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. The foundation advocates for safe-sex education, provides teens with support personnel before, during, and after childbirth, and runs a network of "Second Chance Homes" that help teenage mothers become self-sufficient by striving to reduce repeat teen pregnancies and providing teen mothers with a safe living environment, support for long-term economic independence, and child development, parenting and life skills.
In addition to her late maternal half-sister Frances, she has an (adopted) half-sister, Amy, and a former stepsister, Pam.
In her modeling days after college, she was twice on the cover of Vogue magazine.
Is fluent in French.
Is the subject of an erroneous urban legend. When Vassar was a women's college, the story goes, Jane Fonda refused to wear the elegant white gloves and pearls that were the attire for the daily Tea in the Rose Parlor. When confronted, Fonda returned to the parlor wearing the gloves and the pearls, and nothing else.
Is very close to her former stepdaughter Nathalie Vadim, whose own mother, Annette Vadim (née Stroyberg) died in 2005.
Jane Fonda was the first pick for the role of Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown (1974), which eventually was played by Faye Dunaway. Fonda was wanted by the film's producer Robert Evans, who was also at the time chief of production at Paramount Pictures, and by director Roman Polanski and Paramount owner Charlie Bluhdorn. After lengthy negotiations, Fonda passed on the role. Evans then contacted Faye Dunaway's agent Sue Mengers and got her for the rock bottom price of $50,000, telling Mengers -- a close friend -- that he wanted Dunaway whereas everyone else wanted Fonda. Saying that he had time to intercede before Fonda signed her contract, Mengers got Dunaway to agree to the insulting offer. (Evans had explained to Mengers that after three flops in a row, Faye was a cold property.) After signing Dunaway, he told Mengers that Fonda had actually passed on the role. Mengers slammed down the phone on him. Polanski had not wanted Dunaway as his female lead due to her reputation for being temperamental, which she lived up to on the "Chinatown shoot. She received an Oscar nomination for the role.
Jane now openly admits that she suffered from bulimia from age 13 to age 37. While modeling, she said she lived on cigarettes, coffee, speed, and strawberry yogurt.
Jane was mentioned on Sir Mix a Lot's 1992 hit single, "Baby Got Back".
Married Ted Turner on her 54th birthday in 1991.
Maternal half-sister Frances passed away in 2008, aged 77.
Measurements: 33B-24-35 (during "Barbarella), 32B-24-31 1/2 (in 1980), 34C-25-36 (after "small" implants- 1987), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Mother of Vanessa Vadim with Roger Vadim and Troy Garity with Tom Hayden.
Nominated for the 2009 Tony Award for Best Performance for a Leading Actress in a Play for "33 Variations".
Of the Oscar-winning father-daughter couples, she and her father are one of two couples (the other is Hayley Mills/John Mills) where the daughter won an Academy award before the father did. Hayley Mills' Oscar was an honorary award for Pollyanna (1960), "...[T]he most outstanding juvenile performance during 1960". Juveniles were not allowed to compete for Oscars until the late 1960s, when the juvenile award was abandoned.
Older sister of Peter Fonda. Younger half-sister of Frances de Villers Brokaw.
Passed on the title role in Norma Rae (1979), which won a Best Actress Oscar for its eventual star Sally Field.
Premiere Magazine ranked her as #32 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature (2005).
Producer Robert Evans wanted Fonda play female lead in Chinatown (1974).
Protested alongside fellow actresses Sally Field & Christine Lahti, and playwright Eve Ensler urging the Mexican government to re-investigate the slayings of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juarez, on the Mexico-Texas border. (February 2004)
Ranked #83 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list (October 1997).
Ranked #9 in Men's Health 100 Hottest Women of All Time (2011).