8mm Forum: Henry Fonda A Boring Actor?

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Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 17, 2017, 05:59 AM:

Watching a recent documentary on Henry Fonda I was struck how apart from 4 Ford films the rest of Fonda career was basically phoned in with the same decent sterile performance without giving much away with no warmth or character traits for an audience to connect with him. Interestingly, since his death his public perception or awareness of him has faded extremely quickly

What do other members think?

Posted by Douglas Warren (Member # 1047) on January 17, 2017, 06:25 AM:

I have to agree with you Mike. Most films he was in I like not so much for his performance, but for other factors. Not saying his was a bad actor, but really just being himself (like John Wayne) from film to film.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on January 17, 2017, 12:09 PM:

I slightly dis-agree. I think Fondas acting was much like gary Cooper's acting. I remember a fellow actor stating that when watching Cooper act in a role (while on the set) he looked like he was just phoning in a performance, but when you saw the finished product on the big screen, Cooper was really doing some great stuff.

I think this happens with any actor that has a largely "dead-pan" sounding voice.

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 17, 2017, 01:24 PM:

Douglas, John Wayne effectively became John Wayne but there was a warmth in his performances that audiences felt a connection with him.

Henry Fonda wasn't a bad actor just I get cold clinical efficient if Vidar was here he would call him a silver disc 💀.

Osi, I take you point about Gary Cooper but again there was humour and warmth in his performances more as he got older.

Another legend I couldn't get apart from his Anthony Mann westerns was Fonda's old room mate Jimmy Stewart maybe they exchanged acting techniques.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on January 17, 2017, 02:39 PM:

Fonda kept it "home-grown", even studded into the roots of a natural approach - The kind of man you'd mosey down the street and jaw with over a checkerboard - Much the same could be said of Stewart, Cooper and Tracy - Duke was rugged and always made an audience feel they were part of the action - As an actor, I'm a bit biased maybe - Tracy is my man, bar-none - Never be bored with an actor's work, whether the "phone" is working or not - Shorty

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 17, 2017, 03:10 PM:

Don't know about home grown. Joe. More cracker without butter or cheese. Very authentic cracker but rather dull without topping.

Posted by Tom Photiou (Member # 130) on January 17, 2017, 03:52 PM:

i liked him, one of his best performances being in 12 angry men, he had a voice you could recognise instantly.

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on January 17, 2017, 04:00 PM:

There are many fine actors not mentioned here - but what about Gregory Peck? I am always impressed by his performances and he starred in some great movies.

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 17, 2017, 04:23 PM:

Terry

Gregory Peck great actor but we are talking about Henry Fonda . Do you consider him boring or not 😀😀😀😀

Mike

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on January 17, 2017, 04:26 PM:

Henry Fonda? - probably best known for producing a beautiful daughter. Not a notable actor for me.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 17, 2017, 06:26 PM:

I like Fonda. He made some really great Westerns and I always remember his great performance in the cold war thriller Fail Safe.
As for his daughter, well who can forget Barbarella? - her defining film.

Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on January 18, 2017, 09:25 PM:

I like a great deal of Henry Fonda's work. His turn as a bad man in "Once Upon a Time in the West" was truly memorable. Yeah, he didn't project warmth or humor, but that was not his strength as an actor. His star has fallen in the public's eye I think, but that is pretty normal for all but a few. He had a very unique voice and style of talking that helped him immensely. Given the right material, he was up to the task and deliver the goods.

Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on January 18, 2017, 10:29 PM:

His star has fallen partly because his children haven't painted a very endearing picture of him as a father. And partly because the majority of the public are too young to have seen many of his movies.

This forum is filled with a bunch of movie buffs, but if you asked an average person to name 3 movies from each decade starting with the 40's, how many of Fonda's movies would get mentioned? It's not that he was a bad actor or that he wasn't in good films, it's just that few, if any, really stand out from the crowd.

Back the original question, was he a boring actor? I think it's fair to say that most of his characters were fairly reserved in nature. That doesn't mean they weren't interesting characters or that they were easy to portray but I think it does make them less memorable.

[ January 18, 2017, 11:43 PM: Message edited by: Tom Spielman ]

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on January 18, 2017, 10:59 PM:

What about Van Heflin. Now there was a great actor!

Posted by Panayotis A. Carayannis (Member # 1220) on January 19, 2017, 03:51 AM:

If we speak of "boring" actors,I can vote for Tom Conway or George Brent but Henry Fonda...Never !!!! He was one of the greatest actors and starred in a number of great and/or classic films in his quite lengthy carer.How come?

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 19, 2017, 09:54 AM:

Interesting comments.

One quote was Fail Safe and 12 Angry Men, Good movies. How often would you watch them Honestly Once and he was surrounded by very good actors!

"Once upon a Time in the West", Jason Robards steals every scene he is in followed by Charles Bronson. Fonda is the black dressed villain. Blank expression and you know he is going to die from beginning of film he leaves the least impact.

Henry Fonda arrived in Hollywood in early 1930s when virtually every actor who had any stage experience was given a chance by the Studios. If you look at the list of all his films and believe me it is hard to compile as they all seem to be Hanks Top 10 films.

His early films prior to Ford are either forgettable or unknown except to film buffs. The only two stand outs are Jesse James and Frank James where he plays the boring brother, No prizes there.

The difference between the original James film and the sequel is more to do than script.

Now we come to the good ones he made with "one director" John Ford "Young Mr Lincoln", "Grapes of Wrath" and "Drums Along the Mohawk" which are the foundation of his entire reputation.

One more good film followed after the WW2 service which was "My Darling Clementine".

He made two other films with Ford "Fort Apache" my most disliked
Ford Western. His leaden performance drags the entire film down. I know he was playing a martinet with no personality but it seems to be a role he took to his heart.

After quite a absence from films for Broadway stage he returned with his favourite role "Mr Roberts". A great stage success but that sums it up it is a very talky stage play. Ford gets the blame for this turkey but I think he tried to fix elements that wouldn't work in a film with Fonda resisting and blocking all changes.

Makes you wonder if Fonda had been given total control what film would have been made.

Hitchcock made one film with Fonda with the apt name "The Wrong Man" a disappointing film in all aspects and the famous director never returned for him again.

After this is a mishmash of films followed varying from cameos, minor westerns when everyone made westerns to wholesale turkeys like "Madigan", "Meteor", "Swarm" and "Rollercoaster" plus a lot you would have too research on You Tube.

Ironically, his last role was his most emotional "On Golden Pond" which was cinematic family counselling which is the stuff aging senile Academy Award voters loved and rewarded with a Oscar.

1981

On Golden Pond

Summer Solstice
1980

Gideon's Trumpet

The Oldest Living Graduate
1979

Meteor

Roots: The Next Generation

Wanda Nevada
1978

City on Fire

The Swarm

Fedora
1977

Battle Force

Rollercoaster

Tentacles
1976

Midway

The Great Smokey Roadblock
1974

Last Days of Mussolini

1973

Ash Wednesday
1972

The Serpent
1971

Sometimes a Great Notion
1970

The Cheyenne Social Club

There Was a Crooked Man

Too Late the Hero
1968

Once Upon a Time in the West

The Boston Strangler

Yours, Mine and Ours

Firecreek

Madigan
1967

Welcome to Hard Times
1966

A Big Hand for the Little Lady

The Dirty Game
1965

Battle of the Bulge

The Rounders

In Harm's Way
1964

Sex and the Single Girl

Fail-Safe

The Best Man
1963

Spencer's Mountain

How the West Was Won
1962

Advise and Consent

The Longest Day
1959

Warlock

The Man Who Understood Women
1957

The Tin Star

12 Angry Men

Stage Struck
1956

War and Peace

The Wrong Man
1955

Mister Roberts
1949

Jigsaw
1948

Fort Apache

On Our Merry Way

The Fugitive
1947

Daisy Kenyon

The Long Night
1946

My Darling Clementine
1943

Immortal Sergeant

The Ox-Bow Incident
1942

The Male Animal

Rings on Her Fingers

Tales of Manhattan

The Big Street

The Magnificent Dope
1941

The Lady Eve

Wild Geese Calling

You Belong to Me
1940

The Grapes of Wrath

The Return of Frank James

Lillian Russell

Chad Hanna
1939

The Story of Alexander Graham Bell

Let Us Live

Drums Along the Mohawk

Young Mr. Lincoln

Jesse James
1938

The Mad Miss Manton

Spawn of the North

I Met My Love Again

Blockade

Jezebel
1937

Slim

You Only Live Once

That Certain Woman

Wings of the Morning
1936

Spendthrift

The Moon's Our Home

The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
1935

The Farmer Takes a Wife

Way Down East

I Dream Too Much [Eek!]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on January 19, 2017, 11:56 AM:

Fonda aged incredibly well, as well. in "My Name is Nobody", while older, he certainly looked a lot younger than his best friend Stewart.

Cooper really opened the door for actors to "age" on screen. At first, people said that he would be the wrong person for "High Noon' and were punching for a younger actor, but Cooper so nailed the part as an over-the-hill marshall on his last legs, that it opened up other actors like Wayne to play parts when they were, as a general rule, way past the age of playing the part realistically

Posted by Paul Mason (Member # 4015) on January 19, 2017, 12:20 PM:

Why damn Fonda by excluding the Ford films? All actors are dependent on good scripts and directors. As a matter of fact there a number of good performances in films that are no longer shown very often such as Jezebel (1937), The Lady Eve (1941), The Ox-Bow Incident (1942), Mr Roberts (1955 - partly directed by Ford), The Wrong Man (1957), The Best Man (1964). Doubtless there are others. If Fonda was a boring actor then audiences would have avoided his films and he wouldn't have been cast once he reached middle age.

Posted by Tom Spielman (Member # 5352) on January 19, 2017, 04:05 PM:

An interesting thought occurred to me. From the actor's perspective, what constitutes a successful career? Those of Fonda's generation had few role models. There was no blueprint for how to have a great film career.

I agree that his star is fading. On the other hand, he worked more or less constantly. If not appearing in films, he was on broadway. He worked from the time he was a young man basically right up until he died. He worked in an era when actors had contracts with studios and more than likely had to work on films he wasn't that interested in to fulfill those contracts. Maybe he did phone it in when it comes to some of those parts.

I would prefer to have a career like his rather than like Carrie Fisher's or Mark Hamill's. It may not be long until Henry Fonda fades into obscurity. "Luke Skywalker" and "Princess Leia" as characters will live on in a way that Fonda's roles never could, but Fisher's and Hamill's film careers were hampered by the success of the films and the characters, not enhanced by them.

Harrison Ford was a little luckier. He was able to transplant Han Solo into the Indiana Jones movies and branch out from there.

Boring or not, Fonda had steady work from the 30's into the early 80's. Not many actors have had that kind of success for that length of time.

Posted by Mike Newell (Member # 23) on January 19, 2017, 04:37 PM:

I think a successful actor career would be deemed regular work that isn't so bad that they are embarrassed by it.

Fonda being a product of the studio system was an employee and thereby put to work on a regular basis as they were paying him.

Modern actors are effectively self employed so don't have the job security or offers of regular work so will never have the chance to build or have the career cvs as their older predecessors.

The use the argument that Fonda belongs to a different generation is also false then Humphrey Bogart Boris Karloff Steve Mc Queen Christopher Lee and Laurel and Hardy would be equally forgotten if that was true.

Henry Fonda could deliver his lines not bump into the furniture but he was bland colourless he never left a impact. He was in good movies and in bad but it's clear that unless there was a strong director he would phone in his performances. He not the first actor or last to do it. I don't think he would lasted if he had started in a post studio system.

This is great who do we start on next talking phone book never change your diction any time Richard Burton or the luckiest actor ever David Niven who told the world he was a fraud as an actor but for some reason had a career.

Posted by David M. Ballew (Member # 1818) on January 19, 2017, 10:29 PM:

I realize Gregory Peck is emphatically not the subject of this thread, but I cannot resist sharing a story.

During the making of The Wrath of God (1972), Robert Mitchum learned that his young costar Frank Langella had aspirations of writing as well as acting. One day, in his inimitable style, Mitchum walked onto the set, slapped Langella on the back, and said:

"Frankie, take up your pencil and write this down. To wit: A list of the ten dullest actors in Hollywood. They are... Gregory Peck."

Posted by Joe Vannicola (Member # 4156) on January 19, 2017, 10:36 PM:

You might say that Fonda was a laconic actor,as Gary Cooper was,
but calling him boring is going a tad too far. Does anyone call Brando boring, yet he mumbled his way through movie after movie.I prefer to consider Fonda as being restrained as an actor. And if you do a little investigating, you'll see he always gave a good if understated performance. James Dean gives an understated performance and he's regarded as "being real." Henry Fonda does the same thing and he's called "boring".

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on January 20, 2017, 11:19 AM:

I'm a regional, more local actor, (working in an occasional local play and my own productions, few as they are), so i wouldn't be as great of an authority as, for instance, Shorty and a few others on here ...

But I personally never got into or bought that whole "Method acting" school of acting that came about in the late 50's and still is around these days. Now, for a fraud as an actor, I'd certianly put Brando in that category. Even in his biggest films (the 50's), I never really bought him as an actor. i know that there are many who would disagree, another wanna be was James Dean, who was just another pretty face. Marilyn Monroe could out-act him any day of the week (and that's saying a lot)!

Posted by Terry Sills (Member # 3309) on January 20, 2017, 12:38 PM:

I think that all this thread proves is the disparity of opinion. One mans meat is another mans poison.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on January 20, 2017, 01:37 PM:

If he is (was) 'boring', certainly the various studios, his agent and the public wouldn't have produced and saw so many films -

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on January 21, 2017, 11:34 AM:

Quite true, Terry! [Smile]

Posted by William Olson (Member # 2083) on January 23, 2017, 10:25 PM:

I have always felt that, when it comes to screen acting, less is more. You can't go wrong with underplaying for the camera. Just the slightest hint of overacting is exaggerated by the camera. In my humble opinion.

Posted by Joe Caruso (Member # 11) on January 24, 2017, 04:11 PM:

It's true, you have to be subtle and careful - Broadness is for Burlesque, though that is an art-form as well - Use the camera, don't abuse -0 Being mostly a stage actor, I use the theatre as my mirror - Shorty

Posted by Ronald Green (Member # 5655) on January 29, 2017, 08:28 PM:

Each actor has a different style that makes them great. Not a big fan of him; however, liked him in "How the West Saw Won", and "Yours, Mine, and Ours."

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