Peter Fonda Biography

Fonda studied acting at the University of Nebraska and joined the Omaha Community Playhouse, where many actors (including his father and Marlon Brando) founded their careers. Fonda found work on Broadway where he achieved notice in Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole, before going to Hollywood to make films.

He made his stage debut in the same hall his father did, but the career parallels end there, as Peter went on to produce, direct and star in such iconic and offbeat features as ‘Easy Rider’, ‘The Hired Hand’ and ‘The Idaho Transfer.’

By the 1960s, Peter Fonda was not considered to be a conventional "leading man" in Hollywood. He had become outwardly nonconformist and grew his hair long, alienating the "establishment" film industry. As a result acting work became scarce.

In 1965, Fonda visited The Beatles at their rented house in Los Angeles. While the 'fab four' were said to be under the influence of LSD, Lennon heard Fonda say, "I know what it's like to be dead." This phrase became the tag line for their song "She Said She Said", which appeared in their 1966 album, Revolver.

The following year Fonda was arrested in the anti-war Sunset Strip riot which was forcefully ended by the Los Angeles Police. The band Buffalo Springfield protested against the department's handling of the incident in their song "For What it's Worth."

In 1969, Fonda starred in Easy Rider, a film that he also produced. Directed by Dennis Hopper, it starred Fonda, Hopper, and Jack Nicholson as freewheeling, pot-smoking adventurers who find their counter-culture lifestyle threatened by the encroaching confines of the Establishment.

One of the cultural landmarks of the 1960s, it was also an unexpected commercial success, making millions at the box office, earning Fonda an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay, and contributing to Hollywood's new interest in young audiences and socially relevant movies.

After a divorce, a string of forgettable films throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and the death of his beloved yet challenging father, Peter returned to the spotlight in 1997 with 'Ulee's Gold', another independent and influential film.

For nearly three decades, he has eschewed the constant glare of Hollywood's bright lights, choosing instead to live with his wife, Becky, in rural Montana.