Jane Fonda

A detailed Summary of Jane Fonda

Who is Jane Fonda? This is a question often asked by many people with no one right answer. She is an actress, a fitness guru, a former communist sympathizer, and most importantly, an antiwar activist during the Vietnam War. Although Jane Fonda was honored as one of the "100 Women of the Century", her infamous name is one Vietnam veterans will never forget. As American soldiers were losing their lives, she traveled into enemy-territory, defaming American POWs, many of whom were tortured to death. Jane Fonda, a revolutionary woman whose efforts not only demoralized American servicemen but also created a personal war that would last a lifetime, mixed politics with film to make her an infamous legend.

Born into a family of wealth, Jane Fonda evolved from a distinguished actress to one of the most controversial figures in Hollywood. Descending from prominent figures in history, including Samuel Adams and Jane Seymour, Fonda grew up with very little parental love and attention. Her father, actor Henry Fonda, rarely saw his daughter except for the occasional publicity photo-shoot. Her brother, Peter Fonda, and Jane spent most of their childhood at numerous boarding schools. "The beginnings of Fonda's passion for communism can be asc

There was no official blacklist like the one that ended so many brilliant careers during the McCarthey era of the 1950s, but fewer and fewer scripts were heading Jane's way. Jane was in the new age of being "graylisted." Robert Losey, a director who fled the country during the McCarthey era, understood Jane's predicament. He invited her to play the lead in a film titled Doll's House, but Losey could not find a distributor willing to gamble with a film starring "Hanoi Jane". Convinced that she had alienated too many powerful producers, Jane formed her own production company called the IPC. Jane decided that the IPC would make socially relevant films whose profits would go to political causes. Most of the IPC's earlier films were failures until the year 1978 when Jane decided to do a Vietnam film. The movie titled Coming Home was about the consequences of war as seen through the eyes of a military wife (Andersen 283). Although the film was a major gamble for Jane, it proved to be a success. After Coming Home, films began rolling in for Jane. Her comeback in Tinseltown had been nothing less then phenomenal, but she had not and probably will never regain respect from Vietnam veterans. Even to her last years in acting, she had been forced from shooting locations.

March 8,1970, marked Jane's first entry into the world of militant protest. Jane, a strong advocate of "Coffee houses", or hangouts where servicemen could get a taste of antiwar propaganda and some coffee, was also drawn to the Black Panthers, the feminist movement, the plight of the American Indian, welfare mothers, and the farm movement. Jane decided that "because of the success of my films, I have more power-and I intend to use it" (Andersen 169) and the best way to tackle all these issues

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Approximate Word count = 1188
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History