Happy 85th, Jane Fonda!

An indomitable workhorse at 85. And damn, she looks great. She's had fairly dignified face work.

Barbarella

Don't forget Barefoot in the Park. Cat Ballou.

Any Wednesday. Only because it was the first time I went to Radio City. My mother had a crush on Jason Robards.

Though I must add I saw it not that long ago on TV. It was awful.

It’s hard to believe she’s that old.

Sunday in New York

I've been wanting to watch a couple of her '80s movies, Agnes of God and The Morning After. I think I might have seen the latter on VHS something like 35 years ago, but I honestly can't remember for sure.

Walk...

I absolutely love that film, R7! During the dark days of lock down I happened to catch it on TCM and it was such a breezy breath of fresh air! Very dated, but very fun and highly enjoyable.

Period of Adjustment

Not sure if it's my all time favorite but I really liked "All Together."

It's a French movie. She is somewhat subdued in this film - it feels to me like a very nice performance, not A Jane Fonda Movie. It predates Grace and Frankie by about 5 years but covers some of the same ground (namely living in a house with a friend - or in this case friends).

On Golden Pond

Tall Story

Barbarella

Cat Ballou

Barefoot in the Park

I will always love the Datalounge suggestion that Lucille Ball was first offered Jane Fonda's role in "Klute."

Jane is a fascinating person and activist.

It's astonishing to me that Fonda actually became more beautiful as she aged. Of course, much of that is attributable to various and assorted surgeries, but still.

Her results are the gold standard,

When will she reveal the truth about her failure in Athens?

What caused twenty minutes worth of footage to be cut from the film?

someone give the details again about Angela's relationship with Jane shooting Cool of the Day / thanks in advance

The Electric Horseman with Robert Redford

Apparently Jane told Andy Cohen it was the worst film she'd ever made.

Jane is NO spring chicken anymore but she certainly does not look ( I know she's had plastic surgery but still) or act like an 85 year old little old lady.

Jane told Andy Cohen that it wasn't released because her breakdown ruined the picture..

She is responsible for the Vietnam War!!!!! The blood of many, many people is on her hands. I hope true Americans protest her funeral.

Not sure what you are drinking, R24.

That is crap! NOT TRUE

She’s really great in The Morning After- worth watching especially for those who are convinced she’s a “ humorless actress” (she isn’t and never was, really).

Despite what you say R25, a lot of wounded ex-serviceman remember their fallen comrades.

And they refuse to negate their feelings towards this foolish, flippant, pampered young woman whose path in life was smoothed by nepotism.

How does Stanley & Iris hold up?

There's one in every crowd, like R27. Sometimes there are two--like R24.

No one cares. She wasn't responsible for any wounded ex-serviceman or their fallen comrades.

Jane Fonda's Workout has kept me youthful and supple!

Happy Birthday, sweetheart.

"this foolish, flippant, pampered YOUNG woman"

Thanks, R27!

I thought she was just fine, R24 and R27.

I cannot believe there are people on Datalounge of all places who are stupid enough to STILL fall for the “Hanoi Jane” lies and exaggerations. She has explained herself countless times and apologized even more than that. Get a life.

As for favorites— I’ve always thought she really shined in Agnes Of God (what a great film on the whole), 9 to 5, and The China Syndrome. Really, she’s pretty great in just about everything she’s done. Including Barbarella. I’ve always been a fan of hers, even when I was a little kid in the 80s. The lower register of her speaking voice has always entranced me, too.

She should have stayed with Candy Clark, they made a cute couple...Marjoe Gortner got in the way, and he was prone to violence.

I just watched "Klute" for the first time after viewing this thread today.

There was a waste of 2 hours (but the city & buildings looked nice in it).

I first saw her in "9 to 5", then "Barbarella" & finally "On Golden Pond" this year.

She was better in those films (for anyone who hasn't seen them).

R36, you're the only person in the entire world who would say "Klute" was a bad movie and that she was better in any of those other movies. You truly have no taste.

Jane was born while her father was filming Jezebel with Miss Bette Davis.

I seem to recall Bette talking about Henry getting a call on set and leaving for the birth. Not sure if it was an old interview or a story in one of her biographies.

Hard to believe it’s 85 years since Bette’s heyday

She’s terrific in her segment of Neil Simon’s hit-and-miss California Suite, directed by DL legend Herb Ross.

It’s a tricky role. On the surface, she’s unpleasant - insecure, brittle, and snide. But she makes the character somewhat sympathetic by presenting her as intelligent and vulnerable at the same time.

It’s not a great film, but it’s a fantastic movie star turn by Fonda.

The issues surrounding Hanoi Jane are not complex and is another case of her being dickmatized where all pretensions to independent thinking and feminism can go to the devil. And this was not the only time.

Still I love her. A great actor, personality, and when she's not dickmatized a genuine passionate activist.

Jane Fonda in 5 Acts is worth a look.

R39 - Jane gets some funny Neil Simon lines in this. "I never liked San Francisco. I was always afraid I'd fall out of bed and roll down one of those hills."

[quote]I will always love the Datalounge suggestion that Lucille Ball was first offered Jane Fonda's role in "Klute."

The thought of Lucy in Klute made me laugh.

[quote]It's astonishing to me that Fonda actually became more beautiful as she aged.

That claim is the only thing that's astonishing.

R40, to suggest she was, as you say, "dickmatized," that she didn't have her eyes opened to the obscenity of the Vietnam War (as many millions did by that time) is extremely disingenuous. Calling her "Hanoi Jane" does not bolster your sexist argument, either, depite claiming you otherwise "love" her.

Lucy already had a full bag of tricks for Klute.

I have never liked her as an actress. She is so self conscious in every role.

Also, her face work looks like melted wax in person. She is a terminally insecure woman with no real convictions or identity. More sad than anything. It’s funny to me people see her as some freedom fighting hero instead of a poor little rich girl still mad at her daddy.

What's sad is your need to drop a wet blanket here with your bitter Betty dime store diagnoses, R47/R48. Go Grinch somewhere else.

R47/48, you seem like a miserable person. There are far worse, or more self-conscious actors than Jane Fonda. It sounds like your beef is personal. What does her personality or her particular off-screen psychology have to do with anything? I can’t imagine feeling that bitter or disdainful about someone you’ve never met, who doesn’t affect your life in any way. I’ve never bothered to psychoanalyze an ACTOR whose work I didn’t care for.

"She is a terminally insecure woman with no real convictions"

Bullshit, R48. You're an asshole.

9 to 5

I know it is not everyone's favorite and some think it is cheesy, but I love her in On Golden Pond. Her performance was clearly tinged by her real-life complicated relationship with her father and the feelings which resulted.

Barbarella!

[quote] You're an asshole.

You're a sphincter!

What a comeback--for an asshole R55.

I'm a miserable person because I don't lick some celebrity's ass? DL is really frau (or perhaps dyke?) infested now. Years ago, you had people saying the exact same things about Fonda and nobody was personally offended.

Well, this particular thread is really frau.

I can only assume most here are also 85 years of age.

Didn't she also star in Vivian Vance??? I would have voted for that one.

[quote] dickmatized

If she weren't Henry Fonda's daughter she'd have had the same career as one of those myriad blonde, thin 60s starlets. She got way more credit for being a competent actress for performances like They Shoot Horses and Klute (far from the best female performance of 1971, much less one of the best of all time) partially because of her family lineage and partially because she was so, so bad in most of her 60s comedic films. For example, Barbarella is beautiful to watch for the sets and the sexy European actors but Fonda nearly sinks the movie with how stiff and humorless she is.

She was the first annoying, phony virtue signaling celebrity. She also managed to avoid serious career repercussions for her "activism" in a way other actresses without her family connections did not - see Jean Seberg. And then she dumped her "socialist" ideals once the 80s rolled around to be a fitness maven and trophy wife to CNN mogul Ted Turner. And now he's gone, she's back on the woke train.

I'm a very left wing person. I would at least like her for her activism if I believed she was the least bit earnest about it. She just molded herself to both the trends of her time or whatever man she was trying to please. There's nothing in her public persona to admire. I don't know her personally, nobody here does (I assume).

I'm happy her cancer is in remission and she has lived to be 85, but I really do not care for her as an actress or public figure.

R57, you're not an asshole and a miserable person because you refuse to lick some celebrity's ass. You're an asshole and a miserable person because you're an asshole and a miserable person.

Why's that, R58? Most people have been commenting about her movies and which they like. What's your problem?

R60, Vadim didn't turn her into an antiwar activist.

She got 'dickmatized' by a different man every decade.

She was putty in their hands.

"I'm a very left wing person."

🤣, R61!

You remind me of Jennifer Coolidge at :11-:13. "I'm a very appealing person!"

And now, R64, with no man for years in her life?

Jane's greatest TV moment. She would have fit in well here.

She was the Katy Perry of her generation.

[quote]She was the first annoying, phony virtue signaling celebrity. She also managed to avoid serious career repercussions for her "activism" in a way other actresses without her family connections did not - see Jean Seberg.

Jean Seberg, God bless her, was a batshit suicidal lunatic.

R69 She was troubled to begin with, but the FBI's COINTELPRO terrorizing of her is the main thing that drove her to insanity. She was some regular girl from Iowa who should never have been given the chance to be as high profile as she was. Very, very beautiful though.

"She was some regular girl from Iowa who should never have been given the chance to be as high profile as she was."

What, R70? She should not have been allowed to fulfill her talents as an actress because she didn't have good mental health support and because the government persecuted her? Why are you blaming her and saying she shouldn't have been given a chance to be an artist? I couldn't imagine "Breathless" without her.

[quote] thing that drove her to insanity.

This teenager was plucked out of the Mid-West and made an international laughing stock in her first picture.

She was inept in the role and she was used and abused by that overbearing bully-kraut Preminger and neither of them had absolutely no idea what they were doing with George Bernard Shaw's utterly abstruse script in an absolute mess of a black and white movie.

Fine, r71, she shouldn't have had the chance at a less profile and possibly happier life so that you can have her in Breathless.

^ less high profile

I wondered how long it'd be until the vitriolics arrived, as they inevitably do on DL, ignoring the whole point of this thread so that they could spew instead.

It's going on in like threads, r75. I think the holidays are making the bitter, bitterer.

R72, she redeemed herself in Breathless. In fact, it made her an icon of sorts.

R73, you don't think the problem of her unhappiness was a harassing government (and un unhappy marriage, which you don't seem to know about), rather than with her?

She wouldn't have been targeted by the government if she hadn't been discovered by Preminger, r77. The course of her life would have been different and that marriage wouldn't have happened. Had she not gotten that break she may have still lived an unhappy life. We'll never know. We *do* know that that break led to an unhappy life.

She rimmed Clint Eastwood!

So, R78, she should have remained an obscure young woman so as to avoid the perseuction of her own government? Your "logic" is very strange. Anyway, back to the actual subject of the thread.

Fonda had bigger breasts than Seberg.

It was in reply, r80, to your:

[quote]you don't think the problem of her unhappiness was a harassing government (and un unhappy marriage, which you don't seem to know about),

My reply:

quote]She wouldn't have been targeted by the government if she hadn't been discovered by Preminger, [R77]. The course of her life would have been different and that marriage wouldn't have happened. Had she not gotten that break she may have still lived an unhappy life. We'll never know. We *do* know that that break led to an unhappy life.

R47 I feel the same way. I think Henry Fonda was one of the greatest actors, very spontaneous and natural, which se's incapable of being. And Peter wasn't a good actor, either.

*she's

Except she hasn’t, r17. She looks fantastic for her age, but let’s not get carried away — she was at her most glorious at about 30.

So, really, R82, what you're saying is that it's Preminger's fault.

Whatever, r86.

Yeah, whatever, R87.

She was funny and sexy in Barefoot in the Park.

R86 Yes I am.

George Bernard Shaw's plays were released from copyright in the late 50s. Pygmalion made a successful musical. But his other plays made the clunky film 'Devil's Disciple and 'The Millionairess' had to be re-written.

'Saint Joan is full of in comprehensible, abstruse satire and ham-fisted Preminger was hopeless in understanding it. He hired a knowledgeable supporting cast but he and Widmark and this teenager were cringingly bad.

Yes, I blame Preminger for ruining that kid's life.

[quote] She was the Katy Perry of her generation

^^ THIS is the dumbest and most offensive thing written in this thread.

Get real R37. The DL poll has Klute only getting a third of the votes. You act like it's over 50%..

Donald looks & acts asexual in the film.

TPTB (that made the film) gave it the usual sympathy script to prostitutes & their johns.

This guy only comes over to clean or this john h just wants to wear the girl's clothing. Ugh!

It comes across as preachy when you watch it for the first time today.

Also, Roy had more chemistry with Jane than Donald. They should've switched roles in this flick. Roy would've done great as the P.I.

This is Where I Leave You is a definite movie that you guys should see. Love Jane.

"... a lifeless, laughless sitcom-soap that stumbles from one generic situation to the next. There is almost nothing here that you haven’t seen a dozen times before, and even the surprises feel flat and familiar....Ms. Fonda seems to float through the proceedings as if on her way to a more elegant and sophisticated event somewhere far away."

R94 what film?

R91 Are you personally offended? Or are you choosing to take offence on behalf of people you haven't met?

Loved her and her co-stars in 9-to-5. But shocked to realize it was made in 1980. Seems like yesterday.

R96, I was imprecise in my wording. I meant it’s offensive to my intelligence. I’m more embarrassed for you than anything else, not offended on Jane’s behalf.

OK, R98, do you think intelligence is necessary to appreciate Jane Fonda's contribution to American cinematic art?

Back when Jane was married to Ted Turner I had season tickets to the Atlanta Braves, they were right along the third base line not far from where Ted and Jane sat behind home plate. I saw her and Ted often at those games at fairly close range. Let me tell you, Jane Fonda is a knockout in real life. After seeing her in person I finally understood the term having "it". Whatever that means in the movie world Jane Fonda had "it" in spades and she would have been in her 50s at the time

Did you speak to her? I sent her a message once on her website and she answered me.

[quote] After seeing her in person I finally understood the term having "it".

The word "it" was coined by Elinor Glyn to denote "sex appeal".

Englishpeople were too prudish to say the word.

Hanoi Jane is 85? Hard to believe!

@r101, No, I'm not the type to approach movie stars, but I'm glad you were able to talk to her 🙂

^ Wait, I did tell Cher I liked her work on her site and she thanked me. I thought that was pretty cool

R101 I like that about her. There are a couple of other actresses in that general age group who are like that (approachable on social media, etc) which I find a lot more refreshing than those (especially a certain person I won’t mention because this board will go crazy) who look down on all that and think (mistakenly) that makes them iconoclastic and cool.

She adjusts with the times and I think that’s a good thing.

The Parallax View is the only artistically worthwhile movie Pakula made.

🙄🙄🙄

R45 Everybody knows she was dickmatized to the nth degree and it is not sexist to say so. Its like saying Harry is pussy whipped. Is that sexist? And what I'm sexist against both men and women? And Hanoi Jane was the term used at the time to describe her. And to be honest what she did was pretty horrible. She didn't just protest the war. But you know exactly what she did very well. And she did it because she was in love with a man. So yeah she was dickmatized. And yeah I still think in spite of all that I can enjoy her acting and be impressed by her beauty, great talent, energy and activism. You on the other hand are so enamored of her you get very defensive if her deep flaws are pointed out.

And I think she deserves without question a Kennedy Center Honor.

[quote] You on the other hand are so enamored of her you get very defensive if her deep flaws are pointed out.

Dear R110, you didn't hear the OP demand that "Fonda bashers" should "apply elsewhere".

Fonda = Nepo Baby

I am so sick of seeing that goddamn Nepo Baby link on the DL.

I can't cope!

R61 Yes, being Henry Fonda's daughter undoubtedly influenced her career, and there are greater actresses. But there are tons of "nepo babies" who can't sustain a career like she did. Heard from Tori Spelling lately? She was not the original "virtue-signaling" actress, whatever that means. There were Hollywood liberals way back in the day. But unless they were blacklisted it doesn't count? She didn't marry Turner in the 1980s to make some conservative statement to please the median voter. Tom Hayden -a miserable person who couldn't deal with his dependence on her when she was supporting his very middling political career once HE toned down HIS radicalism- cheated on her with a Dukakis speechwriter. She hooked up with Turner after that. And while I'm not a fan of his, he was very progressive as billionaires go.

Why did she have to marry Turner?

She was serially dickmatised?

R115 I think Jane Fonda was slightly better looking than Tori Spelling.

@r115, " She hooked up with Turner after that. And while I'm not a fan of his, he was very progressive as billionaires go."

They didn't call Turner, "Captain Outrageous" for nothing. On the day Jane Fonda's divorce from Hayden was final Ted Turner, who had never met Jane, called her up and said, "So, I hear you're divorced, wanna go out some time?" Jane was so overwhelmed by his chutzpah that she agreed to a date just to meet this nervy guy

On their first date she gets in his limo and he says, "I heard you had an FBI file, so I wanted to check you out" He then produces her FBI file. She thought, "Oh, no, hear it comes..." He then produces his FBI file which was 3 times as thick as hers and says, "Here's mine if you want to check me out" She decided right then that this was the guy for her 🙂

[quote] Jane was so overwhelmed by his chutzpah

Instantly dickmatized.

Telephonically dickmatized.

She even agreed to give up her career for him because she hoped this would be the intimate relationship she had wanted from her previous husbands and had not gotten.

R92, do you know how polls work? Her performance in "Klute" is polling highest. You have no taste as well as being stupid.

R109, you're just a dick with no one to dickmatize.

I don't get all these queens who rave about how amazing her plastic surgery is. Her jaw is too sharp and pronounced, almost mannish in appearance. And the eye lift hollowed out her eyes, making them vacant and dull. She had some of the expressive, beautiful eyes in movie history (she would have made a fantastic silent screen performer) and obliterated them with surgery.

I'm surprised people her age aren't embarrassed by trying to look young by surgery. Not a little younger - young. This woman is 85 years old. That's quite an elderly person. I think it's sad to do so much to yourself and turn yourself into a freak. Obviously. no one who's 85 looks remotely like that, naturally. And no one is fooled by it. What's the big shame in aging? It's part of life.

Her video for L'Oreal Am I worth it? with her supposedly without make-up. Other actresses in the series are shown removing their makeup but not Jane.

I think the best case is that she had very good surgery that was not obvious except to people really in the know and looked great as a result, until recently when she went too far. A lot of Hollywood women reach the "too far" stage at a much, much younger age. At least she went gray!

R125, she hardly looks like a freak. Madonna looks like a freak.

"She had some of the expressive, beautiful eyes in movie history (she would have made a fantastic silent screen performer) and obliterated them with surgery."

Bullshit, R124.

Those pictures of her laughing while sitting on the North Vietnamese gun are just "lies and exaggerations"?

No one gives a fuck, R129.

For the Fox knee-jerk zombies who've ignored the whole point of this thread...

[quote] zombies who've ignored the whole point of this thread...

Go to your room, you zombies!

Damn age is a bitch.

R133, that was from 60 years ago.

Yeah it's still a bitch.

For everyone, R135, including you.

I don't plan on seeing that old lady movie with all those has beens - but I have loved Jane Fonda since Tall Story, Barefoot In The Park, and They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

My favorite of all though is Cat Ballou.

"You can keep the ranch. I don't want it now that he's dead. But I'll be back to Woof [sic] City and I'll make Sherman's March to Sea look like a cakewalk!"

I Love Klucy would have won Ball the Oscar that went to Jane.

Klucy doing roleplay...

R128 You have your opinion and I have mine. If a face doesn't look natural because of plastic surgery, to me that's freakish. If you think this looks good you probably live in LA.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

It's not the worst plastic surgery job, there are worse ones, but she would have looked like a pretty 85 year old woman who looked her age, with wrinkles, and I feel it's better than the way these old women try to look sexy or glamorous. Give it up, that part of your life is over, live the old part.

[quote] face doesn't look natural because of plastic surgery, to me that's freakish

R140 I agree with you. My brain immediately recognises a face that has been deformed by surgery or a car accident.

I'm no particular fan of Robert Redford but I remember him saying that people who cut pieces of flesh from their own face are losing parts of their own 'soul'.

Did anyone add Jane Fonda’s original workout?

Fonda had very good work done over a long period of time. She doesn't look "eternally surprised" or Asian, so I think she's doing better than most other older actresses who've had work done. She has outlasted a lot of nepos of her time like Patrick Wayne, Tisha Sterling, or Jody McRae and has had a better career than say, Mia Farrow. She doesn't have enormous range, but she can do light comedy and pretty conventional drams. She and Sutherland had an affair during "Klute" and their chemistry really adds to the film. She was good in Cat Ballou and They Shoot Horses Don't There and I liked her in China Syndrome where she was stuck with hammy Jack Lemmon.

Her status within Hollywood and the personal connections probably saved her from the career deaths that happened with many lefties like Paul Robeson. For all their whining, Right Wingers have never really had problems getting hired in Hollywood going back decades.

Re: Hayden---he was never as radical as other SDSers. he was the pragmatist, happy to work with their conventionally Cold War-oriented sponsors.

Happy Birthday to Jane! I voted for Klute but have a special fondness for her camp turn in The Morning After.

Having said this, I think she herself has spoken often and candidly about being influenced by the men in her life and her insecurities. One of her originalities is that her voice makes her sound more intelligent than she is.

^ Your last sentence is damning.

Hayden treated her terribly at the end of their marriage. Just one day announced he wanted a divorce so he could marry a younger woman.

She financed his sell-out middling political career for a long time and on some level he resented it. What a jerk he was.

Barefoot in the Park

Her timing in Barefoot is excellent and she didn't have the direction and training Nichols afforded to Redford which is definitely one of his best performances. His looks carried him very far. Fonda had the looks but the talent too.

Dear [R110], you didn't hear the OP demand that "Fonda bashers" should "apply elsewhere".

Dear hall monitor you do know we toss you in the dust bin. And with good reason.