BIOGRAPHIES OF THE STARS

Evening Star, Issue 22881, 12 February 1938, Page 5

BIOGRAPHIES OF THE STARS

5: HENRY FONDA 'Achieving seieen stardom almost Overnight has not changed Henry Fonda’s hat size. The handsome young middle-westerner knows he is only as good as his last role—whatever it is—with the public. It wasn’t so many years ago that Fonda was a Nebraskan schoolboy, am-

bitious to learn newspaper work. The life of an actor was farthest from his thoughts. ~ c He was born in the small city ox Grand Island on May 16, 1908, but his family moved to Omaha in Henry s childhood. . —Enrolling in the University of Minnesota, Fonda concentrated on journalism with the idea of becoming a reporter as soon as he received his degree. However, the city editors or the Omaha dailies displayed a remarkable lack of enthusiasm when Fonda ottered his services. A chance visit to a new Omaha enterprise, the Community Playhouse, changed the whole course of his lire. He was persuaded to jpin the movement, and was one of its leaders for three years, playing scores of roles. 'Now thoroughly under the spell of the theatre, he packed his trunk and headed east. Fonda’s first attack on the citadels of Broadway failed to make much ot an impression. He played extra roles and served as general understudy with the New York Theatre Guild, but his name did not appear on a programme until the production of ‘New I'aces. He struck a lean period then until he was signed for the role of the tutor in a stock presentation of The Swan. Geoffrey Kerr was the star. Kerr s wife, June Walker, who had been engaged for the lead in Marc Connolly a play, ‘ The Farmer Takes a Wife, saw m Fonda the ideal actor for the rough and ready character cast opposite her. Fonda got the part and the rest is

stage history. The play “ made ” him overnight and Hollywood producers began bidding for his services. Walter Wanger signed him and lent him to another company for the screen version of ‘ The Farmer Takes a Wife.’ Skyrocketed to fame by one role, he was lent out again for ‘ Way Down East ’ and ‘ I Dream Too Much.’ before making his bow on the home lot in ‘ The - Trail of the Lonesome Pine. ’ Then came ‘ The Moon’s Our Home,’ ‘ Wings of the Morning,’ which he made for a British studio,, and ‘ You Only Live Once.’ Between the production of the last two, he married Frances Seymour Brokaw, young New York Socialite. Fonda refuses to “ go Hollywood.” Likes tennis, handball, horseback riding and other sports, books, good music, comfortable clothes, open cars, plain food, and life without complications and frills. The star stands 6ft lin tall,. and weighs 1701 b. Ho has thick black, hair and blue eyes.