54 Facts About Peter Fonda

1.

Peter Fonda was the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda.

2.

Peter Fonda was a prominent figure in the counterculture of the 1960s.

3.

Peter Fonda was born on February 23,1940, in New York City, the only son of actor Henry Peter Fonda.

4.

Peter Fonda did not discover the circumstances or location of her death until he was 15 years old.

5.

Peter Fonda went to the Indian hill station of Nainital and stayed for a few months for recovery.

6.

Peter Fonda attended the Fay School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and was a member of the Class of 1954.

7.

Peter Fonda then matriculated in Westminster School, a Connecticut boarding school in Simsbury, where he graduated in 1958.

8.

Once he graduated, Peter Fonda studied acting in Omaha, Nebraska, his father's home town.

9.

Peter Fonda began guest starring on television shows like Naked City, The New Breed, Wagon Train, and The Defenders.

10.

Peter Fonda was cast in the role, in what was a minor hit.

11.

Peter Fonda followed this with a support part in The Victors, a bleak look at American soldiers in World War II, directed by Carl Foreman.

12.

Peter Fonda's performance won him a Golden Globe Award for most promising newcomer.

13.

Peter Fonda continued to work in television, guest starring in Channing, Arrest and Trial, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and 12 O'Clock High.

14.

Peter Fonda tested for the role of John F Kennedy in PT-109.

15.

Peter Fonda impressed Robert Rossen who cast him in what would be Rossen's last movie, Lilith, alongside Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg and Gene Hackman.

16.

Peter Fonda graduated to a starring role in The Young Lovers, about out-of-wedlock pregnancy, the sole directorial effort of Samuel Goldwyn Jr.

17.

Peter Fonda had become outwardly nonconformist and grew his hair long and took LSD regularly, alienating the "establishment" film industry.

18.

In November 1966 Peter Fonda was arrested in the Sunset Strip riot, which the police ended forcefully.

19.

Peter Fonda sang some and in 1967 recorded "November Night", a 45-rpm single written by Gram Parsons for the Chisa label, backed with "Catch the Wind" by Donovan, produced by Hugh Masekela.

20.

Peter Fonda's first counterculture-oriented film role was as a biker in Roger Corman's B movie The Wild Angels.

21.

Peter Fonda originally was to support George Chakiris, but graduated to the lead when Chakiris revealed he could not ride a motorcycle.

22.

Peter Fonda made a television pilot, High Noon: The Clock Strikes Noon Again, filmed in December 1965.

23.

Peter Fonda next played the male lead in Corman's film The Trip, a take on the experience and "consequences" of consuming LSD, which was written by Jack Nicholson.

24.

Peter Fonda's co-stars included Susan Strasberg, Bruce Dern, and Dennis Hopper.

25.

Peter Fonda then traveled to France to appear in the portmanteau horror movie Spirits of the Dead.

26.

Peter Fonda's segment co-starred his sister Jane and was directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim.

27.

Peter Fonda produced, co-wrote and starred in Easy Rider, directed by Dennis Hopper.

28.

Peter Fonda played "Wyatt", a charismatic, laconic man whose motorcycle jacket bore a large American flag across the back.

29.

Peter Fonda tried to secure financing from Roger Corman and American International Pictures, with whom he had made The Wild Angels and The Trip, but they were reluctant to finance a film directed by Hopper.

30.

Peter Fonda had secured funding of around $360,000, largely based on the fact he knew that it was the budget Roger Corman needed to make The Wild Angels.

31.

Hopper directed the film The Last Movie, in which Peter Fonda co-starred along with singer Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas.

32.

Peter Fonda directed and starred in the Western film The Hired Hand.

33.

Peter Fonda took the lead role in a cast that featured Warren Oates, Verna Bloom and Beat Generation poet Michael McClure.

34.

Peter Fonda later directed the science fiction film Idaho Transfer.

35.

Peter Fonda did not appear in the film, and the film received mixed reviews upon its limited release.

36.

Peter Fonda starred alongside Susan George and longtime-friend Adam Roarke in the film Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, a film about two NASCAR hopefuls who execute a supermarket heist to finance their jump into big-time auto racing.

37.

Outlaw Blues was a drama, with Peter Fonda playing a musician opposite Susan Saint James.

38.

Peter Fonda was top billed in The Hostage Tower, a television movie based on a story by Alistair MacLean.

39.

Peter Fonda appeared in the hit film, The Cannonball Run, as the "chief biker" that was a tongue-in-cheek nod to his earlier motorcycle films, and the film was a huge box office success that year with a large ensemble cast.

40.

Peter Fonda played a charismatic cult leader in Split Image, a film that starred James Woods, Karen Allen and Brian Dennehy.

41.

Peter Fonda guest starred on In the Heat of the Night.

42.

Peter Fonda portrayed a taciturn North Florida beekeeper and Vietnam veteran who tries to save his son and granddaughter from a life of drug abuse.

43.

In 1998, Peter Fonda starred in the TV movie The Tempest, based in part on William Shakespeare's play of the same name.

44.

Peter Fonda was in The Passion of Ayn Rand, then appeared in the crime film The Limey as Terry Valentine, an aging rock music producer who accidentally kills his younger girlfriend.

45.

In 2002, Peter Fonda was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

46.

Peter Fonda made a return to the big screen as the bounty hunter Byron McElroy in 3:10 to Yuma, a remake of the 1957 Western.

47.

Peter Fonda appeared in the last scenes of the biker comedy Wild Hogs as Damien Blade, founder of the biker gang Del Fuegos and father of Jack, played by Ray Liotta.

48.

Peter Fonda portrayed Mephistopheles, one of two main villains in the film Ghost Rider.

49.

Peter Fonda appeared in Journey to the Center of the Earth, Japan, and The Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll and as "The Roman", the main villain in The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, the sequel to The Boondock Saints.

50.

Peter Fonda was an executive producer of the documentary The Big Fix.

51.

Peter Fonda was married three times, he married his first wife Susan Brewer in 1961; together they had two children, Bridget and Justin.

52.

Peter Fonda married his second wife Portia Rebecca Crockett, in 1975.

53.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee claimed that he believed that Peter Fonda's statement about Barron Trump was a violation of federal criminal law.

54.

Peter Fonda died from respiratory failure caused by lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles on August 16,2019, at the age of 79.