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Peter fonda easy rider7/5/2023 ![]() ![]() Pandora’s Box (seen, not unpleasantly anachronistically, still standing in Once Upon a Time. But when the copsĬuffed the actor on the Sunset Strip, near the shuttered-in-’67 nightclub Named Heavenly Blues (only heads knew what that meant) in Roger Corman’s The Wild Angels. The same year he became a drive-in movie icon, as the nihilistic biker-badass-in-black-leathers Star was slowly on the rise, his sideburns progressively wider. Sandra Dee in some Ross Hunter fluff ( TammyĪnd the Doctor, photographed by Russell Metty and as such theĬlosest the actor would ever get to working with Douglas Sirk), and finally some real flexing of his actingĬhops (as a suicidal mental patient, no less) for a high-profile director in Hollywood bag of his own, with a fistful of episodic TV guest spots, a mild-mannered leading role across from The Sunset Strip riots, Fonda had spent the early ’60s passionately expanding a Say all the incautious interlocutor needed to know about those particular ![]() ?” His reference to John Ford’s 1948 cavalryĬlassic, in which the elder Fonda plays an insufferable martinet, was meant to When asked to recall his young life with his father, Fonda would sometimes simplyĬurl his smile and inquire, “Well, you’ve seen Fort Apache. Or was it all the way in? His mother had slit her own throat tenĭays after her forty-second birthday, when Fonda was just ten. In 1969, Fonda and his filmmaking partner Dennis Hopper set off a riot all their own with Easy Rider, a film about the colors and the chaos and the head-trips of a new generation, a film that would seismically shift the commercial bedrock on which Hollywood was built.įonda knew all about Hollywood chaos: born the year his father starred in The Grapes of Wrath, he had grown up inĪ house haunted by both celebrity and suicide, and by ’66 he was dropping all He’d be back within a year to turn those visions into the penultimate spasms of Roger Corman’s pro-LSD 1967 masterpiece The Trip, and there was more shaking yet to come. It’s easy enough to picture Fonda-son of Henry, brother of Jane-in the midst of that madness, detained by the Fuzz, smiling his blinding, perfect-toothed smile at all of it. Jack Nicholson and Sonny and Cher were there Frank Zappa and Buffalo Springfield wrote songs about it. As ’60s riots went, it was all pretty tame. The Man, by definition unhip to those energies and desires, moved in. All the kids wanted was to stay up late, and to rock and roll without getting hassled by the Man. curfew recently implemented by local businesses and other community-group squares. You can sign up to receive it directly here.In 1966, Fonda-actor, director, celebrity biker, heartfelt activist, hilarious stoner, and consummate movie star-was handcuffed in a riot of colors on the Sunset Strip. It was all a crazy trip: hippies and tourists clogging intersections, demanding their freedom to go-go-go past an idiotic 10 p.m. "In honor of Peter, please raise a glass to freedom." Easy Rider earned Fonda an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay Image: Imago//EntertainmentPicturesĮvery evening, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. "While we mourn the loss of this sweet and gracious man, we also wish for all to celebrate his indomitable spirit and love of life," the relatives said in a statement. He was also an environmentalist, co-producing the 2012 film "The Big Fix," which centered on the explosion of the BP oil rig Deepwater Horizon, the ensuing spill and its environmental hazards.įonda married three times, and leaves behind two children, including actress Bridget. "Independent cinema begins with Easy Rider," she added.įonda began his acting career in Broadway in his native New York. Peter Fonda embodied those values and instilled them in a generation," Goodfellas actress Illeana Douglas wrote on Twitter. "Easy Rider depicted the rise of hippie culture, condemned the establishment, and celebrated freedom. The film portrayed the exploits of two bikers on their way to Mardi Gras. Fonda earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing the movie. The family said he has died of respiratory failure due to lung cancer.įonda was best known for "Easy Rider," which he co-wrote and starred in alongside Dennis Hopper. I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. "I am very sad," Fonda's sister and fellow actor Jane said in a statement. The son of Hollywood giant Henry Fonda, he found a niche in 1960s counterculture. Peter Fonda - who co-wrote and starred in the counter-culture classic "Easy Rider" - has died at the age of 79, his family confirmed on Saturday. ![]()
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