Jane Fonda, an amazing person, has publicly declared she has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and is in chemotherapy. Jane is a very spritely 84-year-old and says her cancer is treatable.
This will not stop the extraordinary Jane Fonda. As long as she can make a lot of money from films and can use that money to support the struggles she sponsors, she will continue. ‘Are you strong?’ is something to which Jane Fonda can say a loud and strong “Yes”. She feels her honesty gives people the freedom to talk about things they wouldn’t otherwise.
Jane is not new to the threat of cancer. She is a survivor of breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy in November 2010, and a cancerous growth removed from her lower lip in 2018. 80% of people survive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Jane Fonda an Amazing Person
Jane, an American actor, activist and former model, is a well-recognized movie star and silver screen icon. Fonda admits she is impetuous and an extremely emotional person.
She has won two Academy Awards and two British Academy Awards. Jane accepted her Oscar for Coming Home, in 1978, in sign language. She had learned there were 17 million deaf people in the United States alone. The Academy refused to do closed caption, so she did her own thing in sign language.
Jane’s Father Henry Fonda
In considering Jane Fonda’s amazing career, you need to consider her background, as the daughter of Henry Fonda.
Jane’s father was also a silver screen icon, whose career spanned five decades, on Broadway and in Hollywood. Henry Fonda was nicknamed, ‘one-take-Fonda’ for his natural talents that charmed the camera. Henry was obsessive about everything to do with the theatre and acting. That is despite, Henry having had a troubled childhood, that resulted in him having great difficulty revealing his private emotions.
Henry Fonda was a notorious hot head. Jane admitted her father instilled in her the idea that, “Unless you look perfect, you will not be loved.” So, he wasn’t the best father, but he was an even worse husband. When Jane was12-years-old, Henry’s separated, first wife, yielded to the ‘black dog’ of depression and committed suicide.
Medical records show that Jane’s mother had nine abortions before she gave birth to Jane, yet Jane blamed herself for her mother’s death. This is something that is common to children of broken marriages and adult trauma.
Blue-eyed, Henry Fonda was a workaholic, besides having many messy affairs and marrying five times. Some classed him as a cold, self-absorbed person, and a complete narcissist.
Jane was Pretty Enough
At first, Jane was not interested in following or competing in her father’s world of acting. Jane became an actress after Greta Garbo told her she was ‘pretty enough’.
Jane openly admits that she had bulimia, an eating disorder, between the ages of 13 to 37. While modelling she lived on cigarettes, coffee, speed and strawberry yoghurt. Jane was featured twice on the cover of Vogue magazine. Jane Fonda had to teach herself to eat all over again like a child, in order to overcome bulimia.
As a young starlet, Jane was advised to have her jaw broken and reset, and her back teeth pulled. They wanted a more chiselled look. Jane did the same as Barbra Streisand and resisted the temptation of a cosmetic surgeon’s knife. Fonda later admitted she did have some surgery around her eyes and jawline. “I was sick of looking tired when I wasn’t.”
Jane Fonda was an amazing person and destined very early, to be uncommon and influential. Her distinctive face-framing layered hair cut was known as the Klute shag. Klute was a movie about a system that oppresses women and makes them sell themselves for possessions.
Jane Fonda Amazing Person and Activist
Jane did follow her father in one aspect. Her private life was frequently laden with scandal and controversy. This included her support of the Viet-Cong during the Vietnam War. She later said her actions were thoughtless and hurt many soldiers. “Posing for a photo with a Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun was the biggest lapse of judgement in my life. I’m glad I did everything I did, except that.” She supported the Black Panthers Party in the late 1970s.
Her activist activities have been a thread throughout her life. Between 1969 and 71, she defied a Coast Guard blockade to deliver supplies to militants who had taken over Alcatraz, supporting the island’s Indian occupation.
Jane Fonda and Marriage
Following her divorce from her first husband, Jane announced she had become a born-again Christian. It was thought this was a factor in the divorce in 1973.
Jane married and divorced three times and has three children, the last one being adopted. She suffered post-natal depression following the birth of her daughter, Vanessa. On marriage, Jane says, “I can challenge my government, but I can’t challenge the man I’m with.” Of her third husband Ted Turner, she said, “He needs someone there 100% of the time. That’s not love. It’s babysitting.”
Jane says when older men hook up with her, they just cash in and take it easy. “They become a burden and a bore.”
Jane Fonda Amazing Person and Golden Pond
Jane bought the rights to Ernest Thompson’s play, On Golden Pond, that became a film in 1982. It was about an emotionally distant father and his daughter. Jane and Henry both starred in this blockbuster film. It snagged a handful of Oscar awards, including Henry’s only Oscar.
Henry was too sick to attend the Oscar Awards, but Jane gave her father a gut-wrenching tribute. One of her comments was, “I’ll bet when he heard it just now, he said ‘Hey ain’t I lucky?’ As if luck had anything to do with it.” Jane and Henry are the only father-daughter combination to receive Oscars for a leading role.
Golden Pond was the only film to have three generations work on the same set. Jane’s son, Tom Garity played the role of a young boy on the jetty. Jane Fonda was the producer.
That same year her aerobics video Work out, sold 17 million copies. It became the bestselling home video ever and she became an icon of exercise. Her aerobic exercise started a worldwide craze. Jane finds that a strenuous physical workout jump-starts her thought process.
The Awards Begin for Jane Fonda Amazing Person
In 1989, Jane was nominated for the Worst Actress for her performance in the film Old Gringo. In 1995, the Empire magazine said extraordinary Jane Fonda was one of the 100 Sexiest Stars and in 1997 they said she was one of ‘The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time’.
Jane retired from movie acting in 1991 because she was so unhappy with herself and her life. Acting was too painful, and she desperately needed time to hibernate and refill. She returned fourteen years later, a different person.
In 1994, Jane was a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund.
In March 2001, Fonda donated $12.5 million to Harvard University’s School of Education for the creation of a gender studies centre. It was dedicated to examining how boys and girls learn differently.
More Awards
By 2005, Premier Magazine voted Fonda as #32 on the list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time. In 2006, Jane visited Sweden in support the political party Feministic Initiative in the national election.
In 2014, the American Film Institute awarded her the Life Achievement Award. It is given in acknowledgement of a person whose career has contributed to the enrichment of American culture, in motion pictures or television. In 2017, she received the Golden Lion Lifetime achievement award by the Venice Film Festival.
Jane helped feed 5000 demonstrators in 2016, against the Bakken Pipeline, and is an outspoken critic of Donald Trump. Fonda received the Female Lifetime Achievement Award at the Environmental Media Association Honours Benefit Gala in 2018, for her efforts to make a difference on the planet.
The awards keep coming. In 2019, she was the recipient of the Producers Guild of America’s Stanley Kramer Award for her activism and philanthropic work. “It’s easy to say that awards are silly, but they’re very good reassurance for the ego.”
Jane Fonda Hero
Howard Stern calls extraordinary Jane Fonda a hero and wants her to run for the Oval Office. Perhaps her age will be against her, though she does have a $200 million dollar estate as backing. She has proven herself as a warrior as she touched many lives.
Speaking about acting Jane says, “I would have given up acting in a minute. I don’t like how it set me apart from other people.” Another of her comments is, “As an actor you spend all your life trying to do something they put people in asylums for.”
She finds public speaking difficult, “But, we’re used to hiding behind masks.” Barbra Streisand said something similar, “I don’t enjoy public performances and being on the stage. I don’t enjoy the glamour. You have to discover you, what you do and trust it. You don’t need to mimic anyone.”
Jane Fonda Amazing Person Says Don’t Give Up
Jane Fonda thought she would never make it past thirty-years-old. She felt she would die of alcoholism and loneliness. Her advice is, “Don’t give up no matter how hard it is. Try to make the best of who you are.” She believes it is important to stay curious and be interested, rather than be interesting.
On aging Jane Fonda says, “Aging is ascending a staircase into growth, wisdom, well-being and happiness.” That is despite finding herself alone, but she says forgiveness is vital to happiness. “There is no point to holding a grudge.”
Jane is proof of what a strong person with a resilient character is. As she announced the major cancer diagnosis, she said, “I’m okay. I’m worried about you.” You too have a voice in your sphere of influence that reaches far beyond you and like other great women, will be heard long after your are gone. Use that voice for good.
Photo Source
Check out other posts at Whispering Encouragement. We are here to inform and encourage. Talk to us. Tell us of any person, business, or incident you would like to see highlighted here. We are always looking for your suggestions.
________________________Whispering Encouragement_______________________
