born May-16-1905, died Aug-12-1982 at 77 years of age; b. Grand Island, Hall Co., Nebraska; 1930 Census, Nebraska, Douglas, Omaha, District 114; d. Los Angeles, CA; Academy and Tony Award-winning film and stage actor who as a young man portrayed honest, hardworking men, and as an adult often played heroic characters. He appeared in nearly 90 films, which include the Grapes of Wrath (1940), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) and On Golden Pond (1981); see Wikipedia , Biographies for more...
Family and associated notes
1st wife Margaret Brooke Sullavan; Actress; born May-16-1911, died Jan-1-1960 at 48 years of age; b. Norfolk, VA; d. New Haven, CT; committed suicide by drug overdose;
2nd wife Frances Ford Seymour; Actress; born Apr-14-1908, died Apr-14-1950 at 42 years of age; dau. of Eugene Ford Seymour and Sophie Mildred Bower; d. Craig House (sanatorium), Beacon, Dutchess County, New York; committed suicide. (see " Don't Tell Dad " autobiography by Peter Fonda). 1st marriage 1931 to George Tuttle Brokaw who died in 1936. She had one child with her 1st husband, Frances and two with Henry Fonda, Jane and Peter;
3rd wife Susan Blanchard; born 1928; stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II, theatrical lyricist and producer; studied at the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania;
4th wife Afdera Franchetti; Baroness; born 1933; International jet-setter, daughter of Italian aristocrat and explorer, Baron Raimondo Franchetti, who was assassinated while on an envoy to Mussolini on the orders of Churchill; Afdera had alleged affair with John F. Kennedy during the very week he entered the White House; once arrested for drug smuggling; detailed in her 1987 autobiography " Never Before Noon ";
5th wife Shirlee Mae Adams; Stewardess, Model; born 1932.
Sources and references
- Wikipedia
- Don't Tell Dad
- Never Before Noon