Today, Henry Fonda will appear on screens in one of the greatest courtroom dramas of all time, 12 Angry Men, which airs from 2.55pm on Film4. It follows the story of a jury in retirement, bidding to reach a verdict on a case involving a teenager killing their father. However, with tensions rising in the deliberation room, tensions between the jury begin to boil over.
12 Angry Men is considered by the American Film Institute as the second-best courtroom flick, behind only 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
The 1957 film was met with universal acclaim by critics, including A. H. Weiler, from the New York Times, who wrote: “It makes for taut, absorbing, and compelling drama that reaches far beyond the close confines of its jury room setting.”
Fonda received an Academy Award nomination for his work in producing the film, which in 2007 was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
His exploits on camera were also hailed, and the flick helped cement Fonda’s status as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
But when he was asked about acting by his daughter Jane, who herself would enjoy an incredible career in Tinsel Town, Fonda snapped, reports show.
Writer Al Aronowitz noted for a piece on Jane in The Saturday Evening Post in the Sixties how Fonda described his own acting method.
The star noted that he couldn’t “articulate about the method” because he “never studied it”.
Fonda added: “I don’t mean to suggest that I have any feelings one way or the other about it…I don’t know what the method is and I don’t care what the method is.
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“He’s not even conscious of what he does, and it made him nervous for me to try to articulate what I was trying to do.
“And I sensed that immediately, so we did very little talking about it…he said, ‘Shut up, I don’t want to hear about it.’
“He didn’t want me to tell him about it, you know. He wanted to make fun of it.”
Jane, who won Best Actress Oscar gongs for her roles in Klute and Coming Home, has often recalled tales of her father when questioned in the media.
The pair enjoyed a close relationship at times, with Jane accepting her father’s Academy Award on his behalf due to his deteriorating health.
Speaking to Closer Weekly in 2018, Jane discussed how her “father was very, very ill” and “could not attend ceremonies”.
She added: “He [asked if I] would receive the Oscar on his behalf and when they called his name… it was probably the happiest moment of my life.”
Yet, when it came to advice on acting, Fonda was more blunt that Jane could imagine.
Jane concluded in a 2011 Harper’s Bazaar interview: “I was raised in the Fifties. I was taught by my father that how I looked was all that mattered, frankly.
“He was a good man, and I was mad for him, but he sent messages to me that fathers should not send: Unless you look perfect, you’re not going to be loved.”
Jane developed bulimia, something that came from her worry over her looks, as well as her mother Frances Ford Seymour’s suicide when she was just 12.
She added: “It was in my forties, and if you suffer from bulimia, the older you get, the worse it gets.
“It takes longer to recover from a bout.
“I had a career, I was winning awards, I was supporting nonprofits, I had a family. I had to make a choice: I live or I die.”
12 Angry Men airs from 2.55pm on Film4.
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