News
Within 7 days it would have been Henry Fonda`s (Frank) 103th birthday.
* May 16, 1905
† August 12, 1982
Trivia
Release date: December 21, 1968
Leone took dust of a particular color from Monument valley (USA) and used this for interior shots in the Cinecitta studio.Source / More (Book)
This was Henry Fonda’s first role as a bad guy. So he went to see director Leone with dark contact lenses and a moustache, to look like a heavy. Sergio Leone: “Off”. Leone wanted the blue eyes and the Fonda babyface.Source / More (Book)
Killing counter:
Harmonica kills 7 men
Frank kills 5 people
Cheyenne kills 3 menSource / More (Web)
Al Mulock committed suicide on the set by jumping from a hotel. Screenwriter Mickey Knox claimed in an interview that director Sergio Leone said “get the costume, we need the costume”. Mulock was wearing the costume he wore in the movie when he jumped.
Composer Ennio Morricone wrote the score before Leone began filming, forcing the movie to conform to the music.Source / More (Book)
While preparing for the wedding feast, Bret’s daughter sings a few lines of “Danny Boy”. The words to this song were written in 1910/1913.Source / More (Web)
Leone originally intended to reunite the three stars of The Good (Clint Eastwood), The Bad (Lee van Cleef) and the Ugly (Eli Wallach) as the three gunmen waiting for Harmonica at the start of the film. But Eastwood had become a big star and didn’t like it so the idea was scrapped.Source / More (Book)
Encyclopedia:
The first steam locomotive to operate on tracks was operated in 1804 in Wales (UK).
The First Transcontinental Railroad in North America was finished in 1869 connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific.
Encyclopedia:
Six-shooter - a pistol with a revolving cylinder (usually having six chambers for bullets)
Encyclopedia:
The term “Wild West” refers to life in Western North America during the 19th century, especially between 1860 and 1890.
Bio
Henry Fonda
Congratulations
This week it would have been Henry's 103th birthday.
Remarkable:
Henry has a star on Hollywood Boulevard (Vine street).
It’s located one block south of Hollywood Boulevard.
Born:
May 16, 1905
Died:
August 12, 1982
Raised in Omaha, Fonda initially wanted to be a newspaperman but instead started dabbling in amateur theatrics. By 1934 he had reached Broadway and after scoring his first big hit as Romeo in The farmer takes a wife (1935) he was invited to repeat in Hollywood the role in a movie version.
Soon Fonda was admired over the world for the sincerity and integrity of his work in films like Jezebel (1938), Young mr. Lincoln and The grapes of wrath (1940). Fonda's film career went up the hill.
In 1957 alone, he played the voice of reason in the jury drama 12 Angry Men, an unjustly accused robbery suspect in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man and a frontier bounty hunter in The Tin Star. In 1969 Henry wanted to play a real dark villain, so he accepted a role in Once upon in the west.
His last picture On Golden Pond (1981), (produced by his daughter Jane) won him his only Oscar.
Academy awards
1982 Won Oscar Leading Role for: On Golden Pond (1981)
1981 Honorary Award
1958 Nominated Best Picture for: 12 Angry Men (1957)
1941 Nominated Leading Role for: The Grapes of Wrath, (1940)
Selected movies:
- 12 Angry Men (1957)
- Once upon a time in the West (1968)
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
- The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
- The Lady Eve (1941)
- My Darling Clementine (1946)
Books:
Tony Thomas -> The Films of Henry Fonda (1990)
Kevin Sweeney -> Henry Fonda: A Bio-Bibliography (1992)
Frank (Henry Fonda) is a ruthless killer. He is hired by Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti), a railroad baron to fix some problems while building the track. One of these problems is the McBain family and Brett McBain's new bride Jill (Claudia Cardinale). But Jill is protected by two other killers; reflective outlaw Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and mysterious loner Harmonica (Charles Bronson).
Morton is in a hurry because he is dying from tuberculosis. His only dream is to one day see his train make it all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. But Harmonica and Cheyenne are slowing the process down by trying to kill Frank and Morton.
Now that you call me by name 
