After her Broadway debut the next year, Fonda returned to the big screen in a big way in 1962 by appearing in three movies: The Chapman Report,
Walk on the Wild Side,
and Period of Adjustment.
In 1963 Fonda co-stared with Peter Finch in the drama In the Cool of the Day.
That same year Fonda stared with Cliff Robertson and Rod Taylor in the comedy Sunday in New York.
Then in 1964 two turning points occurred in Fonda's career: The first came when she stunned Hollywood by going to France to do the movie Joy House. Fonda followed it up with Circle of Love. It was this movie that Fonda met the director-Roger Vadim.
The French born director had already married and divorced Brigette Bardot and had a fling with fellow French actress Catherine Denuevre (not even the birth of their son Christian couldn't save the relationship). Then in 1965 Fonda hit the big time by playing the title role in Cat Ballou.
Shortly after the film was released Fonda married Vadim in Las Vegas (and again in France and it was Vadim that visited her on the Cat Ballou set and that caused co-star Lee Marvin to have a fit).
Shortly after the honeymoon Fonda went back to work on the action drama The Chase.
Released early in 1966, she played Anna Reeves-who is the wife of Bubba Reeves (Robert Redford) who has escaped prison so that he can return to her and also plot revenge on the town sheriff (Marlon Brando) that put him there. That same year Fonda went back to France where husband Vadim directed her in The Game is Over
and when it was released in America, it was only shown in art house theaters because of a couple of nude scenes Fonda did in the film. Then she followed that movie with Any Wednesday-a romance comedy also released in 1966 in which she plays Ellen Gordon;
who is invited by John Cleeves (Jason Robards) to stay at his executive suite condo and is there that she falls in love with one of Cleeves' clients (Dean Jones). Then in 1967 Fonda co-stared with Michael Caine,
John Phillip Law (remember his name), and Faye Dunaway in the period film directed by Otto Preminger Hurry Sundown and then she co-stared again with Robert Redford in the film version of the Neil Simon comedy Barefoot in the Park.
Ironically enough Fonda was offered the role of Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde but turned it down to do this movie and it must of been to her amazement that it went to her Hurry Sundown co-star Faye Dunaway!
The next year Fonda did two more movies with husband Vadim: First doing a sequence in the horror movie Spirits of the Dead (which featured Fonda's brother Peter!).
And then came the sci-fi movie that became (for my money) the watershed moment of pop culture in the late 60's: Barbarella.
The movie co-stared John Phillip Law again and Swedish model Anita Pallenberg. There will be a further discussion of this movie and Cat Ballou later on but I can tell you Fonda's presence playing the title of Barbarella in one of the many reasons why the origins of pop culture came together in the last years of the 60's. Finally in 1969 Fonda stared in the drama They Shoot Horses, Don't They? in which she played Gloria-
a young woman who competes in the dance contest in the 1930's until (spoiler for those who haven't seen it) she dies. With that she received her first Oscar nomination. She would lose to Maggie Smith and according to Ethan Morrden in his 60's-on-film book "Medium Cool" Fonda lost the Best Actress Oscar because of her impending protests on Vietnam.
When asked once about what is the important factoid of acting Fonda said, "I'm an assistant storyteller. It's like being a waiter or gas station attendant. But I'm waiting on six million people a week if I'm lucky." Jane Fonda showed why in the 1960's film acting took on a new meaning.
(Don't forget to watch TCM's "Private Screenings" in which host Robert Osborne interviews Jane Fonda on Thursday)
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