Jane Fonda earned her seventh (and last) Oscar nomination in The Morning After, playing Alex, an alcoholic has-been actress who is a suspect in a murder investigation.
Panicked at the thought of facing the police, Alex runs right into the battered convertible of a washed-up former cop (Jeff Bridges).
Their uneasy alliance draws them closer to each other and to the startling truth behind the murder.
Director Sidney Lumet working with a routine thriller screenplay draws strong performances from his leads and an ensemble that includes Raul Julia and Kathy Bates.
The movie is set in Los Angeles, a first for Lumet, the quintessentially New York director, who doesn’t get the milieu right (because he does not care about it).
Lumet has said that he was intrigued with working with Jane, having directed her father, Henry Fonda, in his 1957 feature debut, 12 Angry Men.
Oscar Nominations: 1
Best Actress
Oscar Award: None
Oscar Context:
Fonda competed for the best Actress with Marlee Matlin who won for “Children of a Lesser God,” Sissy Spacek in “Crimes of the Heart,” Kathleen Turner in “Peggy Sue Got Married,” and Sigourney Weaver in “Aliens.”
Six of Fonda’s seven Oscar nominations were in the lead, and only one, “On Golden Pond” was in the supporting league.
About Jane Fonda
Daughter of actor Henry Fonda and New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Fonda initially showed little interest as a child in following in her father’s footsteps…until she met Lee Strasberg in 1958 and joined the Actor’s Studio. Fonda’s screen debut in 1960’s Tall Story marked the beginning of a highly successful film career highlighted by two Best Actress Academy Awards and seven Oscar nominations.
Fonda’s personal life often mixed with her professional one, and both were marked by controversy. Early appearances in risqué movies directed by then-husband Roger Vadim (including 1968’s Barbarella) were followed by a period of political and anti-war activism, culminating in her now-famous 1972 visit to North Vietnam.
After a 15-year hiatus from Hollywood following her marriage to broadcasting mogul Ted Turner, Fonda returned to the big screen in the comedy Monster-in-Law, co-starring Jennifer Lopez.
Fonda’s autobiography My Life So Far also debuted in 2005, topping The New York Times Best-Seller list for three straight weeks.
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