Jane Fonda's Life and Career in Photos, in Honor of Her 88th Birthday
- - Jane Fonda's Life and Career in Photos, in Honor of Her 88th Birthday
Diane J. Cho, Zoey LyttleDecember 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM
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Jane Fonda in November 2025
Over her six decades in the industry, Jane Fonda has cemented herself as one of Hollywood's living legends.
The actress, who turns 88 on Dec. 21, 2025, has accumulated numerous honors for her work across television, stage and screen, including two Academy Awards and an Emmy — along with nominations for a Grammy and two Tonys, making her one of the rare entertainers to have been eligible for an EGOT.
Since the beginning of her career, Fonda has used her platform to advocate for sociopolitical change, establishing the now-disbanded Hollywood Women's Political Committee and the Women's Media Center.
“The fact that I’m almost 88 is astonishing to me,” Fonda shared on Michelle Obama's podcast The Look. "I feel more centered, more whole, more complete."
On her 88th birthday, look back at Fonda's life and career in photos.
01 of 26
Jane Fonda's Early Days
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Jane Fonda, the daughter of actor Henry Fonda, began her career as a comedic actress and grew to take on serious roles that would earn her Academy Awards. The young model living in New York City, who studied acting under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, went on to have a six-decade-long career and was recognized at the 2021 Golden Globes for her outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.
Here she is as June Ryder in her first feature film, Tall Story, in 1959. She won a Golden Globe Award for the role and has since been nominated 14 more times, winning seven statuettes total.
02 of 26
Jane Fonda in 'Period of Adjustment'
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Anthony Franciosa, Jim Hutton and Jane Fonda in 'Period of Adjustment'
She tackled the role of Isabel Haverstick, alongside Anthony Franciosa, in the film Period of Adjustment in 1962.
03 of 26
Jane Fonda in 'Sunday in New York'
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Fonda, as Eileen Tyler, was scooped up by Robert Culp in Sunday in New York in 1963.
04 of 26
Jane Fonda in 'Cat Ballou'
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Fonda played Catherine "Cat" Ballou, who returns to her homeland with Clay Boone (Michael Callan) after her father is killed for refusing to sell his ranch to a corporation, in the 1965 Western Cat Ballou.
05 of 26
Jane Fonda's First Husband and Child
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Fonda married French movie producer and director Roger Vadim on Aug. 14, 1965, in Las Vegas. They were together until 1973 and in that time, welcomed a daughter named Vanessa.
06 of 26
Jane Fonda in 'Barbarella'
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The star played a beautiful space traveler in Barbarella, a film directed by then-husband Vadim, in 1967.
07 of 26
Jane Fonda in 'Barefoot in the Park'
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Hollywood icons Robert Redford and Fonda frequently collaborated — here, they're on set of Barefoot in the Park, directed by Gene Saks, in 1967.
08 of 26
Jane Fonda in 'Klute'
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She's pictured with Donald Sutherland in their film Klute in 1971.
09 of 26
Jane Fonda Wins an Oscar
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Fonda's role as Bree Daniels in Klute won her an Oscar for Best Actress in 1972.
Here she is, standing proudly next to Philip D' Antoni and Gene Hackman, who both won that night as well for their film, The French Connection.
10 of 26
Jane Fonda in 'Fun with Dick and Jane'
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Jane Harper (Fonda) realizes it's over for her and her husband's lavish life in Fun with Dick and Jane, which was released in 1977.
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Jane Fonda Remarries, Has a Second Child
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Following her divorce from Vadim, the actress married activist Tom Hayden in 1973, and the two had a son, Troy Garity (left, with half-sister Vanessa); they were married until 1990.
12 of 26
Jane Fonda's Third Marriage to Ted Turner
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One year after their split, in 1991, Fonda married Ted Turner, the founder of CNN. They were together 10 years.
13 of 26
Jane Fonda Wins an Oscar for 'Coming Home'
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Fonda sported short curly hair to play Sally Hyde alongside a young Jon Voight in 1978's Coming Home. The role earned her a second Oscar win; she's been nominated seven times.
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Jane Fonda's Activism
John Lamparski/Getty Images Jane Fonda demonstrates during "Fire Drill Friday" climate change protest on December 6, 2019, in Washington, D.C.
Off-screen, the actress has always been known for her activism. She was an early supporter of the Civil Rights movement and openly backed the Black Panthers. She received backlash for her criticism of the Vietnam War, a move that affected her career for some time.
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Jane Fonda in '9 to 5'
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The ultimate A-list threesome, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Fonda, turned the tables on their awful boss in the 1980 film 9 to 5.
16 of 26
Jane Fonda Acts with Her Father, Henry, in 'On Golden Pond'
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In 1981, Fonda starred in On Golden Pond alongside her father, Henry, and actress Katharine Hepburn. The actress opened up to The Hollywood Reporter in 2011 about the memorable experience.
"Producing On Golden Pond and giving the Oscar to my father five months before he died was very special," she said.
17 of 26
Jane Fonda Launches a Fitness Empire
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Fonda became the face of the at-home fitness movement in the 1980s once she released Jane Fonda's Workout on VHS. It went on to sell more than 17 million copies, one of the highest-selling tapes of all time.
18 of 26
Jane Fonda's Memoirs
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In 2005, Fonda released a tell-all book about her past relationships with others and with herself. Her memoir, My Life So Far, dives deep into the actress' fraught family life growing up, her struggles with bulimia, her professional journey and romantic experiences.
Several years later, in 2017, Fonda spoke with Town & Country about the meaning of "being perfect," a concept with which her memoir grappled.
"I felt so much of my life that I was two people. There was this person everyone saw, and there was another person who lived outside of me, alongside me, who had been delegated all of the imperfect stuff," she said. "To become whole, you reach around and pull all those shadows in and they join your light—you put it all together inside your skin. And you accept that, yes, I'm flawed, but my intentions are good, and I will never be perfect, but I will continue to evolve toward that."
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Jane Fonda in 'Monster-in-Law'
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The actress unofficially retired in the early 1990s, but made a return to film in 2005's Monster-in-Law opposite Jennifer Lopez, going on to appear in a string of films and TV shows, including an Emmy-nominated guest spot on The Newsroom.
20 of 26
Jane Fonda Gets Real
The Grace and Frankie star spoke about her life in her own HBO documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts. In the autobiographical production, she reflects on her life's highs and lows, including her plastic surgery operations and her mother's suicide when Fonda was only 12.
21 of 26
Jane Fonda in 'Grace and Frankie'
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For seven seasons, Fonda starred in the Netflix comedy Grace and Frankie, alongside Sam Waterson, Lily Tomlin and Martin Sheen. She received three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and one Emmy nomination for her work on the series, which ended in 2022.
22 of 26
Jane Fonda's Environmental Activism
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Fonda became an outspoken climate activist, attending numerous climate protests, writing an environmentally conscious book called What Can I Do?: The Truth About Climate Change and How to Fix It and launching her own projects for the cause.
In 2019, Fonda collaborated with Greenpeace to start Fire Drill Fridays, a weekly rally amplifying the climate-concerned voices of experts, activists and celebrities. When the pandemic hit shortly after her D.C.-based event series began, Fonda maintained that she would continue to hold the meetings virtually. She turned 82 in jail after being arrested at one protest.
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Jane Fonda Wins the Cecil B. DeMille Award
NBC Jane Fonda
In 2021, the Golden Globes gave special recognition to Fonda when she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award. After a star-powered introduction featuring messages from Kerry Washington, Laverne Cox, Brie Larson, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the actress accepted the award, expressing that she was "so moved to receive this honor."
In her speech, Fonda highlighted the significance of diversity on big and small screens.
"In turbulent, crisis-torn times like these, storytelling have always been essential. You see, stories have a way that can change our hearts and our minds and help us see each other in a new light — to have empathy and to recognize that for all of our diversity that we are all humans first," she said, adding that recent productions like Small Axe, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and One Night in Miami "deepened [her] empathy for what being Black has meant."
24 of 26
Jane Fonda's Cancer Diagnosis and Recovery
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Throughout the years, Fonda has talked openly about her health issues. In September 2022, the actress revealed that she was diagnosed with cancer again after having non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
But Fonda had good news to share in December of that year, when she learned that her cancer was in remission.
"I am feeling so blessed, so fortunate," she wrote on Instagram. "I thank all of you who prayed and sent good thoughts my way. I am confident that it played a role in the good news."
25 of 26
Jane Fonda's Activism for Young People
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To commemorate her milestone 85th birthday, Fonda hosted a party benefiting the adolescent health organization she founded in 1995, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential. Ahead of the celebration, the activist told PEOPLE about her reasons for creating the GCAPP, which provides appropriate sex education to Georgia youth. On a trip to the southern state in 1994, she met a 14-year-old girl who was already a mother of two.
"I realized that whatever we do, we have to, in the work, give young people a sense that they will have a future," Fonda said. "And that they needed to stay out of trouble that would compromise that future."
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Jane Fonda's Life Now
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Jane Fonda in February 2025
Today, Fonda remains active as an actress and a proponent of change. At the 2025 SAG Awards, where she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, she spoke about the job of actors to empathize with the variety of people they play in films.
"Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or 'woke' — and by the way, 'woke' just means you give a damn about other people," she said in her acceptance speech. "A whole lot of people are gonna be really hurt by what is happening; what is coming our way. ... We need to call upon our empathy and not judge, but listen from our hearts, and welcome them into our tent."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
