National Post (National Edition)
EASY RIDER STAR HAD ‘A LOVE OF LIFE’
Peter Fonda, the writer, director and actor best remembered for playing a motorcycle-riding avatar of the counterculture in Easy Rider, an emblematic film of the 1960s that he helped write, died Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 79.
The death was confirmed by his manager, Alan Somers.
A statement from the Fonda family said the cause of death was respiratory failure from lung cancer.
“It is with deep sorrow that we share the news that Peter Fonda has passed away,” the statement began.
“(Peter) passed away peacefully on Friday morning, August 16 at 11:05 a.m. at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by family,” the statement said.
He was married three times and is survived by his most recent wife, Margaret DeVogelaere.
“In one of the saddest moments of our lives, we are not able to find the appropriate words to express the pain in our hearts. As we grieve, we ask that you respect our privacy,” the statement said.
“And, while we mourn the
loss of this sweet and gracious man, we also wish for all to celebrate his indomitable spirit and love of life,” the Fonda family finished. “In honour of Peter, please raise a glass to freedom.”
His sister, Jane Fonda, also said in a statement: “I am very sad. He was my sweethearted baby brother. The talker of the family. I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. He went out laughing.”
Fonda grew up in the shadow of his father, Henry Fonda, and older sister, Jane Fonda, both of whom won Oscars for acting.
His acting career reached its zenith in 1969, when he starred in Easy Rider, which captured the counterculture epoch like few other films.
Along with co-stars Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, Fonda — often wearing a Captain America helmet — rode a motorcycle throughout the U.S. West and South, a rebel in search of a cause.
Film critic Roger Ebert called Easy Rider, which marked its 50th anniversary this year, “one of the rallying-points of the late ‘60s,” saying it was a buddy picture that celebrated “sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, and the freedom of the open road.”
The film became a sensation and box-office success, but in some ways Fonda was typecast as an actor.
He took increasingly second-rate roles and did not recapture his Hollywood success until his late 50s, when he starred in Ulee's Gold (1997) about a beekeeping widower caring for his granddaughters. The role earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor. He won the Golden Globe for the film.
Fonda was born in New York to Hollywood star Henry and his socialite wife Frances Ford Seymour.
During the 1960s he was a member of the counterculture and met the Beatles at a home in Los Angeles. His conversations with John Lennon while on LSD inspired the song She Said She Said.
He and Hopper starred in Easy Rider as a pair of long-haired bikers driving through the south of the United States.
Following the massive success of Easy Rider, the first counterculture film to be a hit, Fonda was highly sought after in Hollywood.
He starred in and directed The Hired Hand in 1971, among others. However, none reached the heights of Easy Rider.
Late in his career, he appeared in small movies — The Trouble With Bliss, as Michael C. Hall's grumpy father; The Ultimate Life, starring an elderly James Garner — and took guest spots on TV: CSI: NY, Hawaii Five-0.
Fonda's daughter, Bridget Fonda, is also an actor.
They appeared together in Dwight Yoakam's Western South of Heaven, West of Hell and in the children's film Thomas and the Magic Railroad, both in 2000.
The actor had courted controversy in his final years.
He was a fierce critic of Donald Trump and made headlines for comments he made about one of the president's sons.
Reacting to U.S. immigration policies which saw migrant children separated from their parents at the border, he tweeted “we should rip” Donald Trump's son “from his mother's arms” and “put him in a cage with pedophiles.”
He was married three times and is also survived by his most recent wife Margaret DeVogelaere, who he married in 2011, and son Justin from his marriage to his first wife Susan Brewer.
National Post
WHILE WE MOURN THE LOSS OF THIS SWEET AND GRACIOUS MAN, WE ALSO WISH FOR ALL TO CELEBRATE HIS INDOMITABLE SPIRIT AND LOVE OF LIFE. IN HONOUR OF PETER, PLEASE RAISE A GLASS TO FREEDOM. — THE FONDA FAMILY