SAY WHAT you will, but that Jane Fonda looks fine for a young lady of 86. Her mom named her Jane because of Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour, whom she insisted she was related to, but the cold Frisian reality is that Jane, Peter, dad Henry and niece Bridget Fonda’s bloodline runs straight back to Kollum, Friesland.
Intrepid names like Evert, Benedictus, Jelle, Douwe, Wietske, Hessel and Botje. All Frisian Fonda’s from Kollum, Eagum, Idaard, Boarnsterhim, before Jelle ventured across the border and Douwe built the village of Fonda in upstate New York. That was before the Mohawk Indians scalped him. Fonda is a 15-minute drive from Amsterdam, NY.
Henry Fonda ended up in Nebraska and was a stutterer until a friend of his mother’s gave him a role with the local drama club. Speaking other people’s lines was easy enough, he discovered to his surprise, and voila, he became an actor. Henry remained forever grateful to mother’s friend, Dodi Brando, born Dorothy Pannebakker of Utrecht, especially when Dodi’s son Marlon and his own daughter Jane got lead roles together in the movie The Chase, almost sixty years ago now.
But who cares about time? Jane Fonda from Kollum, essentially still a girl, is unstoppable in front of the camera. Seven seasons of “Grace and Frankie,” popular on Netflix, and occasionally still a new movie. Her niece Bridget, on the other hand, has been doing no film work for over 20 years. She broke her spine in a car accident, and quit acting.
