Jane Fonda's Most Memorable Movie Roles Ranked Worst To Best

Jane Fonda has been known as many things throughout her life: feminist icon, anti-war activist, fitness guru. But above all else, she's been a movie star.

Born in 1937, Fonda was the child of Hollywood royalty: Her parents were Oscar-winning actor Henry Fonda and Canadian socialite Frances Ford Seymour, and her younger brother, Peter Fonda, later became an actor as well. She soon fell into the family business, breaking through with the acclaimed drama "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" for which she earned her first Oscar nomination. She won two Academy Awards as best actress — first for "Klute," then "Coming Home" — competing additionally for "Julia," "The China Syndrome," "The Morning After," and "On Golden Pond," the only film she made with her father, Henry (who won best actor for a performance closely modeled after their often strained real-life relationship).

During this period Fonda's politics became increasingly radicalized, and her public image increasingly polarizing. A 1972 trip to Vietnam at the height of the war earned her the ire of veterans and the nickname "Hanoi Jane." In the 1980s, Fonda began producing her famous workout tapes to fund political efforts, acting in fewer films throughout the decade.

In 1991, Fonda announced her retirement from acting, but that turned out to be just a 15-year hiatus. She's since been busier than ever, most notably starring opposite her "9 to 5" costar Lily Tomlin on the comedy series "Grace and Frankie."

Let's take a look back at Fonda's greatest movies, ranked worst to best.

"The Blue Bird" was first adapted in 1940 as a starring vehicle for Shirley Temple, and its failure almost single-handedly ended her career as a child star. This 1976 revamp, an American-Soviet coproduction, wasn't nearly as disastrous, but it is surprisingly more forgettable. Directed by George Cukor, it's the story of two peasant children, Mytyl (Patsy Kensit) and Tyltyl (Todd Lookinland), who are led on a quest for the mythical Blue Bird of Happiness by the Queen of Light (Elizabeth Taylor, who appears in several other roles). Along the way, they encounter human representations of various animals and things, including Jane Fonda as Night, the princess of darkness.

Filming in Moscow and Leningrad was plagued with problems due to the harsh climate and inedible food. Taylor ailed from amoebic dysentery throughout the shooting, while costar James Coco suffered a gall bladder attack that led to his replacement by George Cole, causing further delays. When the film finally made its way to screens, the reaction was largely negative. Writing for The Chicago Tribune, Gene Siskel said, "What a mess of a movie! You may have heard of the production problems on this $10 million fiasco filmed in Russia with an all-star cast of both Americans and Russians. Well, the problems show on the screen." Variety agreed, saying "Nobody's going to laugh in ridicule at any of it (it's that good) but nobody's going to be strongly moved (it's that bad)." (The trade did at least praise Fonda for performing her role "with a flair.")

George Cukor's adaptation of "The Chapman Report" was intended to be a frank, probing examination of human sexuality, but there was only so much a major Hollywood film could get away with in 1962. Adapted from Irving Wallace's novel, it's based in part on the Kinsey Reports, with Andrew Duggan playing a character loosely resembling Dr. Alfred Kinsey, Dr. George Chapman. Working with his assistant (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), Dr. Chapman surveys the sex lives of four different Los Angeles women: a housewife carrying on an affair with a young theater director (Shelley Winters), a sexually promiscuous alcoholic (Claire Bloom), a middle-aged woman lusting after a handsome surfer (Glynis Johns), and a young widow made frigid by her husband's violent aggression (Jane Fonda).

Critics poured cold water all over "The Chapman Report" when it was released, with A.H. Weiler of The New York Times saying "the steaming drama, shot in fine color with photogenic and sincere principals guided by an equally professional director, simply illustrates the truth that the boudoir sometimes is not a bower of roses and that statistics and love are not always compatible. Despite its seemingly dispassionate approach, this 'Report' is disjointed and makes little point, except the obvious." Despite its lukewarm reception, the film did manage to earn four Golden Globe nominations, including best drama film, best director, best drama actress (Johns), and best supporting actor (Harold J. Stone as Winters' husband).

"A Doll's House," a 1973 adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play, had the misfortune of coming out the same year as another filmization of the exact same text. While the version starring Claire Bloom and Anthony Hopkins played in theaters and earned two BAFTA nominations, the one featuring Jane Fonda went straight to television after premiering at the New York and Cannes Film Festivals. It wasn't until 1980 that it received a limited theatrical run in Los Angeles, after which it largely disappeared.

In the film, Fonda plays Nora Helmer, who lives a quiet life with her husband, banker Torvald (David Warner), and their children in a 19th-century Norwegian town. Torvald dominates the household, often criticizing Nora for being childish and patronizingly referring to her as his "doll." What he doesn't know, though, is his wife has secretly been working to pay off a loan she took from his coworker, Nils Krogstad (Edward Fox), when he was sick and they were desperate for money.

The film came at a time when Fonda's political activism was often overshadowing her acting career. Rex Reed found her to be an ill fit for the role of Nora, writing, "She has poured the passion of her political and feminist beliefs into a pot too small to contain them... One never believes her as the macaroon-munching birdbrain or the charming coquette or the toy wife." Charles Champlin, however, found she was well suited to playwright David Mercer's adaptation, which "drops the stilted period rhetoric" of the dialogue "without going colloquial or slangy."

Jane Fonda's filmography throughout the 1960s was almost Jekyll and Hyde-esque: While overseas she was starring in "sex kitten roles" under the direction of her husband, Roger Vadim, her Hollywood productions were far safer — and often blander. "Any Wednesday" is typical of the kinds of films she starred in during that decade, a frothy romantic comedy based on a Tony-winning Broadway hit.

She plays Ellen Gordon, mistress to successful Manhattan businessman John Cleves (Jason Robards), who he keeps in an apartment on the Upper West Side. Though he spends most of his nights in New Jersey with his wife (Rosemary Murphy), Wednesdays are for Ellen. His secretary, Miss Linsley (Ann Prentiss), thinks the apartment is an "executive suite," so she mistakenly sends out-of-town client Cass Henderson (Dean Jones) to the address. Things get further complicated when a suspicious Mrs. Cleves turns up, and a comedy of errors ensues, with Ellen having to choose between the two men.

Critical reception was on the whole positive, with Richard F. Shepard of The New York Times calling it "a pleasant-enough, somewhat overdrawn film that will dispose of a few hours painlessly." Variety found it to be "an outstanding sophisticated comedy about marital infidelity," and said Fonda "comes across quite well as the girl who can't make up her mind, although she has a tendency to overplay certain bits in what might be called an exaggerated Doris Day manner." The role earned Fonda a Golden Globe nomination for best comedy/musical actress.

Jane Fonda's return to movie screens after a 15-year hiatus was certainly a momentous occasion, even if the films she initially came out of retirement for weren't exactly critical darlings. Her follow-up to "Monster-in-Law," the soapy family dramedy "Georgia Rule," centers on Rachel (Lindsay Lohan), a rebellious teenager who's feuding with her alcoholic mother, Lilly (Felicity Huffman). After Rachel gets into a car crash, Lilly takes her to live in Idaho with her domineering grandmother, Georgia (Fonda), who rules over her home with an iron fist. The trio fight, find new love, and patch up old wounds, as Rachel's incorrigible behavior is explained by a stunning revelation about her father (Cary Elwes).

Directed by Garry Marshall and scripted by Oscar-nominated "As Good as It Gets" co-writer Mark Andrus, "Georgia Rule" certainly had high hopes that were quickly dashed when critics saw it. Keith Phipps of The AV Club wrote, "director Garry Marshall has too much confidence that he can match the weighty issues here with the light comedy. He can't." He did find that of the main performances, "Fonda comes off best, even though her performance consists largely of pursing her lips in disapproval." J.R. Jones of The Chicago Reader was less kind, saying "every dramatic scene plays like one of those schmaltzy 'Happy Days' moments that inevitably drew a big 'Awwwwww!' from the studio audience." (Which is appropriate considering Marshall created "Happy Days.") It's a sentiment most reviewers shared of the film, which earned an 18% Rotten Tomatoes score.

"Joy House" was the first film Jane Fonda made in France, kicking off an international sojourn that would see her turning in some of her most daring work of the 1960s. Directed by Rene Clement ("Forbidden Games," "Purple Noon"), it's an ode to the dark, twisty noirs that inspired the French New Wave, centering on a dashing card sharp named Marc (Alain Delon) who's on the run from American gangsters ordered to kill him for sleeping with a New York mob boss' wife. He hides out in a mission for the poor, where he meets Barbara (Lola Albright), a wealthy widow who hires him to be her chauffeur. While working at her chateau, Marc meets her niece, Melinda (Fonda), who instantly falls in love with him. He also discovers that Barbara is hiding her criminal lover, Vincent (Andre Oumansky), who plans to kill him and use his passport to flee to South America. But there are more twists and turns yet to come.

As witnessed by its 33% Rotten Tomatoes score, the critical reaction to "Joy House" was anything but joyous. Howard Thompson of The New York Times called it "dismal claptrap" and "pure, pretentious baloney." Yet even if the film wasn't exactly well received, it at least brought Fonda to France, where she would live for several years after meeting her first husband, Roger Vadim.

Jane Fonda starred in fewer and fewer films throughout the 1980s, temporarily retiring from acting in 1990 with "Stanley & Iris." "Old Gringo" was one of only six theatrical releases she made throughout the decade, coming three years after her Oscar-nominated role in "The Morning After," so things were clearly slowing down for her. She plays Harriet Winslow, an American schoolteacher who travels to Mexico to work as a governess to a wealthy family, only to get kidnapped by General Thomas Arroyo (Jimmy Smits) at the onset of the Mexican Revolution. Along the way, she meets aging American writer Ambrose Bierce (Gregory Peck), aka "Old Gringo," who came to Mexico hoping to die but instead fell into a love triangle between him, Winslow, and Arroyo.

The film came with a high pedigree, considering it was direct by Oscar-nominated Argentinian filmmaker Luis Puenzo ("The Official Story") and based on an acclaimed novel by Carlos Fuentes. "There is a potentially wonderful story at the heart of 'Old Gringo,' but the movie never finds it," wrote Roger Ebert in his two-star review. Critics were split overall, ultimately awarding the movie a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Fonda received a Razzie nomination as worst actress for her performance — the first (and, so far, only) of her career.

Jane Fonda temporarily retired from acting after "Stanley & Iris," and it was also the last film directed by legendary director Martin Ritt ("Hud," "Norma Rae"), who died shortly after it was released in 1990. It's the story of a grieving widow named Iris (Fonda), who lives in a sleepy New England town and goes to work at a bakery following the death of her husband. She meets Stanley (Robert De Niro), a kindly baker who comes to her rescue after a mugging. When Iris discovers Stanley is illiterate, she aims to teach him to read and write, and their love blossoms.

While this wasn't the worst reviewed film of Fonda's career, it certainly wasn't the best. Variety wrote, "The elements are in place but they don't add up to great drama in this well-meant effort to personalize the plight of illiterate people," adding, "Fonda has some trouble evoking a woman whose life would have dropped her off at such a humble station." Vincent Canby of The New York Times was more positive, saying, "It's as honest and direct and entertaining as the considerable talents of everyone involved can make it." Overall, "Stanley & Iris" received a 33% Rotten Tomatoes rating and just $5 million, making it a box office disappointment on top of a critical one. Thankfully, this didn't turn out to be the swan song Fonda initially intended it to be.

"Book Club" exists as little more than an excuse to watch four veteran actresses laugh over endless glasses of wine, and sometimes that's excuse enough to exist. In this case, the four veterans are Jane Fonda and fellow 1970s stars Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen, and the setup is a monthly book club in which they discuss "Fifty Shades of Grey." While reading E.L. James' famously smutty novel, the ladies are suddenly reawakened to the joys of male companionship and act upon it in different ways: Fonda's never-wed Vivian reignites her relationship with an old flame played by Don Johnson, Keaton's widowed Diane has a fling with Andy Garcia's handsome pilot, Bergen's long-divorced Sharon hooks up with Richard Dreyfuss' character, and Steenburgen's Carol falls back in love with her hubby played by Craig T. Nelson (with the help of a little viagra).

Critics were split on "Book Club," which wound up with a 54% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. On the positive side, Susan Wloszczyna of RogerEbert.com praised "Hollywood's latest bid to please the senior-discount demo with a glittering array of big screen notables of a certain age," calling it a "fairly laugh-packed comedy." On the negative side, Andrea Gronvall of The Chicago Reader slammed the "stale jokes and cringe-inducing sight gags" that "punctuate this creaky romantic comedy." The film was a hit with audiences, however, earning $68 million at the domestic box office, thus ensuring an upcoming sequel, "Book Club 2: The Next Chapter."

The counterculture of the 1970s gave way to films about oddballs and misfits fighting back against society. "Steelyard Blues" is an example of this, focusing on a group of outcasts who come together to repair a dilapidated PBY airplane in the hopes of flying away to a better world. Donald Sutherland plays Jesse Veldini, an ex-con with a love for demolition derby. Into his life comes gold-hearted sex worker Iris Caine (Jane Fonda), who's brutalized by the police at the behest of the district attorney (Howard Hesseman), who also happens to be Jesse's brother. Jesse and Iris fall in love, and, after linking up with out-of-work circus performer Eagle Thornberry (Peter Boyle), decide to break into a navy yard to steal a valuable piece of equipment that will get their plane off the ground.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film "an appealing movie if only because all of the people connected with it seem so utterly convinced that they are making a Third World film disguised in the shape of an eccentric caper comedy." He suspected that public knowledge of Fonda and Sutherland's "soberly humanitarian left-wing political views" lent the film "a heaviness" it wouldn't otherwise have had. "They are two performers I admire very much," he added, "but this film, which may be up to their politics, is not up to their talents. Their presence gives it more importance than the material warrants." Reviews for "Steelyard Blues" were on the whole positive, and it retains a 60% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Jane Fonda won her first Oscar for "Klute" under the direction of Alan J. Pakula, with whom she worked twice more. Their third and final collaboration, "Rollover," is an attempt at the kind of paranoid thrillers that made Pakula a famous filmmaker in the '70s (which also include "All the President's Men" and "The Parallax View"), though it never quite rises to those lustrous heights.

Fonda plays Lee Winters, who becomes the primary shareholder in a major chemical company after her husband is killed under mysterious circumstances. She seeks counsel from financier Hubbell Smith (Kris Kristofferson), and together they stumble upon a secret slush fund involving shady asset transfers that could disrupt the world economy. They also fall in love (which goes without saying).

The subject matter of "Rollover" is dense, to put it mildly, and for some, it was dealt with unsuccessfully. "The dramatic possibilities are weak at best," wrote Janet Maslin of The New York Times, "and its satirical underpinnings are nowhere to be found." She added, "The cleverness and proficiency of Mr. Pakula's other work are astonishingly absent here, as are the shrewdness of Miss Fonda's better performances and the easy-going charm of Mr. Kristofferson's." Variety agreed, calling it "a fundamentally disappointing political-romantic thriller" despite being "elegantly appointed and possessed of a provocative theme." Yet reviews were on the whole positive, and the film earned a 78% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Jane Fonda earned her first Golden Globe nomination for "Period of Adjustment," an enjoyable adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play of the same name. The directorial debut of Oscar-winner George Roy Hill ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Sting") centers on two couples experiencing a... well, a period of adjustment in their relationships. Army veteran George Haverstick (Jim Hutton) falls in love with nurse Isabel (Fonda) while in the hospital and the two quickly marry after his release. But their honeymoon is anything but blissful when George can't perform in bed due to his various insecurities. They pay a visit to his old Korean War buddy Ralph Baitz (Tony Franciosa), who originally married his wife, Dorothea (Lois Nettleton), for her money and is now trying to keep her from leaving once he realizes he actually does love her.

Critics were enthusiastic about the film overall, as evidenced by its 71% Rotten Tomatoes rating. Variety called it "lower case Tennessee Williams," although that "illustrates that lower case Williams is superior to the upper case of most modern playwrights." They were less sold on Fonda, however, saying she "gives an animated performance and makes an impression, but there are times when animation lapses into over-animation, stripping the character of believability." That didn't matter to Golden Globe voters, who also nominated the film for best comedy/musical film. In addition, it also earned an Oscar nomination for its black-and-white art direction and a Writers Guild bid for best written comedy.

Jane Fonda enjoyed one of her earliest successes with the movie version of Neil Simon's "Barefoot in the Park," and 11 years later she starred in another big screen adaptation of the playwright's work. "California Suite" is comprised of four short stories, each focusing on the individual problems of various guests staying at a luxury hotel. In "Visitors from New York," Fonda and Alan Alda play a divorced couple fighting over custody of their daughter; in "Visitors from London," Maggie Smith plays a British actress in town with her closeted husband (Michael Caine) for the Oscars; in "Visitors from Philadelphia," a conservative businessman (Walter Matthau) must hide a comatose hooker from his wife (Elaine May); and in "Visitors from Chicago," two doctors (Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby) engage in a very competitive tennis match.

The critical consensus was split, as evidenced by the film's 50% Rotten Tomatoes score. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "the most agreeably realized Simon film in years." He was favorable towards the performances, saying Fonda "is superlative as the glib, semi-intellectual New Yorker whose only way of dealing with desperation is through sarcasm." Variety, meanwhile, found that it veered wildly "from poignant emotionalism to broad slapstick in sudden shifts," although the trade did praise Fonda for demonstrating "yet another aspect of her amazing range." The film was a hit at the Oscars, where it won best supporting actress for Smith (in a bit of art imitating life) and earned nominations for screenplay and art direction.

There's something really touching about seeing Jane Fonda reunite with Robert Redford for Ritesh Batra's "Our Souls at Night," a gentle romantic drama that plays largely on our prior knowledge of the pair's previous collaborations. We saw them in their youth in "The Chase" and "Barefoot in the Park," watched them in middle age in "The Electric Horseman," and are now provided a glimpse of their twilight years with a story of two people finding love late in life. Fonda plays Addie Moore, a widow who has lived next door to widower Louis Waters (Redford) for decades without ever really getting to know him. One night the pair decides to platonically spend the night together in the hopes of abating their loneliness, and before they know it a real romance is blossoming.

In her three-star review for RogerEbert.com, Susan Wloszczyna called the film "as comforting, low-key and unfussy as your grandmother's tablecloth, the one she used every day and not just for company." She credited the screenwriting team of Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who adapted Kent Haruf's 2014 novel in much the same way they penned teenage love stories "The Spectacular Now" and "The Fault in Our Stars." She wrote, "The hormonal surges in 'Our Souls at Night' aren't quite the rollercoaster ride they are in those adolescent affairs. But this steady-as-it-goes approach to senior snuggling has its ups-and-downs too." It's a sentiment most critics shared for the film, which earned a respectable 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

There's an old adage in Hollywood that one of the easiest ways to earn an Oscar nomination is playing drunk, and that certainly did the trick for Fonda in Sidney Lumet's neo-noir thriller, which brought the star her sixth bid as best actress, and her seventh nom overall. She plays Alex Sternbergen, a washed-up actress who frequently wakes up hungover. One morning, she awakens after a night of heavy drinking with no memory of the night before and no knowledge of how a dead body ended up in bed next to her. She turns to ex-cop Turner Kendall (Jeff Bridges) to help piece together the events leading up to the stranger's death, becoming increasingly estranged from her closest friends and ex-husband, hairdresser Jackie Manero (Raul Julia).

In his three-star review, Roger Ebert found that the film "never lives up to its promise — not as a thriller, anyway. The plot has some yawning gaps in it, and thriller parts should be airtight." Yet ultimately he believed it was "worth seeing anyway, because of the characters that it develops, and the performances" of Fonda and Bridges. Of the two leads, he wrote, "They feel good together, and they have some dialogue that seems more alive than most romantic talks in the movies." Critical reception for "The Morning After" was strong overall, resulting in a 63% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

"Comes a Horseman" was Jane Fonda's second collaboration with director Alan J. Pakula, made seven years after their Oscar-winning triumph "Klute" in 1971, and the two films couldn't be more different. Set in the 1940s, it's the story of Ella Conners (Fonda), a young woman desperate to hold onto her family's ranch despite the encroachment of unscrupulous neighboring rancher Jacob "J.W." Ewing (Jason Robards), who tries to coerce her into selling her land to an oil company. With the help of newly arrived war veteran Frank "Buck" Athearn (James Caan) and longtime cowhand Dodger (Richard Farnsworth), Ella just might be able to fight back against the greedy oil drillers.

The production was marked by tragedy, as stuntman Jim Sheppard was killed while doubling for Robards in a scene where Ewing is dragged by a horse through a wooden gate. When the horse veered off course, Sheppard hit his head on a fence post and was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he died shortly thereafter.

Reviews were strong overall, and the film retains a 70% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yet not every major critic was sold. Variety called it "so lethargic not even Jane Fonda, James Caan, and Jason Robards can bring excitement." The trade did praise Farnsworth, a former stuntman who at the age of 58 snagged his first major acting credit and earned an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor, calling Dodger "the only really good part" and "an altogether sympathetic character."

It took 12 years for Jane Fonda and Robert Redford to reunite for another film following their successful Neil Simon adaptation "Barefoot in the Park." "The Electric Horseman" was also a reunion for Fonda and director Sydney Pollack, who guided her to her first Oscar nomination in 1969's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" Coming at the end of the 1970s, it feels almost like a farewell to the intimate, character-driven dramas that made all three famous during the decade.

Redford plays Norman "Sonny" Steele, a former champion rodeo rider now reduced to making public appearances to sell breakfast cereal. He's asked to perform with a $12 million champion racehorse at a promotional event in Las Vegas and is horrified to learn that the thoroughbred has been illegally doped and injured. Sonny rides away with the prized stallion, intent on releasing it in a remote canyon to roam with wild horses. Television reporter Hallie Martin tracks the runaways down in the hopes of cracking a good story and ends up with a romance instead.

In his three-star review, Roger Ebert called "The Electric Horseman" "the kind of movie they used to make," one that "almost willfully wants to be old-fashioned." But even though it "could have starred Tracy and Hepburn," the film does have "a bunch of contemporary themes and causes to dress up its basic situation," most notably a mistrust of corporations. The movie reaped a 64% Rotten Tomatoes score and earned an Oscar nomination for best sound.

Jane Fonda's big breakthrough came with "Cat Ballou," a rambunctious comedic western, which hilariously flips the convention of the genre on its head. Directed by Elliot Silverstein, it stars Fonda as Catherine Ballou, an aspiring schoolmarm whose father is murdered by hired gun Tim Strawn (Lee Marvin) over a land dispute. When the local law enforcement refuses to arrest Strawn, Catherine becomes the outlaw "Cat" Ballou and strikes back at the greedy land developers who hired him. She forms a posse to carry out her vengeance, including bandit Clay Boone (Michael Callahan), his uncle, Jed (Dwayne Hickman), Native American Jackson Two-Bears (Tom Nardini), and gunslinger Kid Shelleen (Marvin in a double role), who sets the booze aside and gets back on his feet again. It's all set to some catchy narrative ballads sung by Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye.

The film currently holds a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes, although not every review was glowing. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said it "does have flashes of good satiric wit. But, under Elliot Silverstein's direction, it is mostly just juvenile lampoon." Variety found it was "middling successful, sparked by an amusing way-out approach and some sparkling performances," including Fonda, who "delivers a lively interpretation as Cat."

"Cat Ballou" was a huge hit at the Oscars, where it won best actor for Marvin and earned nominations for its screenplay, film editing, score, and original song ("The Ballad of Cat Ballou"). Additionally, Fonda received best actress bids at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs.

Fred Zinnemann's "Julia" is better remembered for Vanessa Redgrave's controversial Oscar acceptance speech than anything else, although it's a significant entry in Jane Fonda's filmography. It's inspired by a chapter in Lillian Hellmann's memoir "Pentimento," with Fonda playing the famous playwright as a young woman struggling to find her voice, living with her mentor and lover, novelist Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards). When she reunites in Russia with her childhood friend, Julia (Redgrave), Lillian agrees to assist the anti-Nazi movement by smuggling documents into Germany.

The veracity of Hellman's account was often called into question, with many suggesting the character of Julia was either a composite or totally made up. On a 1979 episode of "The Dick Cavett Show," author Mary McCarthy said of Hellman, "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" Hellman responded by filing a $2.2 million libel suit against McCarthy, Cavett, and the show. In 1983, the truth was further called into question when New York psychiatrist Muriel Gardener claimed to be the inspiration for Julia, although Hellman said she had never met her.

Controversies aside, "Julia" was a hit with critics, save for Roger Ebert, who called it "the story of a fascinating woman [Julia], told from the point of view of someone who hardly knew her [Hellman]." Overall it received a 74% Rotten Tomatoes score and earned 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture and best actress for Fonda. In addition to Redgrave's victory, Robards also won for best supporting actor and Alvin Sargent won for best adapted screenplay.

"The China Syndrome" gained unexpected relevance by the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, which occurred less than two weeks after its release. Prior to that, the nuclear power industry had been debating the films accuracy, with former Westinghouse executive John Taylor calling it "an overall character assassination of an entire industry." As fate would have it, the fictional scenario turned out to be frighteningly close to reality.

In it, Jane Fonda plays Kimberly Wells, a news reporter who witnesses a SCRAM incident (aka an emergency core shutdown) while visiting a Los Angeles nuclear power plant. Although disaster is averted, shift supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) suspects the plant might be in violation of several safety standards, which he tries to bring to the public's attention before a meltdown occurs. Michael Douglas, who produced the film, costars as Wells's cameraman, Richard Adams, who secretly tapes the incident.

Critics praised the film, which holds an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert called it "a terrific thriller that incidentally raises the most unsettling questions about how safe nuclear power plants really are. It was received in some quarters as a political film, and the people connected with it make no secret of their doubts about nuclear power. But the movie is, above all, entertainment: well-acted, well-crafted, scary as hell." Oscar voters agreed, and "The China Syndrome" earned nominations for best actress (Fonda), best actor (Lemmon), best original screenplay (co-written by director James Bridges), and best art direction-set decoration. Fonda and Lemmon also won BAFTA awards for their performances.

Throughout the 1970s, Jane Fonda produced politically conscious films, never more successfully than with "Coming Home." Directed by Hal Ashby, it centers on Sally Hyde (Fonda), whose husband, Bob (Bruce Dern), is serving in Vietnam. While her husband is away, Sally volunteers at a local veterans hospital, where she meets paralyzed and disillusioned vet Luke Martin (Jon Voight). Their friendship blossoms into romance, which becomes complicated when Bob returns home bearing psychic scars from the war.

In his review, Roger Ebert pointed out that the heart of "Coming Home," "lies with the fundamental change within Sally Hyde," who begins as "an ideal wife for a Marine" and becomes "a different person, confused in her loyalties, not sure of her beliefs, awakened to new feelings within her. She hasn't turned into a political activist or a hippie or any of those radical creatures of the late 1960s. But she is no longer going to be able to accept anything simply because her husband, or anybody else, says it's true." In this way, Sally was perhaps the most autobiographical role Fonda ever played.

The film garnered an 85% Rotten Tomatoes rating and earned eight Oscar nominations, including best picture. It won three prizes: best actress for Fonda, best actor for Voight, and best original screenplay. It lost the top prize to another Vietnam War drama released that same year, "The Deer Hunter," a movie that Fonda denounced for its depiction of the Vietnamese, adding, "Our film was better."

Perhaps no other role has played better to Jane Fonda's persona than that of Bree Daniels, the high-end call girl at the center of Alan J. Pakula's paranoia-laced thriller. Bree, who caters to wealthy clients while auditioning for acting work, finds herself centered in a missing person investigation. Detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland) is hired to follow her and before long the two fall in love. But Bree discovers she's being stalked by a killer who's got his sights set on her.

In an essay penned for the film's Criterion release, Mark Harris wrote about "the importance of Fonda's contribution" in turning Bree into a modern woman. She gave input into "everything from what Bree would have on her kitchen wall (a drawing of JFK) to how she would spend her downtime (getting high, sipping wine, and reading 'Linda Goodman's Sun Signs')." Most crucially, she suggested that Bree's psychiatrist, who she opens up to about her numbness towards sex, be changed from a man to a woman. "It's Bree's intellect and edgy self-awareness that make 'Klute' such a break with previous movie treatments of prostitution," Harris wrote. In a way, that reflects the project of Fonda's life: changing the perception of women from delicate flowers to fully-empowered individuals.

"Klute" won Fonda her first Oscar as best actress and retains a 93% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score. But even without the accolades, it's earned its place in film history for how it transformed the star persona of its leading lady in ways that are reflected both onscreen and off.