The actor Henry Fonda called his best friend in the world: “There was nothing not to like”
Nobody in Hollywood is obligated to like everybody they work with or even anybody in the case of the industry’s most difficult personalities. Henry Fonda worked with countless icons of the ‘Golden Age’, but there was only one he’d call his best friend.
One of his generation’s most naturally talented actors, Fonda quickly rose up the ranks to become a staple of mainstream cinema. While he was constantly praised for his professionalism, earning the nickname ‘One-Take Fonda’ for his effortless ability to nail a scene at the first attempt, he wasn’t always the easiest person to work with.
That said, even his outbursts had the potential to yield greatness. When he worked with John Ford on 1955’s Mister Roberts, a movie Fonda didn’t hold in the highest regard, things got so heated between director and star that the latter cracked the former square in the face. Mervyn LeRoy eventually replaced Ford, and the filmmaker used his downtime to develop his next picture, which was The Searchers.
As a frequent collaborator of Ford’s, Fonda inevitably struck up a friendship with John Wayne. ‘The Duke’ wasn’t his best friend in the business, though, an honour that instead fell to another icon who happened to be a close friend of Wayne’s, too, reiterating that Hollywood can often be a very small place.
In fact, Fonda had known James Stewart well before they reached the top of their shared profession after the two first met as students. In the years to come, they’d only grow closer and end up starring in multiple films together, including On Our Merry Way, Firecreek, and The Cheyenne Social Club.
“I just liked him,” was Fonda’s honest and obvious assessment. “There was nothing not to like about him. He had this wonderful but quiet sense of humour. We just clicked. He’s never criticised me for my mistakes, and he never lectures me. He’s really a very non-judgmental kind of guy, and that’s because he knows that he’s not a perfect man. He doesn’t pretend to be. He’s just there for me when I need him. What more do you want from a friend?”
Honesty? Not much. As plenty of cinema’s most famous long-term friendships – like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire – can attest, meeting before either party becomes a household name has a habit of leading to a lifelong bond, most likely because they started at the bottom and experienced each step of the journey together.
Fonda and Stewart were no different in that regard. They first crossed paths as wide-eyed students with distant dreams of succeeding in the movie business, and they bowed out as two of the era’s all-time greats without ever falling out or even having a heated argument.
