Jane Fonda describes herself as a liberal, and more recently, a feminist and a born-again Christian. She has appeared in a variety of movies starting in the 1960s and has won numerous awards. Although she announced her retirement from acting in 1991, she returned to film in 2005 with Monster in Law. She made numerous exercise videos during the 1980s and 1990s. Fonda has also served many political causes, including activism against the Vietnam War and Iraq War. She published an autobiography in 2005 and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jane Fonda was born in New York City to actor Henry Fonda and socialite Frances Ford Seymour. When Jane was twelve years old, Seymour committed suicide after voluntarily seeking treatment at a psychiatric hospital.

Although Henry Fonda was entirely of Dutch descent, the surname Fonda originates from Italy. Her name was apparently inspired by Jane Seymour, the third wife of King Henry VIII of England. She was frequently called "Lady Jane" or "Lady", as a child, nicknames she greatly disliked.

Her brother Peter Fonda (born 1940), and his daughter Bridget Fonda (born 1964), are also actors. She has an older half-sister, Frances Brokaw, as well as an adopted sister, Amy, who was born in 1953.

After Seymour's suicide, Henry Fonda married Susan Blanchard, who was only 10 years older than Jane. Although all of Henry's children seemed to like Blanchard, Blanchard and Henry Fonda divorced before Jane turned 20.

Fonda first became interested in acting in 1954, while appearing with her father in a charity performance of The Country Girl, at the Omaha Community Theatre. After attending Vassar College in New York, she was introduced by her father to renowned drama teacher Lee Strasberg in 1958, and subsequently joined his Actors Studio.

Fonda in 1968's Barbarella.Her stage work in the late 1950s laid the foundation for her film career in the 1960s. She averaged almost two movies a year throughout the decade, starting in 1960 with Tall Story, in which she recreated one of her Broadway roles as a college cheerleader pursuing a basketball star, played by Anthony Perkins. Period of Adjustment and Walk on the Wild Side followed in 1962. In Walk on the Wild Side, Fonda played a prostitute, and earned a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer.

In 1963, she appeared in Sunday in New York. Newsday called her "the loveliest and most gifted of all our new young actresses". However, she also had her detractors—in the same year, the Harvard Lampoon named her the "Year's Worst Actress". Fonda's career breakthrough came with Cat Ballou (1965), in which she played a schoolmarm turned outlaw. This comedy Western received five Oscar nominations and was one of the year's top ten films at the box office. It was considered by many to have been the film that brought Fonda to stardom at the age of twenty-eight. After this came the comedies Any Wednesday (1966) and Barefoot in the Park (1967), the latter co-starring Robert Redford.

In 1968, she played the lead role in the science fiction spoof Barbarella, which established her status as a sex symbol. In contrast, the tragedy They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) won her critical acclaim, and she earned her first Oscar nomination for the role. Fonda was very selective by the end of the 1960s, turning down lead roles in Rosemary's Baby and Bonnie and Clyde, films widely praised by critics and considered box-office successes.

Fonda won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1971, again playing a prostitute, in the detective murder mystery Klute. It is generally acknowledged that her finest moment onscreen is the extraordinary scene towards the end of Klute where she is confronted by her potential killer. Her second Award was in 1978 for Coming Home, the story of a disabled Vietnam War veteran's difficulty in re-entering civilian life.

Between Klute in 1971 and Fun With Dick and Jane in 1977, Fonda spent most of the first half of the decade without a major film success, even though she did appear in films such as A Doll's House (1973) and The Blue Bird (1976). From comments ascribed to her in interviews, some have inferred that she personally blamed the situation on anger at her outspoken political views - "I can't say I was blacklisted, but I was greylisted."[2] However in her 2005 autobiography, My Life So Far it would appear that she categorically regects such simplification. "The suggestion is that because of my actions against the war my career had been destroyed ... But the truth is that my career, far from being destroyed after the war, flourished with a vigor it had not previously enjoyed."[3] From her own point of view it would appear that her absence from silver screen was related more to the fact that her political activism provided a new focus in her life. By the same token her return to acting with a series of 'issue-driven' films was a reflection of this new focus. "When I hear admonitions ... warning outspoken actors to remember 'what happened to Jane Fonda back in the seventies', this has me scratching my head: And that would be?"

Through her production company Indo-China Peace Campaign (IPC), she produced films that helped return her to star status. The 1977 comedy film Fun With Dick and Jane is generally considered her 'comeback' picture. She also received very positive reviews and an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of playwright Lillian Hellman in the 1977 film, Julia. During this period Fonda announced that she would only make films that focused on important issues, and she generally stuck to her word. She turned down An Unmarried Woman because she felt the part was not relevant. She followed with popular and successful films such as The China Syndrome (1979), about a cover up of an accident in a nuclear power plant; and The Electric Horseman (1979) with her previous co-star, Robert Redford.

In 1980, Fonda starred in Nine to Five with Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. She played a divorced woman re-entering the workforce. The film was one of her greatest financial successes, contributing significantly to her wealth.

She had long wanted to work with her father, hoping it would help their strained relationship. She achieved this goal when she was cast as a supporting actress alongside Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn in On Golden Pond (1981). This film brought Henry Fonda his first Academy Award for Best Actor, which Jane accepted on his behalf, as he was ill and homebound. He died five months later.

Fonda continued appearing in feature films throughout the 1980s.