Quick Facts
Biography
Frances Ford Seymour (April 4, 1908 – April 14, 1950) was a Canadian-born American socialite, the second wife of actor Henry Fonda, and the mother of actors Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda.
Early life
Born in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, she was a daughter of Eugene Ford Seymour and Sophie Mildred (née Bower; July 13, 1886 – April 15, 1974).According to daughter Jane Fonda, medical records revealed that Seymour was a victim of recurrent sexual abuse in her childhood.
Marriages
On January 10, 1931, she married George Tuttle Brokaw, a millionaire lawyer and sportsman, whose previous marriage, to Clare Boothe Luce, had ended in divorce. They had one child, Frances de Villers Brokaw (October 10, 1931 – March 10, 2008, known as "Pan").
A year after George Tuttle Brokaw died, she married actor Henry Fonda on September 16, 1936, at Christ Church, New York City. She had met Fonda at Denham Studios in England on the set of the film Wings of the Morning. The couple had two children, actress Jane (born December 21, 1937) and actor Peter (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019), but their marriage was troubled. According to Peter Fonda, these difficulties later gave him empathy for the marital problems of actor Dennis Hopper, his co-star in the 1969 film Easy Rider.
Death
Frances Ford Fonda committed suicide by cutting her throat with a razor blade 10 days after her 42nd birthday, while she was a patient at Craig House, a sanatorium in Beacon, New York. Her suicide came three and a half months after Fonda asked her for a divorce.
She is buried in Ogdensburg Cemetery, Ogdensburg, New York.