Early life
Bridget Fonda was born in Los Angeles, California, USA, into a family of actors, including her grandfather Henry Fonda, father Peter Fonda, mother Susan Brewer and aunt Jane Fonda.
She was named after Bridget Hayward, with whom her father was in love at one time. Peter and Susan Brewer divorced and he married Portia Rebecca Crockett (aka Becky McGuane), who brought up Bridget and her brother, Justin, in the Coldwater Canyon section of Los Angeles.
Fonda attended Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles. During this time, Bridget and Justin had little contact with their father or any of the Fonda family, recalling in an interview: When I was a kid, the most important thing for me was my home... People would come and go, and things would change, but that place wouldn't. I loved it. I want to have that for the rest of my life. I want to have a place."
Career
Fonda first became involved with the theatre when she was cast in a school production of Harvey. Although she came from a long line of actors, Fonda resented the implication that acting was in her blood. She refused to solicit acting tips and advice from her famous relatives, and studied method acting at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. During her first two years she suffered from a severe case of stage fright and self-consciousness.
Fonda made her film debut with a non-speaking role in the 1982 comedy Partners. It was not until 1988 that she had her first speaking role in a feature film starring with John Hurt in Scandal, based on the Profumo affair. That year, she also appeared in both You Can't Hurry Love and Shag.
Fonda's first big role in a movie was when she starred as an attractive journalist in The Godfather, Part III. After gaining additional work experience on a few theater productions and small movie roles, she was cast in the lead for Barbet Schroeder's Single White Female. A review in the New Yorker proclaimed she had "...a provocative, taunting assertiveness" and Rolling Stone said that Fonda was "a comic delight."
Her father, Peter Fonda, believes Bridget is the most talented member of the family, including his father, whose skill he has said he aspires to attain.
Family
On November 29, 2003, Fonda married film-composer Danny Elfman. They have one son, Oliver, born in January, 2005. She has not appeared in a film since her marriage.
