Born Feb. 23, 1940 in New York, NY to his famous father, actor Henry Fonda and financier Frances Ford Seymour, Fonda was the younger brother of big sis, Jane. Tragically, his mother took her own life when he was just 10 and on his 11th birthday, he accidentally shot himself – nearly dying as well. As he grew older, the tormented Fonda traded his Eastern boarding school existence for the Midwestern stability of his Aunt Harriet and Uncle Jack's Omaha, Nebraska – Henry Fonda’s hometown. It was there that he first gravitated to the stage, acting in the same community playhouse that had once nurtured his father, before quickly moving to Broadway in 1961 and starring as the earnest Private Ogletorpe of "Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole." He also acted in a 1962 episode of ABC's "Naked City" while in New York, and for the next few years, alternated between NYC and Hollywood, progressing from the boy-next-door of his feature debut, "Tammy and the Doctor" (1963), to the rebel biker of Roger Corman's "The Wild Angels" (1966). En route, he delivered a strong portrayal of a neurotic infatuated with Jean Seberg's "Lilith" (1963) – but it was his second picture with Corman – "The Trip" (1967) – which laid the groundwork for filmmaking history, introducing him to Jack Nicholson (its screenwriter) and Dennis Hopper, whose intuitive, improvisatory approach to acting had allegedly led to an eight-year exile from Hollywood.

Co-written by Fonda, Hopper – who also directed and co-starred – and Terry Southern, "Easy Rider" boasted a great soundtrack of late 1960s rock music and featured a 16mm LSD sequence, during which Hopper coaxed Fonda up on a headstone in a New Orleans cemetery to confront his real mother's 1950 suicide ("Mother, why did you?"). Remembering the catharsis later, he said, "That was it. That was the high point of the whole thing. That was real tears, real time, a real question." Hailed by critics, "Easy Rider" earned a bundle and sent Hollywood studios scrambling to duplicate its uniqueness; the resulting shake-up opening the door to a new generation of filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Though Nicholson stole the show as the wealthy alcoholic who joins the two rebels on their sojourn, Fonda's marketability soared, and for nearly a decade, he starred in B-movies made on the strength of his name. Ironically, the hippie-capitalist's salary was always a third to a half of the total budget. The pictures invariably suffered, and his reputation for being difficult ("You know, I didn't play the game in town") precluded his working with better talent in bigger-budget pics.

Fonda and Hopper reteamed on Hopper's virtually incomprehensible and pretentious "The Last Movie" (1971), but a falling out over "Easy Rider" profits made Hopper's name taboo around Fonda's Montana digs. He branched into directing at the helm of a critically-acclaimed commercial failure – the offbeat Western "The Hired Hand" (1971) – opting to step far away from his Captain America pose, as a cowboy who goes to work for the wife (Verna Bloom) he had deserted seven years before. His foray into experimental sci-fi, "Idaho Transfer" (1973), taught him never to again invest his own money in a directing project, and "Wanda Nevada" (1979), his last film as director, gave him the only opportunity of his career to work with his father. Convinced that the beard he was wearing looked fake, the older Fonda insisted his son shoot him from a distance, but Peter's response was to throw some dirt and spit licorice juice in his father's face to weather his countenance.

Fonda enjoyed a memorable turn in the non-stop actioner "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" (1974), stealing money for a competition sports car, then careening around rural California accompanied by