Born in Grand Island, Nebraska, Henry Fonda made his acting debut with the Omaha Community Playhouse, a local amateur theater troupe directed by Dorothy Brando. He moved to the Cape Cod University Players and later Broadway, New York to expand his theatrical career from 1926 to 1934. His first major roles on Broadway include "New Faces of America" and "The Farmer Takes a Wife". The latter play was transferred to the screen in 1935 and became the startup of Fonda's longtime Hollywood career. The following year he married Frances Seymour Fonda with whom he had two children: Jane and Peter Fonda also were to become screen stars. Henry Fonda is most remembered for his roles as Abe Lincoln in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and more recently Norman Thayer in On Golden Pond (1981), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1982. Fonda is considered one of Hollywood's old-time legends and was friend and contemporary of James Stewart, John Ford and Joshua Logan. His movie career, which spanned almost 50 years, is completed by a notable presence in American theater and television.