Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda in "Period of Adjustment" (1962).

Daughter of legendary screen actor Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda made her film debut in 1960's "Tall Story," and has since appeared in nearly 50 films and TV movies, winning two Academy Awards (for "Klute" and "Coming Home") and receiving five additional Oscar nominations, as well as an Emmy Award and five Golden Globes.

Fonda is almost as famous for her activism as for her acting, becoming a lightning rod of criticism for her protests against the Vietnam War.

By CBSNews.com senior editor David Morgan

Jane Fonda was born in 1937 to Henry Fonda and his second wife, New York socialite Frances Brokaw, who committed suicide when Jane was 12.

Left: Henry Fonda accompanied by his third wife Susan; his son Peter, daughter Jane and baby Amy on June 13, 1954, on their way to Los Angeles, before proceeding to Honolulu, where Fonda would shoot the film version of "Mr. Roberts."

Veteran stage and screen star Henry Fonda and his 17-year-old daughter, Jane, take a break during rehearsals for the Omaha Community Playhouse production of "The Country Girl," June 18, 1955, in which Fonda co-starred with Dorothy McGuire. Jane won the ingenue role in a telephone audition with Playhouse director Kendrick Wilson.

Father and daughter had a famously strained relationship. "Dad didn't know how to express emotions. It was a certain generation that you just didn't do that," Jane Fonda told CBS News' Lee Cowan.

She later studied acting with Lee Strasberg.

Actress Jane Fonda appearing in her first motion picture, the romantic comedy "Tall Story" (1960), directed by Joshua Logan and co-starring Anthony Perkins.

Jane Fonda in "Walk on the Wild Side" (1962), a rather scandalous romantic drama set during the Depression, which also starred Laurence Harvey, Capucine, Anne Baxter and Barbara Stanwyck.

Jane Fonda and Laurence Harvey in "Walk on the Wild Side."

Jane Fonda and Ray Danton in "The Chapman Report" (1962), based on Irving Wallace's racy novel which was itself inspired by the Kinsey Report.

Jane Fonda and Tony Franciosa in "Period of Adjustment" (1962), George Roy Hill's film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play.

Jane Fonda and Alain Delon starred in Rene Clement's 1964 mystery/thriller "Joy House" (a.k.a. "Les Felins")

Jane Fonda as a woman out to avenge her father's murder by hiring a gunslinger in the Western comedy "Cat Ballou."

James Fox, Jane Fonda and Robert Redford in "The Chase."

Jane Fonda in "The Game Is Over" (a.k.a. "La Curee").

Fonda first worked for director Roger Vadim in his 1964 "Circle of Love," based on the Arthur Schnitzler play "La Ronde." The two married in 1967.

Unidentified friends throw rice at just-wedded French director Roger Vadim and American actress Jane Fonda in Saint-Ouen Marchefroy, northwestern France, May 19, 1967. Vadim directed some 20 films, including several with Fonda.

Jane Fonda starred opposite Dead Jones in "Any Wednesday."

Michael Caine and Jane Fonda in Otto Preminger's "Hurry Sundown," co-authored by Horton Foote.

Jane Fonda reunited with her "Chase" co-star Robert Redford in the Neil Simon comedy "Barefoot in the Park."

Jane Fonda starred with her brother (and Roger Corman regular) Peter Fonda in "Metzengerstein," part of the omnibus feature "Spirits of the Dead," a collection of adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe stories.

At left: Actress Jane Fonda gestures with a finger at her brother, Peter Fonda, as they arrive to attend the Paris premiere of the American film "The Wild Angels" in Paris on Jan. 31, 1967. The film stars Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra. At right: The famous acting siblings in 2001.

Jane Fonda and John Phillip Law in Roger Vadim's science fiction camp classic "Barbarella."

"All that Barbarella hair was actually mine," she said. "That ain't no wig!"

Jane Fonda starred as a participant in a grueling dance marathon in the Depression-Era "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" with Michael Sarrazin. Fonda received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Jane Fonda addresses a crowd of demonstrators in Washington, D.C., during a rally protesting United States involvement in the Vietnam War, May 17, 1970.

Jane Fonda starred with Yves Montand in Jean Luc Godard's "Tout va Bien" (1970).

Donald Sutherland is a New York City police officer and Jane Fonda a prostitute in Alan Pakula's thriller "Klute" (1971). Fonda won her first Academy Award for Best Actress.

Gene Hackman (Best Actor Oscar winner for "The French Connection") and Jane Fonda (Best Actress Oscar winner for "Klute") are seen backstage at the 1971 Academy Awards, March 27, 1972 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

American actress and peace activist Jane Fonda (center), is surrounded by protesters staging a rally in Stockholm protesting U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia, December 20, 1972.

American actress and peace activist Jane Fonda addresses the media at a Stockholm press conference protesting U.S. military involvement in Vietnam, December 20, 1972.

American actress Jane Fonda meets with Vice Prime Minister of the North Vietnamese government Nguyen Duy Trinh in Hanoi July 21, 1972.

Her trip to Hanoi in 1972 still sparks outrage among some veterans, largely for her sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, smiling and laughing. "I made a terrible mistake, unwittingly sitting on that gun," Fonda told CBS News' Lee Cowan. "It was a terrible thing. Because it belied who I am and what I stood for, and the fact that I had been working with soldiers for years before then.

"The appearance was that I was against my country and my soldiers and, you know, I will go to my grave - that is a regret I will never get over."

Actress Jane Fonda, left, and her second husband, Tom Hayden walk with their 2-year-old son Troy, as they arrive to vote in Santa Monica, Calif., June 8, 1976. Hayden, who was a leader of the student anti-Vietnam war movement of the 1960s, failed to win the Democratic primary challenge against U.S. Senator John Tunney, but later won seats in the California State Assembly and State Senate.

Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda in "Julia."

Meryl Streep and Jane Fonda in "Julia."

Jane Fonda and George Segal in the comedy "Fun With Dick and Jane" (1977).

Jon Voight played a returning Vietnam War veteran in Hal Ashby's "Coming Home," with Jane Fonda. Both Fonda and Voight won Oscars for their portrayals.

Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern in "Coming Home."

Jane Fonda and James Caan in "Comes a Horseman."

Jane Fonda played a broadcast reporter who stumbles onto a story of a potentially catastrophic nuclear plant accident in "The China Syndrome," co-starring Michael Douglas.

Jane Fonda and Robert Redford starred together again in "The Electric Horseman" (1979).

Actor Henry Fonda is shown in a scene from the 1981 movie, "On Golden Pond," with actresses Jane Fonda and Katharine Hepburn.

Jane said there were things she was able to say to Henry Fonda as a character that she wasn't able to as his daughter. "It was very hard for me to do that. It was hard," she told Cowan. "When I said, 'I want to be your friend,' I reached out and I touched his arm. And I don't know if you can see it on the screen, it's so slight. But what I saw happen, condensed into a nanosecond, I saw surprise, I saw anger, I saw tears. And then he ducks his head like that. God forbid he should show emotion."

Jane Fonda and Henry Fonda, with the Best Actor Oscar he won for "On Golden Pond."

In 1981 the first of the Jane Fonda workout books, videos and records was issued. Fonda said she had struggled with eating issues, off and on, from age 15 to about age 45 . . . until she started working out.

"Up until then, I was like a dry drunk, you know?" she said. "I wasn't engaging in my addiction, but I wasn't healed, either, and the workout helped me heal. Because I discovered another way to manage my body issues." She said when she first started making workout videos she had "not a clue" that they were groundbreaking. "I was very resistant to it in the beginning," she said. "I thought, 'I'm an actor! I don't want to make an exercise video. It's gonna hurt my career.'"

It did not hurt her career; "Workout" remains one of the bestselling home videos of all time. She's recently released new exercise DVDs for an older audience.

Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dabney Coleman in the comedy "9 to 5."

Jane Fonda and Meg Tilly in "Agnes of God."

Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro in "Stanley and Iris."

One of Gregory Peck's final films, "Old Gringo," was also Jane Fonda's last film for about 15 years, having settled into a life away from filmmaking with her third husband, Ted Turner. As she has done before, she molded herself to the man she married, becoming a philanthropist.

She didn't miss movies, she says, at first. But then while writing her memoir, the itch came back.

Newlyweds Jane Fonda and Ted Turner pose in front of his Capps, Fla. home just after their wedding ceremony, December 21, 1991. Fonda's son Troy is at left.

Jane Fonda poses with a copy of her autobiography, "My Life So Far," before a discussion and book signing, Tuesday, April 5, 2005, at a Barnes & Noble bookstore in New York. In the background is a poster for her movie with Jennifer Lopez, "Monster-in-Law."

Lily Tomlin, center, lets out a big laugh, as Dolly Parton, left, and Jane Fonda reminisce about their work together on the film "Nine to Five," during an event celebrating the launch of the "Nine to Five: Sexist, Egotistical, Lying, Hypocritical Bigot Edition" DVD, March 30, 2006, in Los Angeles.

Actor Sean Penn speaks during a rally against the war in Iraq on the National Mall with actresses Susan Sarandon, left, and Jane Fonda on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2007 in Washington.

Director Gary Marshall and actors Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman, Lindsay Lohan and Cary Elwes attend the premiere of "Georgia Rule," at the Ziegfeld Theatre May 8, 2007 in New York.

Actress and activist Jane Fonda speaks to students during the forum Mexico XXI Century, organized by Telmex Foundation in Mexico City, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008.

Actress Jane Fonda attends the 64th Cannes Film Festival on May 12, 2011, in France.

From left, actress and singer Grace Hightower, supermodel Naomi Campbell, actress Jane Fonda and model Afef Jnifen walk the runway at the finale of the Fashion for Relief charity fashion show during the 64th Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2011, in France.

Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Paramount

Actress Jane Fonda attends the "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" Premiere during the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 18, 2012 in Cannes, France.

Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan and Alan Rickman as President Ronald Reagan, in "Lee Daniels' The Butler" (2013).

Elizabeth Olsen, Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener in "Peace, Love and Misunderstanding."

Fonda plays a role that, to some, may not seem like too much of a stretch. Her character - an aging, pot-smoking, one-time flower child - tries to help her up-tight lawyer daughter move on after a divorce.

"I'm so tired of movies that don't make me feel good. And it's a feel-good movie!" Fonda said.

By CBSNews.com senior editor David Morgan