In the public imagination, Fonda remains typecast as the noble hero of
Twelve Angry Men and Young Mr Lincoln. But if his gentle looks and manner
lent themselves most easily to rough-hewn charm and moral rectitude,
he was equally effective in comedy (The Lady Eve) or as the desperate
tragic hero of You Only Live Once. Later, his role as the sadistic
villain of Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West was hailed as inventive
casting, but his unbending righteousness had already turned into
arrogance and folly as the Custer figure in Ford's Fort Apache. A great
actor, in other words.
