Bridget Fonda

Fonda dated actor Eric Stoltz from 1990 until 1998. In February 2003, she survived a car crash in Malibu when her Jaguar rolled down an embankment, leaving her with a fractured vertebra.

The following month, she announced her engagement to film composer and former Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman. They married in November 2003. Two years later, they had a son, Oliver. Fonda stepped back from acting after her marriage to focus on raising her family.

Fonda was born into a Hollywood acting family. Her father was Peter Fonda, her grandfather was Henry Fonda, and her aunt is Jane Fonda. Her mother, Susan Jane Brewer, worked as an artist. Fonda was named after Bridget Hayward, the daughter of actress Margaret Sullavan. Following her parents' divorce, she grew up in Los Angeles and Montana with her father and stepmother, Portia Rebecca Crockett.

Her first screen appearance came early. At age five, she appeared uncredited as a child in a commune scene in Easy Rider (1969). An interest in theater developed later during a high school production of Harvey. She studied method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute and enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1986.

Fonda earned her first major film role portraying Mandy Rice-Davies in Scandal (1989), which brought her a Golden Globe nomination. Director Francis Ford Coppola then cast her as journalist Grace Hamilton in The Godfather Part III (1990).

Leading roles arrived quickly. In 1992, she starred as software designer Allison Jones in the thriller Single White Female and joined Cameron Crowe's ensemble cast in Singles. She played a government assassin in Point of No Return (1993), an American remake of the French thriller Nikita. In 1994, she starred alongside Nicolas Cage in the romantic comedy It Could Happen to You.

Quentin Tarantino offered her the part of Melanie Ralston in Jackie Brown (1997) after speaking with her on a flight. She followed that performance with roles in Sam Raimi's neo-noir A Simple Plan (1998) and the horror comedy Lake Placid (1999).

Alongside studio films, Fonda took on selected television work. She earned an Emmy nomination for Christopher Reeve's drama In the Gloaming (1997). In 2001, she received a second Golden Globe nomination for the television film No Ordinary Baby.

Television producers offered her the title role in the legal comedy-drama Ally McBeal. She turned it down. She chose not to read the script, preferring to focus on feature films. Her final feature appearances included the action thriller Kiss of the Dragon (2001) opposite Jet Li and the comedy The Whole Shebang (2001). Fonda took her final screen credit in the 2002 television film Snow Queen before retiring from acting.