Henry Fonda as Producer 12 Angry Men (1957)

Fonda produced exactly one film, and this was it

Henry Fonda (in 12 Angry Men) was 51 years old when he saw the 1954 Studio One live broadcast of Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men. He had been a leading man for twenty years, working with major directors (John Ford, Preston Sturges, William Wyler, King Vidor, Anatole Litvak) inside the studio system. He had never produced a film. After the broadcast, he approached Rose immediately about turning the teleplay into a feature, and the two of them formed a one-shot production company — Orion-Nova Productions — to make it happen. It was the first and last time Fonda put his own money into a picture.

"I knew this was a film I had to make. The script was the most exciting reading I had had in years. I gambled my own money to get it made." — Henry Fonda, Fonda: My Life (with Howard Teichmann) (1981) (book; archive.org scan)

The financial structure

Fonda and Rose (in 12 Angry Men) each contributed approximately $100,000 to Orion-Nova, with the company holding the rights to the screenplay and Fonda's services. United Artists agreed to finance the remainder of the picture in exchange for distribution rights. The total negative cost came to approximately $337,000 — a low budget for a feature with an A-list star, made possible by the picture's nineteen-day shoot, single principal set, and Sidney Lumet (in 12 Angry Men)'s television-trained efficiency. See Shot in 19 Days.

Fonda took an executive-producer credit on the picture, though the credit was not always carried on prints. Most reissue prints since the 1990s show "Henry Fonda and Reginald Rose Present" as the picture's ownership credit.

The hiring decisions were Fonda's

The most consequential producing decisions Fonda made were the hires. He took Rose's recommendation on Lumet — a 32-year-old live-television director with no feature credits — on a single meeting. He approved Boris Kaufman (in 12 Angry Men) as cinematographer when Lumet pursued him. He approved the casting of the eleven other jurors, all of whom were Lumet's choices from the live-television and stage worlds. He did not impose stars on the picture; the supporting cast is composed entirely of working character actors at points in their careers when the parts were possible bookings, not prestige hires.

"Hank Fonda hired Sidney Lumet on faith. He hired Boris Kaufman because Lumet wanted him. He let Lumet cast the room. He stayed out of the way. The producing instinct was perfect — pick the people who know what they're doing, then trust them." — Sidney Lumet, Making Movies (1995) (book; archive.org scan)

Fonda hated the producing experience

The financial result was respectable — the picture broke even on theatrical release through international and television sales, and has earned out many times over in the seven decades since — but the daily experience of producing was something Fonda swore off permanently.

"Producing is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week thing, and I just didn't want to do it again." — Henry Fonda, The Dick Cavett Show (1973 interview, archived clip)

Howard Teichmann's biography records that Fonda was on set for every shooting day, in costume, ready to be called for his scenes, while also handling production decisions — vendor calls, MPAA correspondence, budget questions from Lumet. The combination of leading-man work and producer responsibility was, by Fonda's account, exhausting in a way that acting alone had never been.

What the producing decision meant for the picture

The fact that Fonda was producing the picture as well as starring in it had two structural consequences that shaped the final product:

• Lumet's hiring. A studio-employed producer in 1956 would not have hired an unknown TV director for a major Fonda vehicle. Fonda's own money on the line let him take the risk. Lumet's career as one of the great American directors begins with this decision.
• The economy. A studio production at typical Hollywood overhead would have cost three or four times what the picture cost. The shoot's nineteen-day discipline was made possible by the fact that the producer was the lead actor, who was committed to delivering the film fast and cheap. Most Fonda vehicles of the period — War and Peace, The Wrong Man, The Tin Star — ran much longer schedules. The 1957 picture's economy is downstream of the producer-actor combination.

Fonda's later attitude toward the picture

Fonda spoke about 12 Angry Men more than any other film in his catalog. He considered it the work he was proudest of, partly because the production had been his own gamble and partly because the picture's afterlife as a teaching text had given it a kind of permanence that most film performances do not achieve.

"It is the picture I am most proud of. I think it will last." — Henry Fonda, Fonda: My Life (1981) (book)

He did not produce another picture. Across his subsequent twenty-five-year career he worked exclusively as an actor, taking on a wide range of roles — Stage Struck (1958, also Lumet), Warlock (1959), Advise & Consent (1962), Fail Safe (1964, Lumet again), Battle of the Bulge (1965), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), On Golden Pond (1981) — without ever revisiting the producing experience. The 1957 picture remains the only producing credit on his filmography.