
Jane Fonda, who is now in the 61st year of her Hollywood career, will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the virtual Golden Globe Awards ceremony on Feb. 28, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced on Tuesday.
The 83-year-old daughter of Golden Age star Henry Fonda and winner of two Oscars and three competitive Golden Globe Awards (plus four special Globes) will become the 67th — and 16th female — recipient of the HFPA’s highest honor for a film professional, which has been presented since 1952. (The Carol Burnett Award is the equivalent for people principally known for TV work.)
Chosen by the HFPA’s board for a prize intended to celebrate “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment,” she will follow in the footsteps of Walt Disney, Judy Garland, John Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and yes, her father, who was the recipient in 1980.
“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association takes great pride in bestowing the 2021 Cecil B. DeMille Award to Jane Fonda,” HFPA president Ali Sar said in a statement. “For more than five decades, Jane’s breadth of work has been anchored in her unrelenting activism, using her platform to address some of the most important social issues of our time. Her undeniable talent has gained her the highest level of recognition, and while her professional life has taken many turns, her unwavering commitment to evoking change has remained. We are honored to celebrate her achievements at the 2021 Golden Globe Awards.”
Fonda will soon be seen in the seventh and final season of Netflix’s Grace & Frankie, which will become Netflix’s longest-running original series. She is also highly active in the fight to combat climate change, raising awareness through her Fire Drill Fridays and a book released last fall, What Can I Do? My Path from Climate Despair to Action.