8. Henry Fonda - On Golden Pond
Universal PicturesBy the late 1970s, Henry Fonda had mostly settled into a quiet retirement after four decades of working steadily in Hollywood. But if you wanted one last hurrah, you probably couldn't do much better than On Golden Pond. It's the story of an elderly couple, played by Fonda and fellow acting legend Katharine Hepburn, who are vacationing for the summer at an idyllic cottage near Golden Pond. Their daughter comes to visit with her fiance, and asks her father to babysit the fiance's son Bill so that the two lovebirds can have some time together. To her consternation, Fonda's curmudgeonly Norman surprisingly bonds with the little boy, more than he ever did with his daughter, with whom he has a strained relationship. Both Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn won Oscars for their work in On Golden Pond (Fonda's first and Hepburn's astonishing fourth win). But it was to be his last film performance, as he died in August 1982 of heart disease, just about eight months after On Golden Pond was released.