LOS ANGELES - Peter Fonda, a scion of Hollywood royalty who starred as a hippie biker in the 1960s generational touchstone film “Easy Rider,” shunned stardom and emerged decades later to the finest review of his career for playing a reserved beekeeper with explosive depths in “Ulee’s Gold,” died Friday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 79.

A statement from his family said the cause was respiratory failure due to lung cancer.

Mr. Fonda grew up in the shadow of his father, Henry Fonda, and older sister, Jane Fonda, both of whom won Oscars for acting.

His acting career reached its zenith in 1969, when he starred in “Easy Rider,” which captured the counterculture epoch like few other films. Along with co-stars Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, Mr. Fonda, often wearing a Captain American helmet, rode a motorcycle throughout the West and South, a rebel in search of a cause.

The film became a sensation and box-office success, but in some ways Mr. Fonda was typecast as an actor. He took increasingly second-rate roles and did not recapture his Hollywood success until his late 50s, when he starred in “Ulee’s Gold” (1997) about a beekeeping widower caring for his granddaughters. The role earned him an Oscar nomination. (Source: The Washington Post)

Story Date: August 19, 2019