51. Henry Fonda as Tom Joad
      The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

There is not an extraneous gesture or forced line in Fonda’s portrayal of Tom Joad, an ex-con forced to leave Oklahoma for California with his family during the Great Depression. He doesn’t show you the rage bubbling just below the surface, but you know it’s there just the same. The result—an empathetic everyman who keeps his decency while all around him are losing theirs—is as natural and effortless as the actor’s easy gait. Lee Strasberg once told Fonda’s daughter, Jane, “Don’t plan, be.” But no one needed to tell that to Henry.

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