Peter Fonda passed away at age 79 after a battle with lung cancer. The Hollywood legend has a whopping 116 acting credits over his lengthy career, though he is best known for playing the role of Wyatt in Easy Rider.
Starting his career in the 1960s, Fonda became a household name, and due to excellent writing and his impeccable delivery, many of the lines from his movies have become larger than the films that made them famous.
Of course, not all of Peter Fonda’s most famous quotes came from his films at all. Some things the actor has said off-screen over the years have also reverberated.
There are so many famous Peter Fonda quotes that we can’t even print them all. Here are the most memorable things the Easy Rider star said, both on and off-screen.
Peter Fonda political quotes
We probably all know who Peter Fonda was talking about when he was quoted as saying, “I don’t trust anybody who didn’t inhale.”
Another famous line from Fonda about politics was, “I have always maintained that society has no business dictating morality.
On his father, Henry Fonda
“People ask me from time to time what it was like growing up with Henry Fonda as my father. I say, Ever see Fort Apache? He was like Colonel Thursday,” Peter quipped.
Some may wonder about Henry and Peter Fonda’s father-son relationship especially since they were so different. Here’s what he had to say.
“I dig my father. I just wish he could open his eyes and dig me.”
He also talked about how hard it was to make a name for himself, being the son another famous acting legend.
“Henry Fonda’s son: That’s how everybody identified me until Easy Rider came along. Good old Captain America.”
Being a product of the 1960s counterculture, Peter and his sister Jane were both activists and were very different from their famous father. And often, they would both be criticized for that. Here’s what he had to say about it.
“It took us a long time to find out that we had been lied to by our parents’ generation. The moralities that were followed during our parents’ generation were basically arbitrary. This caused a rift between the two generations, which was brought on by the beatniks.”
He also said, “When Jane and I spoke out, people thought, What ungrateful children those two kids are to be that nasty about their father.”
Peter Fonda’s most famous movie quotes
While Peter Fonda had plenty to say on his own, he also had some great lines. Here are some of the most memorable.
From Easy Rider:
Wyatt: You ever want to be somebody else?
Stranger: I’d like to try Porky Pig.
Wyatt: I never wanted to be anybody else.
George Hanson: What does he mean “dude”? Dude ranch?
Wyatt: “Dude” means a nice guy, you know? “Dude” means a regular sort of person.
Wyatt: We blew it.
From Wild Angels:
In Wild Angels, Peter Fonda played the leader of the Hell’s Angels in Venice, California. One of his most famous lines from that movie is this:
We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride. We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man! … And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that’s what we are gonna do. We are gonna have a good time… We are gonna have a party!
“I want to die in the saddle. I love writing, producing, acting, directing.” Sadly, that’s not how Peter Fonda died. Instead, he passed away at age 79 after a battle with lung cancer. He will be missed.