Fonda was born in New York City, the only son of actor Henry Fonda (1905-1982) and his wife Frances Ford Seymour (1908-1950); he is the younger brother of actress Jane Fonda. He and Jane had a maternal half-sister, Frances de Villers Brokaw (1931-2008), from their mother's first marriage. Their mother committed suicide in a mental hospital when Peter, her youngest, was ten, although he did not discover the circumstances or location of her death until he was 55 years old. On his eleventh birthday, he accidentally shot himself in the stomach and nearly died.
Counter Culture Figure and Roger Corman
By the mid-1960s, Peter Fonda was not a conventional "leading man" in Hollywood. As Playboy magazine reported, Fonda had established a "solid reputation as a dropout". He had become outwardly nonconformist and grew his hair long, alienating the "establishment" film industry. Desirable acting work became scarce. Through his friendships with members of the band Byrds, Fonda visited The Beatles in their rented house in Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles in August 1965. While John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Fonda were under the influence of LSD, Lennon heard Fonda say, "I know what it's like to be dead." Lennon used this phrase as the tag line for his song, "She Said She Said", which was included on the Revolver (1966) album.  In 1966, Fonda was arrested in the Sunset Strip riot, which the police ended forcefully. The band Buffalo Springfield protested the department's handling of the incident in their song "For What It's Worth". Fonda did some singing and in 1968, recorded a 45 for the Chisa label: "November Night" (written by Gram Parsons) b/w "Catch The Wind" (the Donovan song), produced by Hugh Masekela.  Fonda's first counterculture-oriented film role was as a biker in Roger Corman's B-movie, The Wild Angels (1966). Fonda originally was to support George Chakiris but graduated to the lead when Chakiris revealed he could not ride a motorycle, Fonda helped name his character "Heavenly Blues". In the film, Fonda delivered a "eulogy" at a fallen Angel's funeral service. This was sampled by Psychic TV on their recording "Jack the TAB" LP (1988). It was later sampled in the Primal Scream recording "Loaded" (1991), and in other rock songs. The movie was a massive hit at the box office, screened at the Venice Film Festival, launched the biker movie genre, and established Fonda as a movie name.  Fonda next played the male lead in Corman's film The Trip (1967), a take on the experience and "consequences" of consuming LSD which was written by Jack Nicholson. The movie was very popular.  Fonda then travelled to France to appear in the portmanteau horror movie Spirits of the Dead (1968). His segment co-starred Fonda's sister Jane and was directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim.

Q: what was special about the counter culture figure?
A: Fonda's first counterculture-oriented film role was as a biker in Roger Corman's B-movie, The Wild Angels (1966).

Q: what was it about?
A: In the film, Fonda delivered a "eulogy" at a fallen Angel's funeral service.

Q: what was countercultural about it?
A: unknown

Q: what other movies did she do?
A: Fonda next played the male lead in Corman's film The Trip (1967),
was that movie successful?
The movie was very popular.
The movie was very popular.