WATERVILLE (AP) – Movie actor and director Peter Fonda will receive the Mid-Life Achievement Award at this summer’s Maine International Film Festival.

Fonda, 64, will spend three days in Waterville as part of the sixth annual festival, to be held July 11-20.

Fonda has appeared in more than three dozen movies, including “Easy Rider,” “Ulee’s Gold,” “Escape from L-A,” “Lilleth,” “The Limey” and “Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry.” He directed “The Hired Hand,” “Idaho Transfer” and “Wanda Nevada,” a 1979 movie in which he also plays a gambler who wins Brooke Shields in a poker game.

Fonda was chosen for the award because he is a vital, important force in the film world, said Ken Eisen, co-programmer for the festival.

“We’ve been talking about this (honoring Fonda) for a really long time,” Eisen said. “We are excited. I think he’s more than worthy of the honor, both as a director and as an actor.”

Known in turn as Henry Fonda’s son, Jane Fonda’s brother and Bridget Fonda’s father, Henry Fonda won his own due as an actor for his portrayal of a Florida beekeeper caring for his grandchildren in the 1997 movie “Ulee’s Gold.” The movie won him a Golden Globe award for best actor, and a best-actor Oscar nomination.

He will receive the fifth annual Mid-Life Achievement Award. Director Jonathan Demme received the award last year.

Last summer’s festival featured a restored version of “The Hired Hand,” the first film Fonda ever directed, in 1971. It will be shown again at this year’s fest, along with “Easy Rider,” “Lilith,” “Ulee’s Gold,” and “The Limey.”

“It’s thrilling,” said festival director Shannon Haines. “We just know it will draw people to the festival who would not otherwise come.”



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