'Easy Rider' actor Peter Fonda dies at 79

Peter Fonda, the actor made famous by the 1969 biker movie ‘Easy Rider,’ has passed away after battling lung cancer.

“I am very sad. He was my sweet-hearted baby brother. The talker of the family. I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. He went out laughing,” his sister Jane Fonda said in a statement.

The fame of ‘Easy Rider’ proved a blessing and a curse for Fonda, who spent the next three decades struggling to repeat its success as an actor and director, until being cast in 1997’s indie flick ‘Ulee’s Gold,’ playing a courageous Florida beekeeper. This earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor, though he lost out to Jack Nicholson (‘As Good as It Gets’).

In recent years, Fonda became a dedicated online #Resistance activist, going so far as to call for the kidnapping and abuse of President Donald Trump’s son Barron on Twitter in June last year. 

He deleted the tweet and apologized, but continued to post about “Commie Don” and “Moscow Mitch” until as recently as last week.