Well, he was an actor.
He never came across that way in his films. The only time he played a bad guy, that I can recall, was in Once Upon a Time in the West.
Agreed.
In "On Golden Pond" Henry played Jane's father and my guess is the chemistry there was pretty true to life.
But even I could put 2+2+2 together and imagine a scenario which both explains it and lets them all off the hook.
But it doesn't matter because the bottom line is Jane went nuts and took revenge on everything her Dad had once stood for.
If she were a child that's one thing, but an adult is her own moral agent.
He also played a bad guy in the film “Firecreek”.