Jane Fonda is coming to Australia as part of a surprise speaking tour.

The Hollywood legend will lift the lid on her early life, activism and career six decades after she first made her mark on film and television.

The 80-year-old first came to prominence in the 1960s after starring in a number of big-name films, including the comedy Cat Ballou.

Her work in front of the camera has since earned her seven Oscar nominations, and she's become one of the most well-known women in the world - thanks also, in no small part, to her fitness videos and feather-ruffling activism.

She shows no sign of slowing down: her new film Book Club recently hit cinemas in the United States (it won't screen in Australia until Thursday, August 9), and the fourth season of her critically-acclaimed Netflix series Grace and Frankie was also released this year.