(CNN)Actor and director Peter Fonda, who stepped out of his legendary Hollywood father’s shadow to become a counterculture icon with his role in “Easy Rider,” has died. He was 79.

Fonda died of respiratory failure due to lung cancer at his Los Angeles home, his family said in a statement Friday.
“It is with deep sorrow that we share the news that Peter Fonda has passed away,” the family said. “… In one of the saddest moments of our lives,