Jack Garfein

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Jack Garfein, born July 2, 1930 in Mukacevo, Carpathian Ruthenia, Czechoslovakia (now Mukacheve, Ukraine), is an acting teacher and former motion picture and theater director.

Garfein survived imprisonment at Auschwitz and came to the US at the end of World War II. He joined the Actors Studio and married his fellow student, actress Carroll Baker.

Garfein's film directorial debut, The Strange One, is an ensemble piece set in a sadistic Southern military academy. It was released without an ending – leaving audiences bewildered and critics annoyed. A crucial scene involved black actors and, in the racially segregated America of 1957, the studio objected on the ground that to use black actors would mean commercial failure. Garfein refused to bow down and filmed the scene anyway. It was denounced by a U.S. Congressman as an 'un-American' film, but in Paris, a critic wrote that if anyone doubted that America was a free country, then they should see the film.

Garfein directed two other films. One was the offbeat 1961 independent film, Something Wild, which starred Baker as a young rape victim held captive by the man who rescued her from suicide. The film includes an Aaron Copland score. It was panned by many U.S. critics, even though he was hailed as an American Ingmar Bergman.^{[citation needed]}

Baker and Garfein had one daughter, actress Blanche Baker, and a son, Herschel Garfein.

Garfein founded several institutions and became director of the Actor's Studio in Los Angeles in 1966. He also directed numerous off-Broadway plays.[1].

Instructing for more than 40 years, he is one of the most experienced teachers of Method Acting. Garfein offers acting and directing classes in Paris at Le Studio Jack Garfein, London, Budapest, and Los Angeles.