John Garfield

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John Garfield

from the trailer for the film
Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Born Jacob Julius Garfinkle
March 4, 1913 (1913-03-04)
New York City, New York
Died May 21, 1952 (aged 39)
New York City, New York
Spouse(s) Roberta Seidman (1935-1952)

John Garfield (March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an Academy Award-nominated American actor. Garfield was especially adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. Garfield is acknowledged as the predecessor of such Method actors as Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Montgomery Clift.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Youth

Born Jacob Julius Garfinkle in New York City, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants David and Hannah Garfinkle, Garfield spent the first seven years of his life in Sea Gate, Brooklyn. After the death of his mother, Garfield was sent to a school for difficult children in the Bronx. It was under the guidance of the school's principal—the noted educator Angelo Patri—that he was introduced to both boxing and acting.[1] He had also contracted a childhood illness, severely damaging his heart and limiting his ability to engage in strenuous athletics. He received a scholarship to Maria Ouspenskaya's acting school, making his Broadway debut in 1932.

[edit] Career

He became a member of the Group Theater. The Group's play Golden Boy was written for him by Clifford Odets, but ultimately he was cast in a supporting role rather than the lead [2]. Garfield decided to leave Broadway and try his luck in Hollywood. In 1938, he received wide critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Four Daughters.

At the onset of World War II, Garfield immediately attempted to enlist in the armed forces, but was turned down due to his heart condition.[3] Frustrated, he turned his energies to supporting the war effort. He and actress Bette Davis were the driving forces behind the opening of the Hollywood Canteen, a club offering food and entertainment for American servicemen. He later traveled to Yugoslavia to help entertain for the war effort.

Garfield graduated to leading roles in films such as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) with Lana Turner, Humoresque (1946) with Joan Crawford, and the Oscar-winning Best Picture Gentleman's Agreement (1947). (In the latter film, Garfield took a featured, but supporting part because he believed deeply in the project.) In 1948 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his starring role in Body and Soul (1947). That same year, Garfield returned to Broadway in the play Skipper Next to God. A strong-willed and often verbally combative individual, Garfield did not hesitate to venture out on his own when the opportunity arose. In 1946, when his contract with Warner Bros. expired, Garfield decided against renewal of his studio contract and opted to start his own independent production company, one of the first Hollywood stars to take this step.

Long involved in liberal politics, Garfield was caught up in the Communist scare of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and supported the Committee for the First Amendment, which opposed governmental investigation of political beliefs. When called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which was empowered to investigate purported communist infiltration in America, Garfield refused to name communist party members or followers, testifying that, indeed, he knew none in the film industry. Indeed, Garfield rejected Communism, and just prior to his death, in hopes of redeeming himself in the eyes of the blacklisters, had written that he had been duped by Communist ideology, in an unpublished article entitled "I Was a Sucker for a Left Hook", a reference to Garfield's movies about boxing.[4] However, his forced testimony before the committee had severely damaged his reputation. He was blacklisted in Red Channels, and barred from future employment as an actor by Hollywood movie studio bosses for the remainder of his career.[5]

With film work scarce because of the blacklist, Garfield returned to Broadway and starred in a 1952 revival of Golden Boy, finally being cast in the lead role denied him years before.

[edit] Personal life

John Garfield's grave in Westchester Hills Cemetery
John Garfield's grave in Westchester Hills Cemetery

He and Roberta Seidman married in February 1935, Though his wife had been a member of the Communist Party,[6] there was no evidence that Garfield himself was ever a Communist. They had three children: Katherine (1938-45), who died of an allergic reaction, David (1943-1994), and Julie (born 1946), the latter two later becoming actors themselves.[7]

[edit] Death

Long-term heart problems, allegedly aggravated by the stress of his blacklisting [8] , led to his early death at the age of 39 on May 21, 1952. Garfield is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York. Roberta Garfield married attorney Sidney Cohn in 1954, who died in 1991. She died in January 2004.[9]

[edit] Awards and nominations

Garfield was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7065 Hollywood Boulevard.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Features

[edit] Short Subjects

  • Swingtime in the Movies (1938)
  • Meet the Stars #1: Chinese Garden Festival (1940)
  • Show Business at War (1943)
  • Screen Snapshots: The Skolsky Party (1946)
  • Screen Snapshots: Out of This World Series (1947)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Jim Beaver. John Garfield: His Life and Films Cranbury NJ, A.S. Barnes & Co., 1978 ISBN 0-49801-890-3
  2. ^ Nott, Robert. He Ran All the Way: The Life of John Garfield, New York, Limelight Editions, 2003 ISBN 0-87910-985-8
  3. ^ Nott, Robert. He Ran All the Way: The Life of John Garfield. New York, Limelight Editions, 2003 ISBN 0-87910-985-8
  4. ^ http://cla.calpoly.edu/cla/legacies/rsimon/massculture.html
  5. ^ Jim Beaver. John Garfield: His Life and Films Cranbury NJ, A.S. Barnes & Co., 1978 ISBN 0-49801-890-3
  6. ^ John Garfield
  7. ^ Nott, Robert. He Ran All the Way: The Life of John Garfield. New York, Limelight Editions, 2003 ISBN 0-87910-985-8
  8. ^ W. Pechter, "Abraham Polonsky and 'Force of Evil'", Film Quarterly, vol. 15, nr. 3 - Spring 1962, p. 53 : Pechter interviewing Polonsky: "It has been suggested that John Garfield’s political difficulties and debarment from Hollywood work was a considerable influence in accelerating his early death. Do you have any opinion on this? Yes. He defended his streetboy’s honor and they killed him for it."
  9. ^ New York Times Death Notice, Roberta Garfield Cohn, Jan. 23, 2004

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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