- Original name:
- Jacob Julius Garfinkle
- Died:
- May 21, 1952, New York City (aged 39)
John Garfield
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Who was John Garfield?
John Garfield (1913-1952) was an American actor, known for his intense performances as rebels and antiheroes on film and stage. His success in the Group Theatre led to a Warner Bros. contract and his first film, Four Daughters (1938), where his portrayal of a cynical musician earned him an Oscar nomination.
Garfield's status as a cult hero was cemented in the late 1940s through film noir, where he played common men led astray. Highlights include The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) with Lana Turner, Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) with Gregory Peck, and Body and Soul (1947), which brought him another Oscar nomination.
In 1951, he was labeled an uncooperative witness by the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Many believed the stress from this ordeal contributed to his death at age 39.
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What types of movies was John Garfield known for?
John Garfield was renowned for his intense performances as rebels and antiheroes. He gained prominence in the late 1940s through film noir, where he portrayed ordinary men led astray by temptation or inner rebellion. Films such as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and Force of Evil (1948) exemplify this persona. Additionally, Garfield starred in war-themed movies like Pride of the Marines (1945). His role in Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), which tackled antisemitism, is also considered among his best.
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What was one of John Garfield's most famous roles?
One of John Garfield's most famous roles was Charlie Davis in Body and Soul (1947), a film considered by many to be among the best about boxing. Garfield's portrayal of Davis, who enters the boxing world to escape poverty but falls prey to fame and fortune, is a classic example of his established screen persona as a common man led astray by temptation. The film is noted for its realistic fight scenes. Garfield received an Oscar nomination for best actor for this role.
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How did John Garfield's acting style differ from other actors of his time?
John Garfield was known for his intense acting style, often portraying rebels and anti-heroes.
Garfield, along with Stella Adler, Franchot Tone, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Elia Kazan, was part of the Group Theatre, which survived throughout the Great Depression in New York City as a noncommercial repertory company without stars or prima donnas. The Group Theatre emphasized a psychologically realistic acting style known as the Method, which Clurman and Strasberg borrowed from ideas pioneered by Konstantin Stanislavsky.
The Method acting style involves drawing upon genuine emotions from the past. Marlon Brando, James Dean, Meryl Streep, Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and Shelley Winters were actors who trained in the Method and became the most emotionally compelling performers in American movies.
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How did John Garfield's career change during the time of the Hollywood blacklist?
During the Hollywood blacklist era, John Garfield's career was significantly impacted. In 1951, he was summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and was labeled an uncooperative witness for declining to name names.
As a result, Garfield became a target of "red-baiters". His final film, He Ran All the Way (1951), was produced by his own company, and it is believed that he would have struggled to find work in Hollywood afterward. Many people close to Garfield attributed his death at the age of 39 to the stress of his HUAC ordeal. The Hollywood blacklist was a list of media workers ineligible for employment because of alleged communist or subversive ties in the late 1940s and 1950s.
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What impact did John Garfield have on American film acting?
John Garfield was renowned for his intense portrayals of rebels and antiheroes. His success in the Group Theatre led to a Warner Bros. contract and his first film, Four Daughters (1938), garnering praise and an Oscar nomination.
Garfield's established screen persona of a common man led astray by temptation projected masculinity and sensuality, making him a credible leading man. His films, including The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and Body and Soul (1947), solidified his cult hero status. Garfield's acting in Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) is regarded as one of his finest performances. He became a target of red-baiters and was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1951.
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John Garfield (born March 4, 1913, New York, New York, U.S.—died May 21, 1952, New York City) was an American film and stage actor who is best known for his intense portrayals of rebels and antiheroes.
Garfield grew up in the poor Jewish section of New York City’s Lower East Side. Street-gang involvement and numerous fistfights landed him in a reform school during his teen years, where he soon blossomed in forensic and athletic activities. A scholarship he won in a statewide New York Times-sponsored debating contest allowed him to attend the American Laboratory School, where he studied acting under Maria Ouspenskaya. His restless nature led him to live as a train-hopping vagrant during the early 1930s, but he returned to New York in 1932 and joined Eva Le Gallienne’s prestigious Civic Repertory Theatre. With that troupe, and under the name of Jules Garfield, he made his Broadway debut with a small part in the play Lost Boy (1933).
In 1934 Garfield joined the Group Theatre, the legendary and highly influential theater company founded by Harold Clurman, Lee Strasberg, and Cheryl Crawford. Garfield attracted critical and public attention with his starring roles in the Group Theatre’s productions of three Clifford Odets plays, Waiting for Lefty (1935), Awake and Sing! (1935), and Golden Boy (1937). His success in these roles led to a contract with Warner Bros., for which Garfield appeared in his first film, the melodrama Four Daughters (1938). His brooding performance as a cynical young musician garnered considerable praise, as well as legions of female fans and an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. Throughout the early 1940s, Garfield appeared in several successful films, including Saturday’s Children (1940), Castle on the Hudson (1940), The Sea Wolf (1941), and Tortilla Flat (1942). A mild heart attack kept the actor from military service during World War II; fully recovered, he entertained troops and appeared in several war-themed films, the best of which was Pride of the Marines (1945).
Garfield’s status as a cult hero was established with a series of classic films, most of them in the film noir genre, made during the late 1940s. In them, Garfield further refined his established screen persona of a common man led astray by temptation or a latent rebellious spirit. An ordinary-looking fellow, his masculinity and self-confidence projected considerable sensuality and made him a credible leading man. He learned to play the violin for his role as the gigolo-protégé of Joan Crawford in Humoresque (1946), his final film for Warner Bros. and, in the opinion of many critics, his best for the studio. The steamy The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) paired Garfield with Lana Turner for a classic tale of revenge and deception. Garfield’s acting in a supporting role to Gregory Peck in Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)—a film controversial at the time for its frank treatment of antisemitism—is regarded as one of his finest performances. Also in 1947 Garfield made what remains one of his most popular films, as well as the film many critics regard as the greatest boxing melodrama of all time, Body and Soul (1947). In 1939 he had been passed over for the lead in the film version of Golden Boy in favor of screen newcomer William Holden, but Body and Soul provided him with a similar role in a better film and earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor.
Garfield’s final classic from this period was Force of Evil (1948), a seminal example of the film noir style, in which he portrayed a corrupt attorney. Because of its metaphoric condemnation of the American business community, Force of Evil was seen as subversive in some quarters and resulted in the blacklisting of its director, Abraham Polonsky. Garfield also became a target of red-baiters and was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1951 and labeled an uncooperative witness when he refused to name names. Garfield’s final film, He Ran All the Way (1951), was made for his own production company; it is likely that he would have had difficulty finding work in Hollywood thereafter. Despite a history of heart problems, many close to Garfield attributed his death from coronary thrombosis at age 39 to the stress of his House Committee ordeal.