Introduction
Few fans of contemporary films will know who John Garfield was. Part of this is due to the actor’s premature death at the age of thirty-nine, just when he was entering his prime. The other reason has to do with the scandal that embroiled the actor when America was in the beginning stages of its fight against communism during the Cold War. It’s a shame because had he lived longer, there is no doubt that John Garfield would have revolutionized the art of acting.
It’s also possible that his stardom would have altered the careers of icons such as Marlon Brando and Paul Newman. While his career was not as long as some of his legendary contemporaries, such as Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart, his acting style was a precursor to what would become famously known as the “method” style of acting. A style made famous by Montgomery Clift and Brando himself.
Beginnings
John Garfield was born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, on March 4, 1913, in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Manhattan’s Lower East Side was a community of rampant poverty and run-down tenements. Garfield like many youths during that time, exhibited a rebellious and combative nature. This landed him in a reform school due to his penchant for fighting. Eventually, his behavior settled down and he began to flourish academically and in the performing arts.
He won a scholarship in a New York Times-sponsored debating contest. This achievement enabled him to attend the American Laboratory School. There, he studied acting under the tutelage of Maria Ouspenskaya. This experience cultivated Garfield’s lifelong love for the stage. His fortunes soon improved when he joined Eva Le Gallienne’s Civic Repertory Theatre. His diligence paid off when he made his Broadway debut in the play Lost Boy (1933), although in a small role. Garfield later in life once said:
“Screen acting is my business, but I get my kicks on Broadway”
1934 proved to be a pivotal year for Garfield professionally. He again found work with another successful theatre company – the prestigious Group Theatre which was founded in 1931. Garfield began receiving critical acclaim for his work in three of Clifford Odets’s plays, Waiting for Lefty (1935), Awake and Sing (1935), and Golden Boy (1937).
This early success led to a contract with Warner Brothers. They subsequently changed his name from Jules Garfield to John Garfield. Unlike many of his contemporaries who struggled in mediocre film roles before reaching stardom, John Garfield became an instant star in a supporting role to Jeffrey Lynn and Priscilla Lane in Four Daughters (1938). Garfield’s portrayal of the brooding and cynical Mickey Borden captivated audiences. The actor stole the picture from Jeffrey Lynn, whom Warner Brothers were trying to groom into a star.
Stardom with Warner Brothers
1938 proved to be a pivotal year for Garfield professionally and personally. His first daughter, Katherine, was born that year and Garfield’s success in Four Daughters led to the film being a major hit for the studio. The result was five Academy Award nominations, including a nomination for Best Actor in a supporting role for Garfield. Variety Magazine said that Garfield:
“…turns out to be a much more forceful personality on the screen than he was on the stage…”
His individual success in the film contributed to a series of sequels including Daughters Courageous (1939), and Four Wives (1939). Garfield’s palpable chemistry with Priscilla Lane led to another romantic melodrama that same year, Dust Be My Destiny (1939). Garfield’s roles were becoming similar as he became a victim of typecasting. This often happened during Classic Hollywood’s studio era. Nonetheless, Garfield became a cornerstone of Warner Brothers’ top-heavy roster of male stars which included James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and Errol Flynn.
As a sign of Garfield’s ascendancy, the actor played a supporting role to Warner’s two biggest stars – Paul Muni and Bette Davis – in a prestige picture, Juarez (1939). The film received mixed reviews which included the miscasting of Garfield as a Mexican man wearing brownface!
In 1940, he played a career thief who gets sent to Sing Sing prison in Castle on the Hudson. This was a remake of 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932). Garfield was not pleased with the reception of the film, and he was beginning to voice his frustration regarding his typecasting. The year before he had refused a supporting role in another gangster melodrama Invisible Stripes (1939). This resulted in a brief suspension. He only accepted the role in Castle on the Hudson on the condition that he be allowed to play a lead role in a film based on the 1927 play Saturday’s Children.
Warner Brothers again attempted to place him in another tough guy role in Flight Angels (1940). Garfield promptly rejected it, which lead to another suspension. It was this persistence that demonstrated that Garfield viewed his profession not just to make money, but to develop his craft as an actor. It also earned him the respect of his peers such as Bette Davis and James Cagney. They were also fighting vigorously for better roles within the studio system.
Despite the acrimony with the studio heads, Garfield gave a strong performance in a supporting role to Edward G. Robinson in The Sea Wolf (1941). Garfield played one of three fugitives who find themselves prisoners of a ship captain (played powerfully by Robinson). Robert Rossen’s script built up the two characters and Ida Lupino co-starred, adding to the intensity of the film. It was a success for the studio and was re-released six years later in 1947.
After the war, the political climate was beginning to change in America. As the Cold War intensified, Rossen, Robinson, and Garfield would later be targeted by the Congressional House Un-American Activities Committee. In his next film, he teamed up again with Ida Lupino in Out of the Fog (1941). Garfield got the role only after Lupino refused to work with Humphrey Bogart again after not getting along in their previous films. The film turned a modest profit and the two would subsequently co-star in four films together. Legendary film critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote:
“…the film has moments of sinister impact, especially when John Garfield as the gangster is turning on the heat…”
Garfield’s portrayal of volatile and mercurial characters on the fringes of society had become customary to movie audiences during the war years. Showing his range, Garfield received praise when he co-starred with Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr in Tortilla Flat (1942). Crowther this time wrote that:
“Mr. Garfield is a lovable, lively Danny”
America’s worst fears came true in 1942 as they embroiled themselves in World War II. After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hollywood did its part in supporting the war effort. Garfield tried to enlist but was rejected due to a bad heart as a result of Scarlet Fever as a boy. Subsequently, Garfield, along with Bette Davis, opened the Hollywood Canteen which was modeled after New York’s Stage Door Canteen.
The entertainment venue was exclusively for servicemen and women and entrance to the canteen was free. All the major studios’ stars worked for free running the Canteen until it closed its doors in 1945. The profits from two films, Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), and Hollywood Canteen (1944), helped to fund the Canteen. Fellow stars also donated their salaries to the cause.
Garfield also performed superbly in two war films, Destination Tokyo (1943) with Cary Grant, and Pride of the Marines (1945). It was Hollywood’s and John Garfield’s finest hour. The closure of the canteen in 1945 was a bittersweet time for Garfield as this was the year his eldest daughter, Katherine, tragically died from an allergic reaction. He never got over the loss.
In 1946, Garfield would gain great acclaim for possibly his two best roles in The Postman Always Rings Twice and Humoresque. In The Postman Always Rings Twice, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote that the film:
“…comes off as a tremendously tense and dramatic show, and it gives Lana Turner and John Garfield the best roles of their careers…”
Garfield plays the role of a drifter who falls in love with a married woman played marvelously by Turner. The two then scheme to murder her husband. In one of the best film noirs of the 1940s, Variety Magazine praised Garfield and Turner for giving “the best of their talents” to their roles. The film was a massive hit earning a profit of almost two million dollars. Garfield and Turner had a brief affair while filming, and would remain good friends the rest of their careers.
In Humoresque (1946), Garfield played a supporting role to Joan Crawford who was in the middle of a career resurgence since she came over to Warner Brothers. Crawford brilliantly plays the wealthy socialite whom Garfield, a young violinist, later falls in love with. Garfield once again shines with another equally formidable co-star much as he did with Ida Lupino and Lana Turner. The result was another immensely profitable film for Warner Brothers. Both stars would continue their success for the studio.
Post-war Years
By 1947, movie audiences were captivated by the intense realism of actors like John Garfield and by films with a social message. It was for these reasons that John Garfield agreed to take a supporting role in Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), Elia Kazan’s classic movie about antisemitism starring Gregory Peck and Dorothy McGuire.
Garfield, who was Jewish, knew fully well the perils of antisemitism and strongly believed in the film’s message. It was a resounding success, winning three Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress. However, the political nature of the film would subsequently bring unwanted attention from Lawmakers who were deeply entrenched in their anticommunist hysteria.
Garfield’s performance in Body and Soul (1947) as a boxer who struggles with the corrupt aspects of the business, earned him his second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actor. His superb portrayal in the film atoned for his being passed over from playing the lead role as a boxer in Golden Boy (1939). That film turned William Holden into a star. Critics praised Robert Rossen and Garfield for their work.
In 2008, the American Film Institute recognized the impact of Body and Soul when it was nominated for a spot on its list of Best Sports Films. Film critic Dennis Schwartz alluded to the sociopolitical element of the film which was palpable. In his analysis, he contends that:
“…Garfield is seen as a victim of the ruthless capitalistic system that fixes everything including athletic events, as the little guy is always at the mercy of the big operator…”
It was these perceived hidden messages in some of Garfield’s films that aroused the suspicions of lawmakers who were relentless in their fight against communist sympathizers.
Garfield’s fortunes took an ominous turn when in 1950, his name was published in the anti-communist brochure “Red Channels.” In one of the darkest and most shameful times of American history, many Americans including prominent actors such as Garfield, were forced to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951. In his testimony, Garfield denied being a communist. However, he refused to disclose the names of any communists in the film industry.
Sadly, Garfield’s career along with many other established screenwriters and actors, had their careers blighted by the communist witch hunts. This dark time only contributed to Garfield’s failing marriage which led to separation in 1952, and a decline in his physical health. This culminated in his death that year from a heart attack at the age of thirty-nine.
Conclusion
Hollywood still feels John Garfield’s legacy today, even though his career came to a bitter end. Film acting evolved in Hollywood because actors like Garfield brought a defiant and elevated realism that was rare in classic Hollywood’s early years. His intensity on screen along with his willingness to harness his craft, produced memorable performances which surely impacted newcomers such as Marlon Brando and James Dean.
In essence, John Garfield a born and raised New Yorker, was that perfect bridge to the method style of acting which took over Hollywood beginning in the 1950s. However, Garfield should be remembered for his resilience which enabled him to thrive despite his upbringing in an impoverished Lower East Side, while also losing his mother at the age of seven.
His courage to support the war effort while also losing his eldest daughter fostered the character that made John Garfield so believable and enthralling on screen. Even more praiseworthy, was his willingness to accept film roles that brought awareness to political and social issues. Despite his hard life and being a victim of political and racial injustice, he never lost his empathy. Garfield later said about his past associations with progressive causes:
“Actors are emotional. If somebody would come up to us and say, “Sign here. Everybody’s doing it for civil liberties”, or “Sign here to save the bread of children of writers banned from the studios because of their political beliefs”, I would sign because it was a right cause in which I believed”
