John Garfield

Acting

John Garfield

Born 1913-03-04 · Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle; March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in Depression-era New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of the Group Theater. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood, eventually becoming one of Warner Bros.' stars. Called to testify before the U.S. Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), he denied communist affiliation and refused to "name names", effectively ending his film career. Some have alleged that the stress of this incident led to his premature death at 39 from a heart attack. Garfield is acknowledged as a predecessor of such Method actors as Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and James Dean.

Acting credits

Gentleman's Agreement poster
7.0

A magazine writer poses as a Jew to expose anti-Semitism.

Gentleman's Agreement

1947

Breakdowns of 1942 poster
6.0

Flubs and bloopers that occurred on the set of some of the major Warner Bros. pictures of 1942.

Breakdowns of 1942

1942

The Sea Wolf poster
7.2

Shipwrecked fugitives try to escape a brutal sea captain who's losing his mind.

The Sea Wolf

1941

The Postman Always Rings Twice poster
7.1

A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband.

The Postman Always Rings Twice

1946

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender poster
5.3

A film scrapbook, images, phrases from our past, hiding their meanings behind veils. Let's lift those veils, one by one, to find how images, at one time seeming innocent, have revealed, after decades, to have homosexual overtones.

The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender

1997

Out of the Fog poster
6.3

A Brooklyn pier racketeer bullies boat-owners into paying protection money but two fed-up fishermen decide to eliminate the gangster themselves rather than complain to the police.

Out of the Fog

1941

He Ran All the Way poster
7.2

A crook on the run hides out in an innocent girl's apartment.

He Ran All the Way

1951

Body and Soul poster
6.7

Charley Davis, against the wishes of his mother, becomes a boxer. As he becomes more successful the fighter becomes surrounded by shady characters, including an unethical promoter named Roberts, who tempt the man with a number of vices. Charley finds himself faced with increasingly difficult choices.

Body and Soul

1947

Force of Evil poster
6.6

Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation. But his elder brother Leo is one of these small-time operators who wants to stay that way, preferring not to deal with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.

Force of Evil

1950

Air Force poster
6.5

The crew of an Air Force bomber arrives in Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the Japanese attack and is sent on to Manila to help with the defense of the Philippines.

Air Force

1943

Destination Tokyo poster
6.9

During World War II, Captain Cassidy and his crew of submariners are ordered into Tokyo Bay on a secret mission. They are to gather information in advance of the planned bombing of Tokyo. Along the way, the crew learn about each other as they face the enemy and some of them lose their lives.

Destination Tokyo

1943

Hollywood Canteen poster
7.3

Two soldiers on leave spend three nights at a club offering free of charge food, dancing, and entertainment for servicemen on their way overseas. Club founders Bette Davis and John Garfield give talks on the history of the place.

Hollywood Canteen

1944

Daisy Kenyon poster
6.6

Daisy Kenyon is a Manhattan commercial artist having an affair with an arrogant and overbearing but successful lawyer and family man named Dan O'Mara. Daisy meets a single man, a war veteran named Peter Lapham, and after a brief and hesitant courtship decides to marry him, although she is still in love with Dan.

Daisy Kenyon

1947

We Were Strangers poster
6.3

China Valdes joins the Cuban underground after her brother is killed by the chief of the secret police, Ariete. She meets and falls in love with American expatriate Tony Fenner. Tony develops a plan to tunnel under the city's cemetery to a plot owned by a high official, assassinate him, and blow up the whole Cuban hierarchy at the ensuing state funeral. Together with a band of dedicated revolutionaries, they begin digging.

We Were Strangers

1949

Tortilla Flat poster
5.8

Danny, a poor northern Californian Mexican-American, inherits two houses from his grandfather and is quickly taken advantage of by his vagabond friends.

Tortilla Flat

1942

Juarez poster
6.5

The newly-named emperor Maximilian and his wife Carlota arrive in Mexico to face popular sentiment favoring Benito Juárez and democracy.

Juarez

1939

The Breaking Point poster
7.1

A fisherman with money problems hires out his boat to transport criminals.

The Breaking Point

1950

Four Daughters poster
6.6

Musician Adam Lemp and his four equally musical daughters, Emma, Ann, Kay, and Thea, live happily together. Each daughter has an upstanding young man for whom she cares. However, the arrival of a cynical, slovenly young composer named Mickey Borden turns the household upside-down, and romantic and tragic complications ensue.

Four Daughters

1938

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage poster
7.0

Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.

Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage

1983

Between Two Worlds poster
7.2

Passengers on an ocean liner can't recall how they got onboard or where they are going. Soon it becomes apparent that they all have something in common.

Between Two Worlds

1944

Humoresque poster
7.0

A classical musician from a working class background is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy, neurotic socialite.

Humoresque

1947

No artwork available
NR

A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was founded in 1931 by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg, who were strongly influenced by the naturalistic acting of Konstantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre.

Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre

1989

Dust Be My Destiny poster
6.5

Embittered after serving time for a burglary he did not commit, Joe Bell is soon back in jail, on a prison farm. His love for the foreman's daughter leads to a fight between them, leading to the older man's death due to a weak heart. Joe and Mabel go on the run as he thinks no-one would believe a nobody like him.

Dust Be My Destiny

1939

Thank Your Lucky Stars poster
6.2

An Eddie Cantor look-alike organizes an all-star show to help the war effort.

Thank Your Lucky Stars

1943

Behind the camera