Garfield, John

Garfield, John (b. Julius Garfinkle) (1913–52) movie/stage actor; born in New York City. A one-time juvenile delinquent, he gained a reputation acting with the leftist Group Theater in New York City, then enjoyed both critical and popular acclaim for his first featured role in the movie Four Daughters (1938). He went on to play a series of aggressive or embittered characters in such movies as The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) and Body and Soul (1947). He was blacklisted in the 1950s for refusing to give a government committee the names of friends who had been Communists, but he died prematurely of a heart attack before it could have much effect on his career.