He Ran All the Way: The Life of John Garfield (Limelight) Review

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(More customer reviews)I could barely believe my eyes when I found this book available whist scouring the Amazon pages as it is so difficult to find anything about John Garfield. This book did not disappoint. It is a fitting tribute to a fantastic actor who has sadly and unjustly been largely swept under the carpet along with some of the finest work ever captured on film. The book shows you the real side of "Julie", a witty, mischievous man who kept true to the boy inside and his roots. He seems to have had a naivity which partially contributed to his tragic end and shows the extent to which he was literally hounded to death by the unrelenting HUAC. What a waste that such an outstanding talent should suffer for staying true to his country and true to his profession. This man was brilliant...just compare his Frank Chambers to that of Jack Nicholson in The Postman Always Rings Twice or the way he carries the part of Danny in Tortilla Flat, two roles in stark contrast of one another.
I have been an avid Garfield fan for many years and my uncle was even lucky enough to have met him which is fantastic... but I can only thank the author, Robert Nott, for this outstanding book and insight further into John Garfield.
This book invoked many emotions, it retold many amusing stories of his antics, showed his funny side, his serious side, his determination, faults, strengths and weaknesses and in the end, sorrow for such a sad loss. If you are at all interested in this charismatic character, buy this book. A wonderful book about a wonderful man. Enjoy!

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Product Description:
George Hurrell, the great Hollywood portrait photographer, in recalling a shooting session with John Garfield, said, "He was a strange, fascinating guy. He couldn't sit still. There was a frantic air about him...He never thought he was good looking. ‘I'm a mug,' he would laugh, ‘just a mug'...But occasionally...[h]e'd look at the proofs and say,‘Ain't too bad for a kid from the Bronx, eh?' and he'd roar with laughter." Here that thumbnail description has been vastly enlarged and deeply enriched with detail, but never airbrushed, and has become He Ran All the Way. In a sense, Garfield never left the Bronx. He began his acting career not far away, on Broadway as a member of the Group Theater in the mid-thirties. But soon, seduced by the myth of Hollywood and the reality of Warner Brothers, he made his movie debut, in 1938, in Four Daughters and immediately established himself as an earthy, rebellious and electrifying presence on the screen-in retrospect the James Dean of the Depression era. Frequenty cast as a lawbreaker, in such films as They Made Me a Criminal, Dust Be My Destiny, Castle on the Hudson and, late in his career, the cult favorite Force of Evil, Garfield went on to roles in classics like The Postman Always Rings Twice (with Lana Turner), Body and Soul and Gentleman's Agreement. Married to a teenage sweetheart, from whom he was never divorced, Garfield soon earned the reputation of a womanizer. And, reflecting the values of his upbringing and the political climate of the time, he staunchly supported leftist causes. As a result, by the early 50s his screen career was cut short by the Hollywood blacklist. He retuned to acting on Broadway and on tour. At 39 he died in New York, in the bed of a woman who was not his wife. This biography, superbly reseached and compellingly written, is as exciting as the best of Garfield's films.

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