John Garfield was an American stage and film actor.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/749472/John-Garfield He was famous for playing a string of rebels or antiheroes in films during the 1930s and 1940s, and is seen by many to be the first to specialize in portrayals of tough, cynical, embittered men before actors such as Marlon Brando and James Dean rose to prominence.http://www.filmreference.com/Actors-and-Actresses-Ga-Ha/Garfield-John.html He declined to name names of suspected Communists to the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951 and was blacklisted.http://movies.nytimes.com/person/187968/John-Garfield/biography He was twice nominated for an Academy Award.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002092/awards

Born Jacob Julius Garfinkel, the son of poor Jewish immigrants in New York, Garfield was a juvenile delinquent before winning a statewide debate contest that earned him a scholarship. He enrolled in the Ouspenskaya Drama School and eventually joined New York's renowned Group Theater.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/749472/John-Garfield Garfield signed a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. upon arriving in Hollywood, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in his feature film debut, Michael Curtiz's Four Daughters (1938), where he played a cynical pianist. He would continue to be cast in similar roles, playing a series of angry men or outsiders.http://movies.nytimes.com/person/187968/John-Garfield/biography After he finished his Warner Bros. contract, Garfield played a drifter in MGM's film noir classic The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), opposite Lana Turner. He founded his own production company, Enterprise Pictures, and received an Academy Award nomination for his leading turn as a boxer in Body and Soul (1947).http://www.filmreference.com/Actors-and-Actresses-Ga-Ha/Garfield-John.html Enterprise Pictures went through financial troubles during the production of the acclaimed film noir Force of Evil (1948). Nevertheless, Garfield's performance cemented his status as a genre icon.http://movies.nytimes.com/person/187968/John-Garfield/biography

Force of Evil was seen by many to be a condemnation of capitalism, and its director, Abraham Polonsky, was called to testify before the House Un-American Committee and blacklisted. Garfield testified in 1951. He declared he wasn't a Communist or Communist sympathizer, but also refused to name names and found himself the subject of an FBI investigation.http://www.filmreference.com/Actors-and-Actresses-Ga-Ha/Garfield-John.html He was subsequently blacklisted by Hollywood. He died of a heart attack in 1952 at the age of 39. Many believe his death was in large part due to his stressful appearance before Committee and the resulting lack of work.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/749472/John-Garfieldhttp://movies.nytimes.com/person/187968/John-Garfield/biography