He ran all the way

"George Hurrell, the great Hollywood portrait photographer, in recalling shooting sessions 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 sketch has been enlarged and 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. Frequently 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 give memorable performances in 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. Called to testify before HUAC, he refused to name names, and as a result, by the early 50s his screen career was cut cruelly short by the Hollywood blacklist. He returned to acting on Broadway, and at the age of 39 he died in New York, in the Gramercy park apartment of a woman who was not his wife."--Jacket.