John Garfield Movies

John Garfield in 1946's Humoresque

John Garfield in 1946’s Humoresque

Want to know the best John Garfield movies?  How about the worst John Garfield movies?  Curious about John Garfield’s box office grosses or which John Garfield movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which John Garfield movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place …. because we have all of that information.

Before Steve McQueen before Marlon Brando….the rebel of Hollywood was John Garfield.  John Garfield (1913-1952) was a 2 time Oscar® nominated actor.  During his Warner Brothers contract days, Garfield was suspended by the studio an amazing 11 times.  His IMDb page shows 34 acting credits since from 1938-1951.  This page will rank 31 of his movies from Best to Worst in 6 different columns of sortable information.  The missing three movies were either shorts or uncredited roles.

John Garfield in 1943's Destination Tokyo

John Garfield in 1943’s Destination Tokyo

John Garfield Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In The Table Below

The really cool thing about ther table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort John Garfield movies by Co-Star
  • Sort John Garfield movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort John Garfield movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)  *** If domestic and worldwide are the same then worldwide is unknown
  • Sort John Garfield movies by critic reviews and audiences voting.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each John Garfield movie received.
  • Sort John Garfield movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above John Garfield Table

1. Fifteen John Garfield movies crossed the magical $100 million mark.  That is a percentage of 48.38% of her movies listed.  Hollywood Canteen (1944) was his biggest box office hit.

2. An average John Garfield movie grosses $120.40 million in adjusted box office gross.

3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  27 John Garfield movies are rated as good movies…or 87.09% of his movies.  Body and Soul (1947) was his highest rated movie while The Fallen Sparrow (1943) was his lowest rated movie.

4. Eleven John Garfield movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 35.48% of her movies.

5. Three John Garfield movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 9.67% of his movies.

6.  An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 40.00.  24 John Garfield movies scored higher that average….or 77.41% of his movies.  Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) got the the highest UMR Score while Out of the Fog (1941) got the lowest UMR Score.

Lana Turner and John Garfield in 1946's The Postman Always Rings Twice

Lana Turner and John Garfield in 1946’s The Postman Always Rings Twice

Possibly Interesting Facts About John Garfield

1.  This page was suggested by a John Garfield fan ….remember we here at UMR are happy to take recommendations for the next UMR page.  Coming soon….Bill Murray, Montgomery Clift, Seth Rogen and Bob Hope.

2.  John Garfield was born and raised in New York City.

3.  John Garfield received two Oscar® nominations for acting.  He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for 1938’s Four Daughters and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for 1947’s Body and Soul.

4.  John Garfield was married to his childhood sweetheart, Roberta Seidman, from 1935 until his death in 1952.  They had three children…..Katherine (1938-1945), David (1942-1995) and actress Julie (1946-).

5.  Famous roles that almost went to John Garfield.  William Holden’s role in Golden Boy, Gary Merrill’s role in All About Eve, Marlon Brando’s role in A Streetcar Named Desire, Marlon Brando’s role in On The Waterfront and Frank Sinatra’s role in The Man With The Golden Arm.

6.  John Garfield said “No actor can really be good until he’s reached forty.”  Sadly he died of a heart attack at age 39….so we will never know how good an actor John Garfield would have been.

Academy Award® and Oscar® are the registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences. 

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86 thoughts on “John Garfield Movies

  1. I am a huge John Garfield fan! I most likely have the biggest collection on him in the U.S. (sorry, I just had to brag..lol)
    My favorite John Garfield movie is his last movie
    He Ran All the Way

  2. Bottom line how ever you rank Garfields movies…while Gent agreement is good, he is much better in movies like braking point…body and soul…force of evil.pride of the marines…to name a few!!!!

    1. Hey Dennis….good points….and I agree with them…..just there is no way to rank the actual performances without personal opinion….as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. His part in Gentleman’s Agreement is a supporting role…..his classic movies feature him in the lead role…Postman, Body and Soul and Braking Point to name a few some better Garfield performances…..thanks for the return visit. Good stuff.

  3. This ranking is out of wack! Gentlemans Agreement is not Garfields best performance…The Breaking Point…Body and Soul, even Pride of the Marines is much better…and he was a great actor and had he lived longer he would have been even greater….this list is bogus in rankings. Believe me i know, I am a huge fan and seen all his movies!

      1. Thank you Sam Hill…….that is a great way to explain….I think that is how I will explain it in the future. Good feedback.

    1. Hey Dennis…..the default setting on the table is our UMR score…which ranks the movies by statistics….Gentleman’s Agreement was one of Garfield’s biggest box office hits, got good reviews and won the Best Picture Oscar…..that in our system ranks pretty high. The really cool thing about the above table….is you can sort the movie different ways. I suspect…you would like the review % scores better….if you sort by that….The Postman Always Rings Twice, Boby and Soul and Force of Evil making up the Top 3….with Breaking Point coming in 7th place. Even if you disagree with our UMR scores…hope you enjoyed the biggest collection of stats on Garfield on the internet….happily we have found worldwide grosses for many of his movies as well. Thanks for the comment and the vist…both are greatly appreciated.

  4. Hands Down, John Garfield was the most VASTLY UNDERRATED Leading Man from Hollywood’s Classic Era in my humble opinion and out of the thirty one movies listed on this page, I have seen seventeen of them. Again in my opinion. John Garfield- like Rosalind Russell and Montgomery Clift -was one of the few actors who TRULY DESERVED all the Oscar nominations he got during the course of his career and then some. Not only did he deserve his Supporting Actor nomination in 1938 for FOUR DAUGHTERS but should of gotten another Supporting Actor nomination in 1943 for his work in DESTINATION TOKYO in my opinion. He also should of gotten a Lead Actor nomination in 1946 for THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE and then another Lead Actor nomination in 1950 for his BRILLIANT performance in THE BREAKING POINT to go along with his Lead Actor Oscar nomination for BODY AND SOUL in 1947. All in all, I think that John Garfield deserved to have at least 5 Oscar nominations during the course of his career, if not more!!!! Hell, I think he TRULY DESERVED the Oscar for his performance in THE BREAKING POINT which I consider to be a rather underrated movie. Other Garfield movies I have enjoyed over the years include HE RAN ALL THE WAY, GENTLEMEN’S AGREEMENT, TORTILLA FLAT, HUMORESQUE, and THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL.

    1. Hey Greg.
      1. I like Garfield…..but not nearly as much as you…..but hey we can not agree on everything….lol.
      2. I have not seen Four Daughters….but his performance is one of the reasons that movie spanned so many sequels.
      3. As for Destination Tokyo….I actually think his role is pretty underwhelming. I love the movie….but his part is pretty sparse…..in my opinion….lol.
      4. I actually have not seen many of his movies…..I want to see Body and Soul, The Breaking Point, He Ran All The Way Home and They Made Me A Criminal…..as well as Between Two Worlds.
      5. I think he was awesome in Postman Always Rings Twice. I like his version much better than the Nicholson remake.
      6. Your Garfield knowledge is impressive. Thanks for sharing some of that knowledge here at UMR.com.

      1. Hey, Bruce!!!

        1.) Agree to disagree on Garfield for the time being. LOL!!! I think once you see more of his films, you’ll find yourself quite impressed with John Garfield’s acting.
        2.) Yes, Garfield’s role is rather sparse in DESTINATION TOKYO but he makes every scene he’s in amount to something. Besides, I can think of thespians who have spent less time onscreen in their films and yet ended up with leading role Oscars. Example being that David Niven spent less than fifteen minutes onscreen in 1958’s SEPARATE TABLES but yet ended up with the Oscar for lead actor for his performance in that film!!!! Go figure!!!
        3.) Trust me, THE BREAKING POINT, HE RAN ALL THE WAY HOME, BODY AND SOUL, and THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL are all worth checking out!!!
        4.) Believe it or not but BETWEEN TWO WORLDS is one of John Garfield’s films that I have yet to see. I hope to see it sometime in the near future.
        5.) I much prefer Garfield’s original 1946 version of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE as opposed to the NIcholoson remake just like I much prefer Rex Harrison’s original 1948 version of UNFAITHFULLY YOURS as opposed to Dudley Moore’s 1984 remake of that film. Just my opinion but those two films were just about brilliant in their original forms. There was no need to remake them. Nicholoson and Moore should have left well enough alone as far as i’m concerned. Period. End Of Story. By the way and in closing, is there any chance that you will be doing a Rex Harrison page here at UMR. com. in the near future?

    1. Bob, if you’ve noticed there has been a spam invasion on the site, you should ignore these posts and ‘never’ click on any of the links. It’s happening more and more often these days. No wonder Bruce is getting fed up.

      1. STEVE Appreciate the tip. Thank goodness there is SOMEBODY around to give guidance on this site these days!

        1. I hope Bruce notices before the entire place is flooded. Clicking on the links might infect your computer with malware. Watch yourself and anybody reading this.

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