He is said to have been the first student of "The Method" to succeed in Hollywood, and in so doing changed the face not just of American acting, but the standard of film acting as well. Long before there was Brando-who ironically only won the role of Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway after producer Irene Mayer Selznick and Garfield could not come to terms-and long before there was Pacino and De Niro, there was Garfield. The former earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his turn as the boxer who will do anything to be champion. Both of these films were produced by Enterprise Productions, which Garfield co-founded in an attempt to encourage work by humanist artists. Garfield's background as a slum-raised child of immigrants helped contribute to his image as an anti-hero and he excelled at playing tough urban figures in socially conscious dramas such as "Body and Soul" (1947) and "Force of Evil" (1948). This member of the Group Theater entered films in 1938, becoming an instant star with his performance in "Four Daughters" and brought a fiery intensity to a number of memorable roles over the next 15 years.
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