It's the centenary of John Garfield, forgotten hero of the McCarthy witch hunt [View all]

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He died at age 39 of a heart attack after having been blacklisted. He was involved in liberal politics but had never been a Communist. Unlike Kazan and Odets, he refused to name names.



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While we are living at a time when many equate fame with the number of Twitter followers, John Garfield earned his place in the pantheon of mensches by refusing to name names. A liberal Democrat and a patriot, John Garfield was a true hero in an era of cowardice. In the words of his friend, the filmmaker Abraham Polonsky, Garfield "defended his streetboy's honor, and they killed him for it."

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After Garfield stood up to HUAC, his personal life resembled that of one of his screen protagonists. The fates had conspired against him, just as they had conspired against his Mickey Borden in Four Daughters, just as they had conspired against his Johnny Bradfield, a boxer falsely accused of murder, in They Made Me A Criminal.


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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-david-jaffee/witness-to-a-persecution-_b_2735083.html