Claude Jarman Jr.
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Claude Miller Jarman Jr.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> (September 27, 1934 – January 12, 2025) was an American actor. He became a child star with his role as Jody Baxter in The Yearling (1946), for which he won an Academy Juvenile Award.<ref name="Wp"/> Further roles in films like Intruder in the Dust (1949) and Rio Grande (1950) followed. Jarman largely retired from acting in early adulthood and later served as executive director of the San Francisco International Film Festival, and director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Francisco.
Life
Early life
Jarman was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Mildred (Freeman) and Claude Miller Jarman, an accountant for the railroad.<ref name="classicmoviekids.com">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As a child, he acted in productions of The Nashville Community Playhouse's Children's Theatre.<ref>Template:Cite news Template:Open access</ref>
Child star
Jarman was 10 years old and in the fifth grade in Nashville when he was discovered in a nationwide talent search by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was cast as Jody Baxter in the film The Yearling (1946), a high-budget film adaptation of the novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, in which Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman played his parents.<ref name="CJ">Template:Cite web</ref> His performance received glowing reviews and, as a result, he received a special Academy Award as outstanding child actor of 1946.<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Dead link</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
He continued his studies at the MGM studio school,<ref name="dukewayne.com">Template:Cite web</ref> and made a total of 11 films. His second film role was in High Barbaree, playing the younger version of Van Johnson's main character.<ref name="HR"/>
Jarman is also notable for his starring role as teenager Chick Mallison in the 1949 William Faulkner adaption Intruder in the Dust, which tackled the subject of racism and segregation in the southern states in an unusually open way for a Hollywood film of that time.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In April 1949, he appeared with more than four dozen Hollywood stars in a famous photo to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving person from that photo session.<ref name="HR"/>
The following year, he had another large role as the son of John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara in John Ford's western Rio Grande. Jarman, who portrayed a young soldier in the film, learned roman riding for the role.<ref name="sfc"/>
Adulthood
Republic Studios cast him in a couple of B-movies during the early 1950s, but by the time he reached his early adulthood, his acting career was in decline. He subsequently moved back to Tennessee to finish college at Vanderbilt University. Following coursework in pre-law at Vanderbilt, Jarman appeared in Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), his final movie. After that, he served three years in the U.S. Navy, doing public relations work.<ref name="CJarm">Template:Cite web</ref>
Jarman moved to working behind the scenes. He ran the San Francisco International Film Festival for 15 years (1965–1980) and was known for his in-depth retrospectives of movie stars and directors. He was executive producer of the music documentary film Fillmore (1972), about rock impresario Bill Graham.<ref name="sfc">Template:Cite web</ref>
Jarman briefly returned to acting in 1978, for the television miniseries Centennial. He was a special guest at the 70th and 75th Academy Award telecasts, in 1998 and 2003 respectively, as a past acting award winner at the Oscar Family Album retrospectives.<ref name="dukewayne.com"/>
Jarman served as director of cultural affairs for the City of San Francisco. He founded Jarman Travel Inc. in 1986 to serve the travel needs of corporations and executives.<ref name="classicmoviekids.com"/>
Jarman wrote My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood, which was published in 2018.<ref name="Jarman 2018"/>
Personal life and death
Jarman married his first wife, Virginia, in 1959. They had three children: Elizabeth Suddeth, Claude Jarman III, and Murray Jarman, before their 1968 divorce. Jarman met his second wife, Maryann, in 1968. They had two daughters together, Vanessa Getty and Natalie Jarman, before their 1983 divorce. Jarman married his third wife, Katharine, in 1986, with whom he had twin daughters, Charlotte and Sarah.<ref name="Jarman 2018">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="dukewayne.com"/> Jarman died at his home in Kentfield, California, on January 12, 2025, at the age of 90.<ref name="HR">Template:Cite news</ref> He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville, Tennessee.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Filmography
| Year | Film<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1946 | The Yearling | Jody | Academy Juvenile Award |
| 1947 | High Barbaree | Alec (age 14) | |
| 1949 | Intruder in the Dust | Chick Mallison | |
| Roughshod | Steve Phillips | ||
| The Sun Comes Up | Jerry | ||
| 1950 | Rio Grande | Trooper Jefferson "Jeff" Yorke | John Wayne's son |
| The Outriders | Roy Gort | ||
| 1951 | Inside Straight | Rip MacCool (age 16) | |
| 1952 | Hangman's Knot | Jamie Groves | |
| 1953 | Fair Wind to Java | Chess | |
| 1956 | The Great Locomotive Chase | Jacob Parrott | Andrews' Raiders USA: TV title |
| 1979 | Centennial | Earl Grebe | "The Winds of Death" – TV miniseries episode<ref name="Wp">Template:Cite news</ref> |
References
<references/>
Further reading
- Dye, David (1988). Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, 1914–1985. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., pp. 115–116.
- Template:Cite book
- Holmstrom, John (1996). The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich: Michael Russell, pp. 189-190.
- Jarman, Claude Jr. (2018). My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood. South Carolina; Covenant Books, 158 pages.
- Young, Gwenda. (2018). 'Clarence Brown: Hollywood's Forgotten Master'.388 pages. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.