Claude Jarman Jr.

Claude Miller Jarman Jr. (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. 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. As a child, he acted in productions of The Nashville Community Playhouse's Children's Theatre.

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. His performance received glowing reviews and, as a result, he received a special Academy Award as outstanding child actor of 1946.

He continued his studies at the MGM studio school, 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jarman wrote ''My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood'', which was published in 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 married 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. Jarman died at his home in Kentfield, California, on January 12, 2025, at the age of 90. He is buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Nashville, Tennessee.

Filmography

References

Further reading

* Dye, David (1988). ''Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, 1914–1985''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., pp. 115–116.
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* 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.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarman, Claude Jr.
1934 births
2025 deaths
American male child actors
American male film actors
Academy Juvenile Award winners
20th-century American male actors
Male actors from Nashville, Tennessee
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract players