Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Tuesday's Overlooked Actor: Allen Garfield


For this week's Tuesday's Overlooked, I decided to go in a different direction. Instead of focusing on a specific movie or TV series, I'm looking at an actor. This week, it's character actor Allen Garfield.

Born Allen Goorwitz (he used his real name in credits for a few years), Garfield usually plays officious jerks and comic foils (usually both at the same time). He studied acting at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasburg and Elia Kazan and has appeared in films such as The Conversation, Mother, Jugs, and Speed, The Candidate, and Nashville. He's also appeared in no less than three previous Tuesday's Overlooked Films on this blog: Teachers, Get Crazy, and Continental Divide. In the latter two, he is cast against type as more agreeable, jovial characters. Garfield unfortunately suffered a stroke in the 2000s and hasn't acted since.

In researching this post, I came across a fine retrospective of Garfield's career, which you can read here.

Thanks!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Great post about Allan Garfield. Brilliant actor and great guy. Saw him a few weeks ago and he's hanging in there! Shot a bizarre indie comedy with him 30 years ago, never finished until this year! - and it will be touring the film festival circuit this autumn 2016 - if you're a fan of his work he will blow your mind - that's how good an actor he is! Here's a clip ---

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIdQjzZclMM