Career Highlights: The Yearling, Rio Grande, Intruder in the Dust
First Major Screen Credit: The Yearling (1946)
Biography
Despite his being selected as a candidate for "The Most Obnoxious Child Performer of All Time" in one of those vitriolic "Worst of Hollywood" books of the 1970s, Claude Jarman Jr. was in fact one of the better and more tolerable juvenile performers of the 1940s. Jarman was a Nashville elementary school student when, in 1945, he was chosen from hundreds of candidates to play backwoods youth Jody Baxter in the film version of Marjorie Kinnan Rawling's The Yearling. His sensitive, believable performance in this film won him a special 1946 Oscar for "most outstanding child performer of the year." His later film performances weren't quite as impressive, with the notable exception of his work in Intruder in the Dust (1949), which, like Yearling, was directed by Clarence Brown. Retiring from acting at the age of 22 in 1956, Jarman later headed his own movie company, Tel-West Films, and was executive producer of the "rockumentary" Fillmore (1972). Claude Jarman Jr. has also served as director of Cultural Affairs for the city of San Francisco, where his executive responsibilities ranged from the San Francisco Opera House to the city's annual film festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Claude Jarman Jr.
from the trailer for the film The Yearling (1946).
Jarman was discovered in a nationwide talent search by MGM Studios, and was cast as the lead actor in the film The Yearling (1946). His performance received glowing reviews and he was awarded with an Academy Juvenile Award as a result. MGM found him difficult to cast, and by the time he reached his late teens his career was virtually over. Republic Studios cast him in a couple of B-movies, but discouraged, he moved back to Tennessee.
He returned to acting with a role in the television production Centennial (1978), and was a special guest as a past award winner at both the 1998 and 2003 Academy Awards Ceremonies. He fathered seven children with three wives, including two daughters with current wife Katherine.