Andrew Garfield

Actor

• Born: August 20, 1983
• Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California

Contribution: Andrew Garfield is a British and American actor known for such work as his role as the titular hero in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), his supporting role in The Social Network (2010), and his Golden Globe-winning performance in Tick, Tick . . . Boom! (2021).

Background

Andrew Garfield was born on August 20, 1983, in Los Angeles, California, the son of a British mother, Lynn Hillman, and a Jewish American father, Richard Garfield. Garfield’s family relocated to Surrey, England, when he was three years old. His father became head coach of the Guildford Swimming Club, and Garfield was an accomplished swimmer and gymnast as a child. He attended the Priory Preparatory School and the City of London Freemen’s School. As a teenager, Garfield began to gravitate toward acting; after finishing secondary school, he attended the Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 2004.

Career

Garfield’s television debut was in the Emmy Award–winning comedy-drama series Sugar Rush, about the lives of a teenage lesbian and her friends and lovers in England. Garfield appeared on five episodes of the series in 2005. Following that, he had a minor role in two episodes of the cult science-fiction series Doctor Who, alongside David Tennant’s version of the eponymous doctor.

In 2007, Garfield starred as Jack Burridge in the drama Boy A, about a man released from prison after serving a sentence for a murder he committed as a child. The film was a critical success, nominated for seven BAFTA Awards in 2008 and winning the award for best director. Garfield won the 2008 British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Burridge in the film.

Garfield’s first role in a feature film was a small part in the Robert Redford film Lions for Lambs (2007), starring Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise. Garfield has noted that he sent in an audition tape using his American accent, which he learned to imitate by listening to his father’s voice, and that Redford cast him in the film without realizing that he was British.

In 2009, Garfield had a minor role as the magician Anton in the fantasy film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, starring Heath Ledger, who died midway into production, and Christopher Plummer. The same year, Garfield won critical acclaim for his portrayal of journalist Eddie Dunford in the three-part television series Red Riding. The series is a fictionalization of events surrounding the murders of the Yorkshire Ripper from the period of 1974 through 1983; Red Riding was based on three novels by David Peace, set in the administrative regions of Yorkshire known as the Ridings.

Garfield again earned praise when he starred alongside Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley in the Mark Romanek film Never Let Me Go (2010), a drama based on the dystopian novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. The film was a critical success, and Garfield won a Saturn Award for best supporting actor. The same year, he had a supporting role in the award-winning film The Social Network, which tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the social networking site Facebook. Garfield portrays Eduardo Saverin, a real-life cofounder of the website. The Social Network was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and won the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Motion Picture.

Though he was steadily gaining recognition among American audiences, Garfield was still largely unknown when, in 2010, he was cast in a career-changing role: the title character in the Marc Webb film The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). Garfield starred alongside Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans as the comic-book icon and the new face of the rebooted Spider-Man film franchise. Garfield has described being cast as Spider-Man as the fulfillment of his childhood fantasies and has noted that the preparation for the role was both physically and emotionally demanding. Critics gave The Amazing Spider-Man positive reviews, and both fans and critics applauded Garfield’s approach to the character.

Also in 2012, Garfield made his Broadway debut in a revival of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman. For his portrayal of Biff Loman, he earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. In 2014, Garfield reprised his role as Spider-Man in the sequel The Amazing Spider-Man 2, before appearing in the drama 99 Homes (2014).

In 2016, Garfield starred in the Martin Scorsese directed–drama Silence and the biographical drama Hacksaw Ridge. In the latter, Garfield portrayed World War II army medic Desmond T. Doss during the Battle of Okinawa. After refusing to kill, Doss became the first person to receive the Medal of Honor without firing a shot. The film was met with critical and commercial acclaim, and Garfield earned Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA nominations for his performance.

The following year, Garfield returned to theater in the National Theatre production of Angels in America as Prior Walter. He played the same role in the Broadway revival of the play in 2018. At the same time, Garfield starred alongside Claire Foy in the biographical romance Breathe (2017) and appeared in the crime comedy Under the Silver Lake (2018). He followed that with a starring role in the film Mainstream in 2020.

Garfield's work in Angels in America inspired director Lin-Manuel Miranda to cast him in the role of Johnathan Larson, the director of the musical Rent, in the film Tick, Tick . . . Boom! (2021). For that role, Garfield won a Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy in 2022 in a ceremony that was untelevised due to the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing controversies among members of the Hollywood Foreign Press. He received an Oscar nomination for best actor that year as well. Garfield also surprised fans by appearing in an extended cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home, a role which was kept secret until the film premiered—to great critical acclaim—in December 2021.

In 2024, Garfield was part of the cast of the podcast version of 1984 as well as the narrator of the audiobook version of the George Orwell classic. That same year, he had a starring role in the romantic drama We Live in Time, playing a rising chef who meets and falls in love with a divorcee, played by Florence Pugh.

Impact

As one of a relatively small group of actors to have portrayed iconic superheroes on screen, Garfield quickly became famous among a large number of passionate fans around the world. Garfield has said that none of his experiences before the film had prepared him for the level of fame he would achieve from playing Spider-Man. In the wake of the role, he experienced a rapid boost in his visibility and received numerous offers for roles in future films. He continued to draw attention with his Oscar-nominated performances as veteran Desmond Doss and director Jonathan Larson.

Personal Life

Garfield has dual citizenship in the United States and England and divides his time between both countries. He began dating actor Emma Stone, his Amazing Spider-Man costar, in 2011, however, it was rumored they broke up around 2015. In late 2021, Garfield began dating model Alyssa Miller. He became an ambassador for the Worldwide Orphans Foundation in 2011.

Bibliography

Gardner, Elysa. “Andrew Garfield in a New York State of Mind.” USA Today 7 Mar. 2012: 1D. Print.

Garfield, Andrew. “Andrew Garfield on Stardom, Spider-Man, and His Love for Michael B. Jordan.” Interview by Kyle Buchanan. New York. New York Media, 23 July 2013. Web. 31 July 2013.

Maher, Kevin. “Boy Wonder: Andrew Garfield.” British GQ. Condé Nast UK, 3 July 2012. Web. 31 July 2013.

Nashawaty, Chris. “Web Master.” Entertainment Weekly 22 July 2011: 32–36. Print.

Rooney, David. “His Own Network of Tortured Souls.” New York Times. New York Times, 10 May 2012. Web. 21 Aug. 2013.

Schube, Sam. "Andrew Garfield Is Asking the Big Questions." GQ, 22 Nov. 2021, www.gq.com/story/andrew-garfields-answered-prayers. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.

Spangler, Todd. "Audible ‘1984’ Adaptation to Star Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Ervio, Tom Hardy, Andrew Scott." Variety, 9 Jan. 2024, variety.com/2024/digital/news/1984-george-orwell-audible-andrew-garfield-cynthia-ervio-tom-hardy-andrew-scott-1235866068/. Accessed 18 Sept. 2024.