JG Silk Shirt

Rebellious.

He was ahead of his time.

There had been actors before who were animals. There had been actors with brains. Actors who had heart. Actors who were “sensitive.” Actors who had a body. Actors who looked like they might explode if you weren’t careful.

What nobody remembered ever seeing before was an actor, or a person, who was born with all that.

John Garfield was born with all of it; none of it was an act. He didn’t know he had any of it; if he did know, he never let it show.

Men liked him as well as women, maybe because he wasn’t “pretty.” He wasn’t even good-looking.

People remembered him fondly for being in movies he was never in. This is because he had a quiet but very far-reaching effect on how people acted, talked, moved, argued, flirted, scratched, laughed, lit cigarettes, entered rooms, shook hands and dressed. 

It was John Garfield who made wearing shirts like the one shown here OK. In fact, he wore a black silk shirt before gangsters did; before Mediterranean millionaires and Tunisian tycoons even thought of it.