Allen Garfield, the New Jersey character actor who appeared in films like The Conversation, The Candidate, The Stunt Man and Nashville, has died, reportedly from the novel coronavirus. He was 80 years old. Garfield’s sister. Lois Goorwitz, confirmed his death to The Hollywood Reporter. Previously, actress Ronee Blakley — who played Garfield’s on-screen wife in Robert Altman’s 1975 film Nashville — wrote on Facebook that Garfield died Tuesday and that the cause was COVID-19.
Garfield’s death comes after a history of strokes. As he was set to appear in Roman Polanski’s 1999 film The Ninth Gate, he suffered a stroke, then suffered another one in 2004, which led to him residing at the Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in Woodland Hills. A spokeswoman for the facility did not know if Garfield was there at the time of his death, THR reports.
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On Facebook, Blakley paid tribute to the character actor who specialized in playing nervous types. “RIP Allen Garfield, the great actor who played my husband in ‘Nashville’, has died today of Covid; I hang my head in tears; condolences to family and friends; I will post more later; cast and crew, sending love,” Blakley wrote.
Born Allen Goorwitz on Nov. 22, 1939 in Newark, he went by his real name in several films, including The Brink’s Job (1978) and One From the Heart (1981), midway through his career. He worked for Francis Ford Coppola in The Conversation (1974) and The Cotton Club (1984) and for Wim Wenders in A State of Things (1982) and Until the End of the World (1991). He portrayed Louis B. Mayer in Gable and Lombard (1976) and police chief Harold Lutz in Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). His resume also included roles in Teachers (1984), Desert Bloom (1986), Dick Tracy (1990), Destiny Turns on the Radio (1995) and The Majestic (2001).
In the early days of his career, Garfield boxed as an amateur, worked as a sportswriter and studied with Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan at the Actors Studio in New York. He appeared often onstage before making his film debut in 1968’s Orgy Girls ’69, followed by appearances in 1971 in Woody Allen’s Bananas and The Organization.
Actress Marianna Hill called Garfield “underrated” and “the hardest-working actor” in a 2016 interview with Shaun Chang for the Hill Place blog. “The reason I did [the 1988 movie Chief Zabu that was released in 2016] is that Allen Garfield is from the Actors Studio, I’m from the Actors Studio, and we worked together there on stuff,” Hill said. “Allen Garfield happens to be a great actor. He’s a really underrated actor. Allen was the hardest-working actor, but nobody realizes that about him because he seems to be a natural.”
