Claude Jarman Jr., a former child actor who received the Juvenile Academy Award for his role in the 1946 film “The Yearling,” passed away at his home in Kentfield, California, on Sunday, January 12, 2025. He was 90.
Jarman was born on September 27, 1934, in Nashville, Tennessee. He was an 11-year-old son of a railroad accountant when director Clarence Brown found him in his fifth-grade classroom on Valentine’s Day 1945. This unexpected discovery happened during a Southern school scouting trip for “The Yearling.”
In a 2016 interview, Jarman remembered how he was told about his selection: “Next thing, they called three days later and said, ‘Get ready to leave for Hollywood in a week.'”
The production of “The Yearling” in Florida was a strenuous process that took two years to finish. One particular scene involving a deer required 115 takes. In a promotional event for the movie, Jarman walked a deer on a leash down Fifth Avenue in New York.
“The Yearling,” a film adaptation of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 novel, featured Jarman as Jody Baxter, a young boy growing up on a Florida farm post-Civil War. The production of the film was fraught with challenges, including illnesses, intense heat, and noncooperative animals. Despite these hurdles, Jarman’s performance won him the Juvenile Academy Award, presented by Shirley Temple at the 1947 Academy Awards. Jarman was only the seventh recipient of this award, joining the ranks of previous winners like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.
Although “The Yearling” was critically and commercially successful, the high production costs limited its profitability. Gregory Peck, who played Penny Baxter, Jody’s father, was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. Jane Wyman played the role of Jody’s mother, Ora.
After “The Yearling,” Jarman starred in ten more films during the 1940s and 1950s, including “High Barbaree,” “The Sun Comes Up,” “Roughshod,” and “Intruder in the Dust.” The last film reunited him with director Clarence Brown. In 1950, he appeared in the western “Rio Grande” alongside John Wayne. He also featured in TV series like “Wagon Train” and the 1978 miniseries “Centennial” with Raymond Burr.
After his education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he studied pre-law, Jarman served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for three years. He returned to Hollywood in 1959, but when he could not find work in films, he shifted to working behind the scenes as an Armed Forces publicist in Los Angeles, contributing to films about the U.S. Navy.
Jarman’s career post-acting was diverse and fruitful. As the executive director of the San Francisco International Film Festival from 1965 to 1980, he left a significant imprint on the city’s cultural scene. He also produced a documentary about renowned rock promoter Bill Graham and the Fillmore Auditorium. In 1986, he founded Jarman Travel Inc., a company he ran for 25 years.
In his later years, Jarman continued to maintain ties with Hollywood, making appearances as a special guest at the 70th and 75th Academy Awards telecasts. In 2018, he published his memoir, “My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood,” which provided insights into his experiences in Hollywood’s golden age and his views on the industry’s evolution.
Jarman, who was married three times, is survived by his wife Katie of 38 years, their seven children, and eight grandchildren. A memorial service will take place in San Francisco, California, and he will be interred in his birthplace, Nashville, Tennessee.
