Jarman was born in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Mildred (Freeman) and Claude Miller Jarman, an accountant for the railroad.[3][4] As a child, he acted in productions of The Nashville Community Playhouse's Children's Theatre.[5]
He continued his studies at the MGM studio school,[9] and made a total of 11 films. His second film role was in High Barbaree, playing the younger version of Van Johnson's main character.[10]
Jarman is also notable for his starring role as teenager Chick Mallison in the 1949 William Faulkner adaption Intruder in the Dust, which tackled the subject of racism and segregation in the southern states in an unusually open way for a Hollywood film of that time.[11] In April 1949, he appeared with more than four dozen Hollywood stars in a famous photo to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving person from that photo session.[10]
Republic Studios cast him in a couple of B-movies during the early 1950s, but by the time he reached his early adulthood, his acting career was in decline. He subsequently moved back to Tennessee to finish college at Vanderbilt University. Following coursework in pre-law at Vanderbilt, Jarman appeared in Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase (1956), his final movie. After that, he served three years in the U.S. Navy, doing public relations work.[13]
Jarman moved to working behind the scenes. He ran the San Francisco International Film Festival for 15 years (1965–1980) and was known for his in-depth retrospectives of movie stars and directors. He was executive producer of the music documentary film Fillmore (1972), about rock impresario Bill Graham.[12]
Jarman briefly returned to acting in 1978, for the television miniseries Centennial. He was a special guest at the 70th and 75th Academy Award telecasts, in 1998 and 2003 respectively, as a past acting award winner at the Oscar Family Album retrospectives.[9]
Jarman served as director of cultural affairs for the City of San Francisco. He founded Jarman Travel Inc. in 1986 to serve the travel needs of corporations and executives.[3]
Jarman wrote My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood, which was published in 2018.[14]
Personal life and death
Jarman married his first wife, Virginia, in 1959. They had three children: Elizabeth Suddeth, Claude Jarman III, and Murray Jarman, before their 1968 divorce. Jarman married his second wife, Maryann, in 1968. They had two daughters together, Vanessa Getty and Natalie Jarman, before their 1983 divorce. Jarman married his third wife, Katharine, in 1986, with whom he had twin daughters, Charlotte and Sarah.[14][9] Jarman died at his home in Kentfield, California, on January 12, 2025, at the age of 90.[10]
Dye, David (1988). Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, 1914–1985. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., pp. 115–116.
Goldrup, Tom and Jim (2002). Growing Up on the Set: Interviews with 39 Former Child Actors of Film and Television. McFarland & Co. pp. 161–168. ISBN1476613702.
Holmstrom, John (1996). The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995. Norwich: Michael Russell, pp. 189-190.
Jarman, Claude Jr. (2018). My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood. South Carolina; Covenant Books, 158 pages.
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