Remembering Claude Jarman, Jr.
Jarman in The Yearling
Claude Jarman, Jr. was one of the last surviving male actors of 1940s Hollywood. He was perhaps most famous for The Yearling (1946), a film about a sensitive boy and his pet deer.
Playing Jody Baxter in The Yearling was especially memorable for the young actor, as his screen father was portrayed by Gregory Peck. Another film which brought Jarman fame was Rio Grande (1950). This time, his screen parents were John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara.
Jarman wrote a book, My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood (published in 2018), which he stated was his “first and last”. He wrote fondly about Old Hollywood, but did not conceal the fact that he thought of his acting career as a difficult life for someone of such a young and tender age.
Living in California, Jarman was still responding to fan mail up until his death on January 12, 2025. He was 90 years old.
During World War II, this song’s simple words would remind more than one soldier of a friend or two who had not been able to make it back home.