Art Garfunkel
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Biography
Blessed with a hauntingly clear tenor, Art Garfunkel teamed up with Paul Simon to give voice to an entire generation as part of the folk superduo Simon & Garfunkel. Although Simon was the creative force and songwriting genius behind their classic songs, including "Homeward Bound," "I Am a Rock," "Kathy's Song," "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," "The Boxer," "Cecilia," "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and the unforgettable "Mrs. Robinson" from "The Graduate" (1967), Garfunkel's voice marked their distinctive sound. Although a long-simmering feud helped kill their working relationship as well as real-life, life-long friendship, they won five Grammys, earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and entry into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as pop culture immortality. While their 1981 reunion concert in New York's Central Park set all kinds of records and brought about their definitive live album, Garfunkel's subsequent solo musical career paled in comparison to Simon's. He did earn a Golden Globe nomination for his role opposite Jack Nicholson in Mike Nichols's "Carnal Knowledge" (1971), as he became increasingly interested in segueing into acting. Eventually moving beyond much of their animosity, Simon & Garfunkel reunited several times to great acclaim and enormous profit, and Garfunkel's voice and artistic efforts continued to resonate with multiple generations. Although he left his greatest musical legacy as an interpreter of songs written by Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel helped provide the soundtrack to an era as well as creating his own underrated body of work as a solo artist.
Born Nov. 5, 1941 in Forest Hills, NY, Arthur Ira Garfunkel grew up loving music and experimented with taping his own singing courtesy of a wire recorder his father gave him at the age of four. As a teen, he met a fellow music-loving classmate, Paul Simon, and after years of practice, the two became a highly polished vocal duo. Known as "Tom and Jerry," the pair made the rounds until they landed a record contract in 1957. Their first 45, which they co-wrote, was called "Hey Schoolgirl," and became a modest hit, leading the high school seniors to an appearance on "American Bandstand" (WFIL-TV, 1952-57; ABC, 1957-1987; syndicated, 1987-88; USA Network, 1989). Ever practical, Garfunkel went to college, earning an art history degree from Columbia College and eventually a master's degree in mathematics from Columbia University. Although he recorded a few singles in college under the name "Artie Garr," it was not until he reunited with Simon in 1962 that their music careers took off into the stratosphere.
The debut album for Simon & Garfunkel, 1964's Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. was not an immediate hit, but after producer Tom Wilson made some tweaks to the eerily powerful "The Sound of Silence," it shot to No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts and would end up their second most popular song. Cresting the folk music wave at the time, Simon & Garfunkel would go on to dominate the remainder of the 1960s with the era-defining albums Sounds of Silence (1966), Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme(1966), Bookends (1968) and Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970), and an incredible string of hit songs, many of which became pop standards, including "Homeward Bound," "I Am a Rock," "Kathy's Song," "A Hazy Shade of Winter," "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," "The Boxer," "Cecilia," and their penultimate hit, "Bridge Over Troubled Water." They also dominated the contributions to the soundtrack of Mike Nichols's seminal film "The Graduate" (1967), which was powered by the Grammy-winning No. 1 classic "Mrs. Robinson."
Although Simon was always the creative force powering the pair as well as the duo's main songwriter, it was Garfunkel's distinctive harmonies and soaring countertenor voice that marked the group's haunting sound - best exemplified on "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Together, they won a total of five Grammys, and "Bridge" earned the prestigious Britannia Award for "Best International Pop LP and Single, 1952-77." The duo's 1972 Greatest Hits sold 14 million copies, and they eventually earned inclusion into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the music industry's all-time most popular and acclaimed duos, but their world-changing collaboration was not without strife, and their professional and personal relationships were rocky and fraught with a long-simmering tension that grew more pronounced over time.
While still performing with Simon, Garfunkel notched acting roles in two additional Mike Nichols films: "Catch-22" (1969) and "Carnal Knowledge" (1971). The latter role, which saw him playing Sandy, the lifelong friend and sexual rival of Jonathan (Jack Nicholson), an aging ladies' man, earned Garfunkel a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He worked for a brief period as a math teacher in Connecticut, but in 1973 released his solo debut, Angel Clare, which launched the modest hit "All I Know." From 1975's Breakaway, his heavily buzzed-about collaboration with Paul Simon, "My Little Town" became another hit, as did the title track and a cover of "I Only Have Eyes for You." He struggled to maintain a chart presence with subsequent releases and suffered a devastating personal blow with his longtime girlfriend, actress/photographer Laurie Bird, committed suicide in June 1979 in the couples' apartment. For a time, he dated actress Penny Marshall, while her best friend, Carrie Fisher, dated and eventually married Paul Simon in 1983.
As Garfunkel's professional fortunes sunk, Simon's skyrocketed, and the two reunited for 1981's The Concert in Central Park, which became a massive hit and broke attendance records at that time. Shortly thereafter, the two began a tour. Their feud exploded again, however, when Simon erased Garfunkel's vocals from a planned studio recording reunion project and released it as a Simon solo album, which became 1983's Hearts and Bones. Although he continued to occasionally record and perform music, Garfunkel largely faded from the public eye, with his subsequent albums failing to attract much critical or commercial attention. An ugly moment occurred during the duo's 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, when Simon made a loaded comment during the ceremony regarding what he perceived as Garfunkel riding his coattails to success. Despite his impressive success, as the heyday of Simon & Garfunkel became more and more distant, Garfunkel had to contend with constantly being compared to Simon, and was used as a pop culture punchline that highlighted the distance between them professionally.
Simon expressed a more mature sentiment when he was inducted as a solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, thanking Garfunkel and expressing a desire to make peace with him eventually. Garfunkel continued to record music, performing the theme song for "Brooklyn Bridge" (CBS, 1991-93) and making a musical appearance on the children's animated series "Arthur" (PBS Kids, 1996- ). Simon & Garfunkel reunited again for a special Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and subsequent world tour that lasted from 2003-04. Adding some colorful touches to his public image, Garfunkel was arrested for cannabis possession in both 2004 and 2005. In 2006, he released an album of pop standards, Some Enchanted Evening. For the most part, the animosity between the pair seemed to have cooled, and they performed many shows together though the end of the first decade of the 21st century, culminating in the announcement of a 2010 North American tour that would incorporate their duo and solo work alike. Unfortunately, Garfunkel was stricken with vocal cord paresis and the tour had to be canceled. In the meantime, Garfunkel had been keeping his creative juices alive, successfully embarking on a series of excursions to complete a virtual "walk across America" and enjoying a critical and commercial reevaluation. He had kept a toe in the acting pool, as well, making small appearances over the years in the films "Boxing Helena" (1993) and "54" (1998) as well as notching appearances on "Frasier" (NBC, 1993-2004) and "American Dreams" (NBC, 2002-05).
By Jonathan Riggs
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Music (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1956
Teamed with high school classmate Paul Simon to form folksinger duo Tom and Jerry
1963
Started performing as Simon & Garfunkel
1964
Duo released debut album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. on Columbia Records
1965
First No. 1 single, "The Sounds of Silence"
1968
Recorded the classic theme song "Mrs. Robinson" for soundtrack to "The Graduate," starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft
1970
Released Simon & Garfunkel's landmark fifth album Bridge Over Troubled Water
1970
Made feature film debut in Mike Nichols directed "Catch-22" as Capt. Nately
1971
Once again directed by Nichols in "Carnal Knowledge"; earned Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor
1973
Solo debut, Angel Clare
1975
Reunited with Paul Simon for the hit "My Little Town"
1982
Performed The Concert in Central Park with Simon, which was released as a live album
1989
Published collection of his prose poetry Still Water
1990
Simon & Garfunkel inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
1991
Performed theme song for CBS comedy series "Brooklyn Bridge"
1993
Acted in Jennifer Lynch's controversial crime drama "Boxing Helena"
1996
Cover of traditional British carol "Scarborough Fair" reached Top 20
1996
Completed walk across the United States, which he started in 1984
2002
Made songwriting debut in ninth solo album Everything Waits to Be Noticed
2003
Reunited once again with Paul Simon for successful world tour
2009
Played supporting role in romantic comedy "The Rebound"
2011
Executive produced musical documentary "The Harmony Game" about the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water
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