Art Garfunkel - Acting Career

Acting Career

Garfunkel pursued an acting career in the early 1970s, appearing in two Mike Nichols films: Catch-22 (1970), in which he played the 19-year old naive Lieutenant Nately, and Carnal Knowledge (1971), in which he played the idealistic Sandy. His role as Sandy won him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1972.

He later appeared in Nicolas Roeg's Bad Timing (1980) as Alex Linden, an American psychiatrist who serves as the film's main antagonist. The film received the Toronto Film Festival's highest honour, the People's Choice Award, in 1980 and the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director.

He appeared in Good to Go (1986) directed by Blain Novak, starring as a Washington, D.C. journalist who struggles to clear his name after being framed for rape and murder. Garfunkel then appeared in the medical crime drama Boxing Helena (1993), directed by Jennifer Lynch, as Dr. Lawrence Augustine.

Garfunkel's most recent film is The Rebound (2010), directed by Bart Freundlich, playing Harry Finklestein, the slightly senile and comedic relieving father of the film's main character, played by Justin Bartha.

Garfunkel has said he turned down numerous film offers in the 1970s. He reportedly turned down the role of Billy Pilgrim in the adaption of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five in 1972.