Early life Jarman was born in
Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Mildred (Freeman) and Claude Miller Jarman, an accountant for the railroad. As a child, he acted in productions of The Nashville Community Playhouse's Children's Theatre.
Child star Jarman was 10 years old and in the fifth grade in Nashville when he was discovered in a nationwide talent search by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and was cast as Jody Baxter in the film
The Yearling (1946), a high-budget film adaptation of the novel by
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, in which
Gregory Peck and
Jane Wyman played his parents. His performance received glowing reviews and, as a result, he received a
special Academy Award as outstanding child actor of 1946. He continued his studies at the MGM studio school, 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Jarman wrote
My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood, which was published in 2018. ==Personal life and death==