Andrew Garfield: The Life Story Behind Spider-Man's Comeback

Andrew Garfield is one of the most thoughtful actors of his generation, and he is also one of the most restless. He was born in Los Angeles, raised in England, trained in classical theatre, and he has played Spider-Man, a conscientious objector, a Jesuit priest, a musical theatre composer, and an angel in a play about AIDS. He has been nominated for two Academy Awards, he has won a Tony and a Golden Globe, and he has walked away from the biggest franchise in the world to do theatre. His career is a study in what happens when an actor refuses to be defined by any single role.

What follows is his story in full: the Los Angeles birth, the Surrey childhood, the drama school years, Boy A, The Social Network, Spider-Man, Hacksaw Ridge, Angels in America, and Tick, Tick… Boom!

Los Angeles, Epsom, and a Childhood Between Two Countries

Andrew Russell Garfield was born on 20 August 1983 in Los Angeles, California. His father, Richard Garfield, is from California, and his mother, Lynn Hillman, was from Essex, England. When Andrew was three, the family moved to Epsom, in Surrey, England, where he grew up. He has an older brother, Ben, who is a doctor. The family was middle-class, and Andrew attended Priory Preparatory School and then the City of London Freemen’s School, a private school in Surrey.

He was not a child actor. He was a boy who loved gymnastics, who was good at sports, and who did not think about acting until he was a teenager. At sixteen, he took a drama class at school, and something clicked. He has described the experience as a revelation: for the first time, he felt like he had found something that made sense to him. He began to take acting seriously, and he decided to apply to drama school.

He was accepted into the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, one of the most prestigious drama schools in Britain, and he graduated in 2004. The training was classical and rigorous. He studied Shakespeare, voice, movement, and the history of theatre, and he learned to act on stage, in front of a live audience. That training has stayed with him throughout his career, and it is visible in the way he approaches every role: with preparation, with discipline, and with a deep respect for the text.

Theatre, Doctor Who, and Boy A

After graduating, Garfield worked in theatre, appearing in productions at the Manchester Royal Exchange, where he played the lead in Kes, a play based on Barry Hines’s novel about a boy and a kestrel. The production was a success, and Garfield’s performance was praised. He also appeared in the play The Laramie Project and in a production of Romeo and Juliet. He was building a reputation in British theatre as a talented young actor, and casting directors were beginning to notice him.

His first television roles came in 2005, when he appeared in Sugar Rush, a Channel 4 series about teenagers in Brighton, and in 2007 he appeared in Doctor Who, playing Frank, a young man in 1930s New York, in the episodes “Daleks in Manhattan” and “Evolution of the Daleks”. The role was small, but it introduced him to a television audience, and it showed that he could work in genre television as well as theatre.

The role that changed his career came in 2007, when he starred in Boy A, a television film directed by John Crowley, playing Jack Burridge, a young man who is released from prison after serving time for a murder he committed as a child. The film is a study of guilt, redemption, and the possibility of a second chance, and Garfield’s performance is extraordinary. He plays Jack as a man who is trying to be good, who is haunted by his past, and who is desperate to be loved. The performance earned him the BAFTA Award for Best Actor, and it put him on the map. He was twenty-four, and he had already won one of the highest honours in British television.

He followed Boy A with roles in film, including The Other Boleyn Girl in 2008, in which he plays Francis Weston, a courtier, opposite Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus in 2009, directed by Terry Gilliam, in which he plays Anton, a young man who works in a travelling theatre. The film also starred Heath Ledger, in his final role, and Garfield has spoken about the experience of working with Ledger, and about how it affected him.

In 2010, Garfield starred in The Social Network, directed by David Fincher, playing Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook who is betrayed by Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg. The film is a study of friendship, ambition, and betrayal, and Garfield’s performance is the emotional heart of it. He plays Eduardo as a man who is loyal, who is trusting, and who is destroyed by the betrayal. The scene in which he confronts Zuckerberg, in a lawyer’s office, is one of the most powerful in the film, and Garfield’s performance in it is devastating. He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and for a Golden Globe, and the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards.

The same year, he appeared in Never Let Me Go, based on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, playing Tommy, a young man who is part of a group of clones raised to donate their organs. The film also starred Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley, and Garfield’s performance was praised. He was now one of the most sought-after young actors in Hollywood, and he was being offered leading roles.

In 2012, he was cast as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man, a reboot of the Spider-Man franchise. The role was one of the biggest in Hollywood, and Garfield played it with a sincerity and a vulnerability that made him a fan favourite. He played Peter as a teenager who is awkward, funny, and brave, and he brought a depth to the role that had not been there before. He starred opposite Emma Stone, who played Gwen Stacy, and the two fell in love during the filming. They were together for four years, from 2011 to 2015, and their relationship was one of the most talked-about in Hollywood.

The Amazing Spider-Man was a box office hit, earning more than 757 million dollars worldwide, and Garfield returned for the sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, in 2014. The sequel was less successful, both critically and commercially, and the franchise was eventually rebooted with Tom Holland. Garfield has spoken about the experience with honesty, saying that he felt constrained by the studio, that he wanted to do more with the character, and that he was disappointed by the direction the films took. He left the franchise, and he went back to the kind of work he loved: theatre, independent films, and challenging roles.

He returned as Spider-Man in 2021, in Spider-Man: No Way Home, alongside Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland, in a film that brought together three generations of Spider-Man. The appearance was a surprise, and it was greeted with enormous enthusiasm by audiences. Garfield’s performance, as an older, sadder Peter Parker who has lost Gwen Stacy, was praised as one of the best in the film, and it was a reminder of how good he had been in the role. He has said that the experience was healing, that it allowed him to make peace with the character, and that he enjoyed working with the other Spider-Men.

99 Homes, Hacksaw Ridge, and the Oscar Nomination

After Spider-Man, Garfield chose smaller, more interesting films. In 2014, he starred in 99 Homes, directed by Ramin Bahrani, playing Dennis Nash, a construction worker in Florida who loses his home to foreclosure and goes to work for the man who evicted him, played by Michael Shannon. The film is a study of the American housing crisis, and Garfield’s performance, as a man who is desperate to provide for his family, is raw and powerful. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and it was critically acclaimed.

In 2016, he starred in Hacksaw Ridge, directed by Mel Gibson, playing Desmond Doss, a real-life conscientious objector who served as a medic in the Second World War and saved seventy-five men at the Battle of Okinawa without carrying a weapon. The role required Garfield to play a man of deep faith, who refuses to kill, and who is mocked by his fellow soldiers. The performance earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, his first, as well as nominations for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe. The film was a commercial success, earning more than 175 million dollars, and it was a critical success, winning two Academy Awards.

The same year, he starred in Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese, playing Father Sebastião Rodrigues, a Jesuit priest in 17th-century Japan who is searching for his mentor. The film is long, difficult, and meditative, and Garfield’s performance, as a man whose faith is tested to breaking point, was praised. He lost weight for the role, he studied the history of the Jesuits, and he worked with Scorsese, one of the greatest directors in history. The film was not a commercial success, but it was a critical one, and it showed that Garfield was willing to take on the hardest roles.

Angels in America and the Tony Award

In 2017, Garfield returned to the theatre, starring in Angels in America, Tony Kushner’s epic play about the AIDS crisis, at the National Theatre in London. He played Prior Walter, a man with AIDS who is visited by an angel, and the production, directed by Marianne Elliott, was a triumph. The play is one of the greatest in modern theatre, and Garfield’s performance was widely praised as one of the best of his career. He was funny, heartbreaking, and heroic, and he carried the play’s emotional weight.

In 2018, the production transferred to Broadway, and Garfield won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. It was the highest honour in American theatre, and it was a recognition of a performance that had taken him two years to create. He has said that Angels in America changed him, that it taught him about love, loss, and the importance of community, and that it was the most important work he had ever done. The play was also deeply personal for him, because his mother, Lynn, had died of pancreatic cancer in 2019, and he has spoken about how the play helped him grieve.

He also appeared in Breathe in 2017, playing Robin Cavendish, a man who is paralysed by polio and who fights to live, and in Under the Silver Lake in 2018, a surreal noir film directed by David Robert Mitchell, in which he plays Sam, a young man in Los Angeles who becomes obsessed with a conspiracy. The film divided critics, but Garfield’s performance was praised.

Tick, Tick… Boom!, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and the Second Oscar Nomination

In 2021, Garfield starred in Tick, Tick… Boom!, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, playing Jonathan Larson, the composer of Rent, who died the night before his musical opened on Broadway. The film follows Larson in 1990, as he is turning thirty, struggling to finish his musical, and wondering if he will ever succeed. Garfield had never sung professionally before, and he trained for a year to learn to sing, to play the piano, and to perform Larson’s songs. The performance earned him a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy. It was a triumph, and it showed that Garfield could do anything, including sing and dance.

The same year, he appeared in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, playing Jim Bakker, the televangelist, opposite Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye Bakker. The film was a biographical drama, and Garfield’s performance, as a man who is charming, ambitious, and corrupt, was praised. Chastain won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, and Garfield was praised for his supporting work.

In 2024, he starred in We Live in Time, a romantic drama opposite Florence Pugh, playing Tobias, a man who falls in love with a chef who has been diagnosed with cancer. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it was a critical and commercial success. Garfield’s performance, as a man who is trying to love someone he knows he will lose, was praised as one of his best.

The Man Behind the Roles

Garfield is known for his thoughtfulness, his intelligence, and his willingness to talk about difficult subjects. He has spoken openly about his mother’s death, about grief, and about the importance of love. He has said that the loss of his mother changed him, that it made him more present, and that it taught him to value the people in his life. He has also spoken about his faith, about his Jewish heritage, and about his belief in the power of art to heal.

He is a dual citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom, and he has lived in both countries. He is known for his charity work, including his support for the Worldwide Orphans Foundation and for organisations that support people with AIDS. He does not seek attention, he does not use social media, and he keeps his private life private. He lets the work speak, and the work is eloquent enough.

The story is not finished. Garfield is in his early forties, and he is at the height of his powers. He has been nominated for two Oscars, he has won a Tony and a Golden Globe, and he is still choosing interesting roles. He has built a career that is rare in its breadth and its depth, and he has done it by being thoughtful, by choosing well, and by refusing to be defined by any single role. He was the boy from Epsom who took a drama class at sixteen, he became the man in Boy A, he became Eduardo Saverin, he became Spider-Man, he became Desmond Doss, he became Prior Walter, and he became Jonathan Larson. The journey is not over, and the next chapter is likely to be as interesting as the ones that came before.

Spider-Man: The Blessing and the Burden

The Spider-Man years deserve a closer look, because they are the most complicated chapter in Garfield’s career. He was cast as Peter Parker in 2010, when he was twenty-seven, and he was the first choice of the director, Marc Webb. He played Peter as a teenager who is awkward, funny, and brave, and he brought a vulnerability to the role that audiences loved. The first film was a hit, and Garfield was suddenly one of the most famous actors in the world. He could not walk down the street without being recognised. He was Spider-Man, and Spider-Man is one of the most beloved characters in popular culture.

But the fame came with a cost. Garfield has spoken about the pressure of the role, about the studio’s control, and about his frustration with the direction of the second film. He wanted to explore Peter Parker’s grief, his guilt, and his growth. The studio wanted a bigger, louder film. The tension between those two visions is visible in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a film that is ambitious but uneven, and Garfield has said that he felt he was not able to do the work he wanted to do. When the franchise was rebooted, he was not invited back, and he has said that the experience was painful, but also liberating. He was free to do the work he loved.

The return in Spider-Man: No Way Home, in 2021, was a different experience. He was older, he was wiser, and he was playing a Peter Parker who had lost Gwen Stacy and who had lived with that loss for years. The performance is sadder, deeper, and more mature than his earlier work in the role, and audiences responded to it with enormous affection. The scene in which he saves MJ, played by Zendaya, from falling, the same way he failed to save Gwen, is one of the most emotional moments in any superhero film, and Garfield plays it with a rawness that is unforgettable. He has said that the experience was healing, that it allowed him to make peace with the character, and that he was grateful for the chance to return.

The Theatre Training That Never Left Him

Garfield’s training at the Central School of Speech and Drama is the foundation of everything he does, and it is worth understanding what that training actually involves. Drama school in Britain is not like acting school in America. It is classical, rigorous, and focused on the stage. Students study Shakespeare, they learn voice and movement, they perform in front of their classmates, and they are criticised openly. They learn to project their voice to the back of a theatre, to use their body to tell a story, and to work as part of an ensemble. Garfield has said that the training taught him discipline, and that it taught him to respect the text, the director, and the audience.

That respect is visible in his film work. He prepares thoroughly, he reads the script many times, he thinks about the character’s history, and he works with the director to find the truth of the scene. He does not improvise wildly. He does the work, and he trusts the work. In Hacksaw Ridge, he studied Desmond Doss’s life, he talked to Doss’s family, and he learned about the Seventh-day Adventist faith. In Silence, he studied the Jesuits, he learned about 17th-century Japan, and he worked with Scorsese to understand the film’s spiritual questions. In Tick, Tick… Boom!, he trained for a year to sing and play the piano. Each role is a research project, and each one adds to his understanding of the world.

The theatre work is also where he is happiest. He has said that the stage is where he feels most alive, because there is no editing, no second take, and no hiding. The audience is there, and the performance has to work in the room. That is why he returned to Angels in America, a play that takes eight hours to perform, and why he committed two years of his life to it. It was not a career move. It was a calling, and he answered it.

My Take:

What I find most compelling about Andrew Garfield is that he has never been comfortable, and he has never tried to be. He was born in Los Angeles and raised in England, he trained in classical theatre and became a superhero, he won a Tony for a play about AIDS and was nominated for an Oscar for playing a conscientious objector, and he has spent his whole career moving between worlds that do not usually overlap. That restlessness is not a flaw. It is the point. He is an actor who is always looking for the next challenge, the next difficult role, the next thing that will scare him, and that is why his career is so interesting to follow.

Start with Boy A. He was twenty-four when he made that film, and he played a young man who had committed murder as a child and was trying to start a new life. It is a role that could easily have become sentimental, or exploitative, or simply depressing. Garfield plays it with a tenderness that is almost unbearable. He shows Jack as a man who is trying to be good, who is haunted by what he did, and who is desperate to be loved. The BAFTA he won for the performance was deserved, and it was a sign of what was to come. He was not a young actor who was going to play the same role again and again. He was an actor who was going to take risks.

The Social Network is the film that made him famous, and Eduardo Saverin is the role that showed what he could do. Eduardo is the co-founder of Facebook, a man who is loyal, trusting, and ultimately betrayed by his best friend. Garfield plays him with a warmth that makes the betrayal hurt. The scene in which he confronts Mark Zuckerberg, in a lawyer’s office, is one of the most powerful in the film. He is not shouting. He is not threatening. He is hurt, and he is angry, and he is trying to understand how someone he trusted could do this to him. The performance earned him BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, and it established him as one of the best young actors in the world.

Spider-Man is the most complicated part of his story, and it is worth thinking about carefully. He was cast as Peter Parker in 2012, and he played the role with a sincerity that made him a fan favourite. But he was also frustrated by the experience. He has spoken about the studio’s control, about the compromises, and about his disappointment with the second film. He left the franchise, and he went back to theatre and independent film. That decision tells you a lot about him. He could have stayed, he could have made more money, and he could have been Spider-Man for another decade. He chose not to. He chose the work he loved over the work that paid the most, and that is a rare and admirable choice.

The return in No Way Home, in 2021, was a kind of redemption. He played an older, sadder Peter Parker, a man who had lost Gwen Stacy and who had lived with that loss, and the performance was heartbreaking. The scene in which he saves MJ from falling is one of the most emotional moments in any superhero film, because Garfield plays it as a man who is reliving his greatest failure and finally getting it right. He has said that the experience was healing, and you can see why. He was given a second chance to play the character, and he used it to show how much he had grown.

Hacksaw Ridge is the performance that earned him his first Oscar nomination, and it deserves a closer look. Desmond Doss was a real person, a Seventh-day Adventist who refused to carry a weapon and who saved seventy-five men at the Battle of Okinawa. Garfield plays him as a man of deep faith, who is mocked by his fellow soldiers, who is beaten, and who refuses to give up. The performance is quiet, and it is powerful. He does not play Doss as a saint. He plays him as a man, a stubborn, brave, sometimes foolish man, who believes in something bigger than himself. The Oscar nomination was deserved, and the film was a success.

Angels in America is the work that defines him, and it is the work that he is proudest of. He played Prior Walter, a man with AIDS who is visited by an angel, in a production that took eight hours to perform and two years of his life to create. The play is one of the greatest in modern theatre, and Garfield’s performance was widely praised as one of the best of his career. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor, and the award was deserved. But the play was also deeply personal for him. His mother, Lynn, died of pancreatic cancer in 2019, and he has spoken about how the play helped him grieve, how it taught him about love and loss, and how it changed him. He has said that Angels in America is about the importance of community, about the need to take care of each other, and about the power of love in the face of death. Those are not abstract ideas for him. They are lived experiences, and the performance shows it.

Tick, Tick… Boom! is the performance that earned him his second Oscar nomination, and it is a remarkable achievement. He had never sung professionally before, and he trained for a year to learn to sing, to play the piano, and to perform Jonathan Larson’s songs. The film follows Larson in 1990, as he is turning thirty and struggling to finish his musical, and Garfield plays him with an energy, a humour, and a desperation that is infectious. He won the Golden Globe for the performance, and he was nominated for an Oscar. It was a reminder that Garfield can do anything, including sing and dance, and that he is willing to work for a year to learn a new skill.

There is a thoughtfulness to Garfield that is rare in Hollywood. He talks about grief, about faith, about love, and about the importance of art, and he does it with a sincerity that is disarming. He has spoken about his mother’s death with extraordinary openness, about how it changed him, and about how it taught him to be present. He has spoken about his Jewish heritage, about his belief in the power of theatre, and about his desire to use his platform for good. He is not an actor who hides behind his roles. He is an actor who brings himself to them, and who is willing to be vulnerable in public.

His charity work is also worth noting. He supports the Worldwide Orphans Foundation, and he has spoken about the importance of taking care of children who have lost their parents. He does not publicise his charity work. He does it quietly, and he does it because he believes in it. That is consistent with everything else about him. He does not seek attention. He seeks meaning, and he finds it in the work, in the theatre, and in the people he loves.

So what is the lesson of Andrew Garfield’s career? It is that a career is not a straight line. It is a series of choices, and the choices that matter are the ones you make when you have the power to choose anything. Garfield could have stayed as Spider-Man. He could have made franchise films for the rest of his life. He chose Angels in America instead. He chose Hacksaw Ridge instead. He chose Tick, Tick… Boom! instead. And those choices are why he is one of the most respected actors of his generation. He was the boy from Epsom who took a drama class at sixteen, he became the man in Boy A, he became Eduardo Saverin, he became Spider-Man, he became Desmond Doss, he became Prior Walter, and he became Jonathan Larson. Each of those roles is different, and each of them taught him something. The journey is not over, and the next chapter is likely to be as interesting as the ones that came before. That is the mark of a great actor, and it is why his story is worth telling.

One more performance deserves attention, because it is easy to overlook in a career full of big roles. In Silence, directed by Martin Scorsese, Garfield plays Father Sebastião Rodrigues, a Jesuit priest in 17th-century Japan who is searching for his mentor and whose faith is tested to breaking point. The film is long, slow, and meditative, and Garfield’s performance is quiet and internal. He lost weight for the role, he studied the history of the Jesuits, and he worked with Scorsese, one of the greatest directors in history, to understand the film’s spiritual questions. The film was not a commercial success, but it was a critical one, and Garfield’s performance was praised by those who saw it. It is a role that shows his willingness to take on the hardest material, to work with the most demanding directors, and to trust that the audience will follow him into difficult territory. Not many actors would take that risk. Garfield did, and the film is better for it.

There is also a lesson in the way he talks about his craft. He has said that acting is about empathy, about trying to understand another person’s experience, and about being willing to be vulnerable. He has said that he prepares by reading, by thinking, and by listening, and that he trusts the director to guide him. That approach is classical, and it comes from his drama school training, but it is also deeply personal. He brings himself to every role, and he is not afraid to show the audience who he is. In We Live in Time, in 2024, opposite Florence Pugh, he plays Tobias, a man who falls in love with a woman who has cancer, and the performance is tender, funny, and heartbreaking. He plays Tobias as a man who is trying to love someone he knows he will lose, and the performance works because Garfield understands that feeling. He lost his mother, and he knows what grief feels like. He brings that knowledge to the role, and the audience can feel it.

Finally, consider what his career means for young actors who are starting out today. Garfield did not become famous overnight. He trained for three years, he worked in theatre, he took small television roles, and he built his career slowly. He was twenty-four when Boy A was released, and he was twenty-seven when The Social Network made him famous. He did the work, he was patient, and he was ready when the opportunity came. That is a lesson worth remembering. Talent matters, but so does preparation, and so does patience. Garfield had all three, and his career is the proof that they pay off, not immediately, but eventually, and in ways that last.

And that is, in the end, why Andrew Garfield endures while so many of his contemporaries have settled into comfortable patterns. He never settled. He never took the easy role, never stayed in the franchise, never stopped learning. He is still taking risks, still doing theatre, still choosing the hard thing over the safe thing, and that refusal to settle is what makes him one of the finest actors of his generation.

The story is not finished, and it is unlikely to be finished soon. Garfield is in his early forties, at the height of his powers, and still choosing the roles that scare him. That is the whole lesson, really: keep choosing the thing that scares you, and the career will take care of itself.

He is, quite simply, one of the best actors working today, and the best may still be ahead of him.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did Andrew Garfield become Spider-Man?

He was cast as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012, after his breakout role in The Social Network in 2010.

Did Andrew Garfield return in No Way Home?

Yes. He returned as Spider-Man in Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021, alongside Tobey Maguire and Tom Holland, to huge audience cheers.

Did Andrew Garfield win an Oscar?

He was nominated for Academy Awards for Hacksaw Ridge and Tick, Tick… Boom!, but he has not won an Oscar yet. He has won a Tony Award.

Is Andrew Garfield British?

He was born in Los Angeles, California, but he grew up in Epsom, Surrey, England, and he is a British and American citizen.

What is Andrew Garfield’s best film?

Many critics point to Hacksaw Ridge from 2016 or Tick, Tick… Boom! from 2021 as his best performances.

Is Andrew Garfield still acting?

Yes. He continues to act in films, television, and theatre, choosing a wide range of serious and interesting roles.