Arthur Ira Garfunkel (born November 5, 1941) is an American singer, poet, teacher and actor. He is best known for his partnership in his earlier years with Paul Simon in what has been called the “most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s” – Simon & Garfunkel. The pair racked up 11 Grammy Awards including a Lifetime Achievement Award, and were later inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, with enduring chart-topping songs like “Mrs. Robinson”, “The Sounds Of Silence” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water”.

After the breakup, Garfunkel scored six top 40 hits in the 1970s as a solo artist with four of them topping the A/C chart. In 1982, after two consecutive albums missed the top 40, and produced no top 40 hits, he reunited with Simon on a world tour. A new joint album was in the works, but Simon instead released it as a solo effort.

Between 1985 and 2007, Garfunkel found occasional success with the release of five more albums including a Grammy-nominated children’s album and a holiday album with Amy Grant. Additional reunions with Simon happened in 1993, 2003 and 2009 – the latter believed to be their final performances together on the Old Friends Tour. In 2010, the two were going to do a 13-date tour but Garfunkel lost his voice for four years.

Since then, Garfunkel has occasionally spoken ill of Simon in the media due to Simon’s refusal to collaborate again, famously sharing in 2015 how he felt about their 1970 breakup:

How can you walk away from this lucky place on top of the world, Paul? What’s going on with you, you idiot? How could you let that go, jerk?

In 2017, he released a memoir titled What Is It All but Luminous: Notes from an Underground Man. As of 2020, he continues to tour.