Ben Garfield is a British respiratory and critical care physician and the older brother of actor Andrew Garfield. He serves as a consultant in the Adult Intensive Care Unit at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London, where he also leads post-ICU follow-up services. His medical work spans pulmonary hypertension, ECMO treatment, and peer-reviewed COVID-19 research published on PubMed.

Quick Facts

Who Is Ben Garfield?

Ben Garfield is widely recognised as the older brother of Andrew Garfield, the British-American actor known for The Amazing Spider-Man, Hacksaw Ridge, and tick, tick…Boom!. Andrew’s public career naturally draws curiosity toward his family, and Ben’s name surfaces regularly in searches connected to the actor.

What those searches often reveal, however, is that Ben Garfield has built a serious career entirely outside entertainment. He works in medicine — specifically in respiratory and critical care — as an NHS consultant at one of the UK’s leading specialist hospitals. His public significance comes from that professional record, not from celebrity appearances.

Ben Garfield Age: What Is Publicly Known?

Ben Garfield’s exact birth date has not been publicly confirmed. Based on what Andrew Garfield has shared in interviews — including a remark about a “three rough years” age gap between them — Ben is believed to be approximately three years older than his brother. Since Andrew was born on August 20, 1983, Ben is generally thought to have been born around 1980, though no verified source has confirmed a specific date or age.

Any figures circulating online that assign Ben Garfield a precise birthdate or current age should be treated with caution, as these appear to be estimates rather than confirmed facts.

From Los Angeles to Epsom — The Garfield Family Background

Ben Garfield was born in Los Angeles, California, to Richard Garfield, who ran a small interior design business, and Lynn Garfield (née Hillman), a nursery school teaching assistant. When Ben was approximately six years old, the family relocated to Epsom, Surrey — a move that shaped both brothers’ formative years in England.

Richard and Lynn balanced their work with raising two sons in the Surrey suburbs. On his father’s side, the family carries Jewish heritage tracing back to Polish immigrants who fled persecution in the early twentieth century; the original family name was Garfinkel before it was anglicised. Andrew was born three years after Ben, and the two grew up close — their father filmed home videos featuring both boys, a detail Andrew has recalled in interviews as part of their shared childhood. Lynn Garfield died in 2019 after an illness, a loss Andrew Garfield has spoken about publicly as a defining period of grief for the family.

Ben Garfield’s Medical Training — Nottingham to Imperial College London

Ben Garfield trained in medicine at the University of Nottingham Medical School, graduating in 2004. What followed was one of the more demanding specialist pathways in UK medicine — a combination of respiratory, critical care, and general medicine — progressing through NHS registrar training under the London Deanery.

His credentials built steadily over the following decade:

• MBChB, University of Nottingham Medical School, 2004
• MRCP (Membership of the Royal College of Physicians), 2006
• NHS registrar training in respiratory, critical care, and general medicine under the London Deanery
• MSc in Respiratory Medicine
• Medical Research Council Clinical Research Fellowship, 2013 — awarded for PhD studies at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London
• Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London

Imperial College London lists Ben Garfield among its Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturers, a role that carries practical weight beyond the title. It involves teaching postgraduate trainees, supervising research projects, and connecting hospital-based clinical practice with the university’s academic output — a bridge position that relatively few NHS consultants hold alongside a full clinical caseload.

Consultant at Royal Brompton — Ben Garfield’s Clinical Role

Ben Garfield serves as a consultant in respiratory and intensive care medicine at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals — part of a single NHS Trust and among the UK’s most respected specialist centres for heart and lung conditions. Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals identify his work within the Adult Intensive Care Unit, where he holds the specific role of follow-up lead, overseeing patient recovery and long-term outcomes after ICU discharge.

His work sits at the demanding end of respiratory medicine. Ben Garfield contributes to the hospital’s ECMO and Severe Acute Respiratory Failure (SARF) service, which operates around the clock and includes a retrieval function for critically ill patients transferred from other hospitals. ECMO — extracorporeal membrane oxygenation — is a form of life support used when a patient’s heart or lungs cannot function adequately on their own, and it is among the most technically demanding treatments in critical care. 

His specialties include pulmonary hypertension and the management of severe respiratory disease, areas that became especially prominent during COVID-19 when Royal Brompton’s ECMO capacity played a significant role in London’s critical care response.

Ben Garfield’s COVID-19 Research — Three Published Studies

Beyond his clinical work, PubMed-indexed research connects Ben Garfield’s name with several peer-reviewed studies on severe respiratory illness, affiliated with Imperial College London and the National Heart and Lung Institute. His published work covers three areas within the COVID-19 and post-COVID space.

The first study, published in 2021, compared six-month mortality outcomes in COVID-19 patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) who received VV-ECMO treatment against a historical cohort of patients with viral ARDS from before the pandemic. It addressed a direct clinical question: did COVID-19 ARDS patients receiving ECMO survive at different rates compared to similar patients treated in earlier years?

The second line of research examined sildenafil — a pulmonary vasodilator — as a potential treatment for COVID-19 pneumonitis, investigating whether the drug’s capacity to reduce pressure in the pulmonary vasculature could benefit patients with COVID-related lung inflammation.

The third study focused on the respiratory microbiome in patients with post-COVID residual symptoms, work linked to the University of Manchester’s research repository alongside Imperial College London. Together, these contributions place Ben Garfield within the clinical research that emerged from the pandemic, as a practising intensivist publishing from inside one of the country’s leading respiratory units.

Andrew Garfield on His Brother — What the Actor Has Said Publicly

Andrew Garfield has spoken about Ben in several interviews across different years, consistently describing him with admiration and pointing to his medical work as something personally meaningful. No single source has compiled these statements together until now.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Andrew Garfield publicly spoke about calling Ben — a lung specialist in the UK — roughly every other day during lockdown, both to stay in contact and to understand what was happening on the front line of the health crisis. He described these calls on Live with Kelly and Ryan as a way of staying grounded during a disorienting time.

In November 2021, Ben attended a taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where Andrew was appearing to promote Tick, Tick…Boom!. Andrew introduced his brother to the audience and joked about the “three rough years” separating them in age. The moment gave Ben a brief, rare public profile outside medical circles.

Andrew returned to the subject in a 2022 interview with The Believer magazine, praising Ben as a pulmonary physician at Royal Brompton and connecting his brother’s dedication to frontline medicine with broader themes of grief and family — Andrew had lost his mother, Lynn Garfield, in 2019, and the interview touched on how that loss reshaped his sense of purpose.

Ben Garfield — Disambiguation

Several people share the name Ben Garfield, and searches sometimes surface unrelated results. The Ben Garfield covered in this article is the British NHS physician and older brother of actor Andrew Garfield. 

A separate individual named Ben Garfield appears on IMDb as a director, writer, and editor, credited for works including Homey and The Ugandan Quidditch Movement. A second IMDb entry lists a Benjamin Garfield as a writer, editor, and producer. These are distinct people with no known connection to the physician or to Andrew Garfield.

Conclusion

Ben Garfield leads a quiet life by any celebrity-adjacent standard. He trained at Nottingham, built a specialist career in one of the NHS’s most demanding fields, and now works at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals while contributing to academic research at Imperial College London. His brother happens to be famous — but Ben’s own record, built over two decades in respiratory medicine, stands on its own.

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FAQ

Is Ben Garfield older or younger than Andrew Garfield?

Ben is the older brother. Based on Andrew’s comments about a three-year age gap, Ben is believed to have been born around 1980, making him approximately three years older than Andrew, who was born on August 20, 1983. Some sites incorrectly list Ben as the younger sibling — this is inaccurate.

Where does Ben Garfield work?

Ben Garfield works as a consultant in respiratory and intensive care medicine at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals in London, part of the NHS. He leads post-ICU follow-up services within the Adult Intensive Care Unit and holds a parallel academic appointment as Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London.

What has Andrew Garfield said about his brother Ben?

Andrew Garfield has publicly praised Ben in multiple interviews, describing him as an exceptional lung doctor whose frontline work has been personally inspiring. Documented references include The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in November 2021, Live with Kelly and Ryan during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the magazine The Believer in 2022.

Has Ben Garfield published medical research?

Yes. PubMed-indexed research lists Ben Garfield as a co-author on studies covering VV-ECMO outcomes in COVID-19 ARDS patients, sildenafil as a treatment for COVID-19 pneumonitis, and the respiratory microbiome in post-COVID patients — all affiliated with Imperial College London and the National Heart and Lung Institute.

Is Ben Garfield married?

Ben Garfield’s marital status has not been publicly confirmed. Some sources suggest he may be married, but no verified information is available. He keeps his personal life private, and nothing in this area should be treated as fact.

Does Ben Garfield have children?

There is no publicly confirmed information about whether Ben Garfield has children. He has consistently kept his private life out of the public eye, and no credible source has reported on this with any specificity.

What is Ben Garfield’s net worth?

Ben Garfield’s net worth has not been publicly disclosed. Some sites list figures such as $600,000, but these appear to be estimates with no verifiable basis. As a senior NHS consultant and honorary academic at Imperial College London, he would earn in line with those roles — but specific figures remain unconfirmed.

Is Ben Garfield on social media?

Ben Garfield does not appear to maintain any public social media presence. Given that he is a private individual who works outside the entertainment industry, this is consistent with how he has generally approached public attention.