Iconic American Actor James Garner Dies at 86

James Garner, star of film and TV, died at the age of 86.

James Garner is best known for his television work, starring in the western series Maverickand on the seventies private detective series The Rockford Files, but he was a daring actor in films. Garner had the courage to play a coward in the anti-military film The Americanization of Emily, which was written by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Arthur Hiller and also starred Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas and James Coburn. He also starred, along with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, in the 1961 film adaptation of Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour, about two teachers whose lives are destroyed when rumors leak that they are lesbians.

Garner always seemed so likeable on screen. It didn’t matter how much a scoundrel he might be playing. He very often played morally or ethically ambiguous characters. In Support Your Local Gunfighter and Support Your Local Sherriff, Garner played a man who was masquerading as a desperado; in The Great Escape, he was the guy who would trade with the Nazis who were overseeing the POW camp. In The Rockford Files, Jim Rockford was only a few steps away from being the criminal. In Victor/Victoria he was a criminal. It didn’t matter how far into the murk he got, you liked him, you rooted for him.

Garner was born James Scott Bumgarner on April 7, 1928, in Norman, Oklahoma. Garner’s mom died when he was 5 and he moved out of his father’s house at 14 because he couldn’t stand his stepmother. Garner got a job as a swimsuit model when he was 16. He made $25 an hour and dropped out of high school. He was only a freshman.

Garner was awarded a Purple Heart in the Korean War. After the service he started acting, because, he said, actors don’t need qualifications.  He was discovered in a small role on Broadway in the play The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and was brought to Hollywood.  He played a small part on the TV series Cheyenne and supporting roles in the films Towards the Unknown, The Girl He Left Behind,and Shootout at Medicine Bend and then he was cast as Marlon Brando’s friend in the movie Sayonara. After Charlton Heston walked off the movie Darby’s Rangers, Garner took the lead. He also put on Brett Maverick’s ten gallon hat and hid some cards up his sleeve. Garner always said he was playing himself in Maverick, because Maverick was lazy and “I like being lazy.”

Lazy? The guy never really stopped acting and became, to me anyway, an iconic representation of the American man: a good-looking guy living off his wits, an everyday con man, not because he was larcenous, but because finding a real job was too much work. That easy laconic wit got him work in such movies as Boys' Night Out with Kim Novak and Tony Randall; The Thrill of It Allwith Doris Day; Move Over, Darling; The Art of Lovewith Dick Van Dyke, The Thrill Of It All, Grand Prix, where he deveoloped a lifelong love of racing, and Duel at Diablo with Sidney Poitier. Garner played Wyatt Earp in Hour of the Gun in 1967 and in Sunset from 1988, and Philip Marlow in Raymond Chandler's Marlowe. The balls of this lazy ass former bathing suit model, thinking he could step into a role made famous by Humphrey Bogart.

After The Rockford Files, Garner would win an Oscar for Murphy’s Romance, which he played opposite Sally Field. He played a conman turned poltician in the too-short-lived TV series Man of the People. He also starred in the TV movie Barbarians at the Gateand the TV miniseries Streets of Laredo. Garner starred with Jack Lemmon was two ex-presidents in the film My Fellow Americans. He was back on TV for the series Chicago Hope. Garner reteamed with Maverickvillain Clint Eastwood for the movie Space Cowboys.

In 2004, Garner starred in the movie The Notebook, for which he was nominated by The Screen Actors Guild for "Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role."

Garner is survived by his wife Lois Clark, who he married in 1956. They were married for 58 years. The couple have a daughter Greta “Gigi” Garner, and an adopted daughter, Kimberly, from Clarke’s first marriage.

No cause of death has been reported.

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