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James Garner : Biography, Pictures, Photos, Trivia, Address, Filmography (The Rockford Files)

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James Garner

Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files

Photos James Garner Birth name: James Scott Baumgarner
Birth date: 1928/04/07
Date of death : 2014/07/19 (86 years old)
Birth place : Norman Oklahoma
Height: 1.91 m

French Traduire

Biography for James Garner

The son of an Oklahoma carpet layer, James Garner (born James Baumgarner) dropped out of high school at 16 to join the Merchant Marine. He worked in a variety of jobs and received the Purple Heart when he was wounded during the Korean War. He had his first chance to act when a friend got him a non-speaking role in the Broadway stage play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954)". Part of his work was to read lines to the lead actors and he began to learn the craft of acting. This play led to small television roles, television commercials and eventually a contract with Warner Brothers. Director David Butler saw something in Garner and gave him all the attention he needed when he appeared in The Girl He Left Behind (1956). After co-starring in a handful of films during 1956-57, Warner Brothers gave Garner a co-starring role in the the western series "Maverick" (1957). Originally planned to alternate between Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) and Brett Maverick (Garner), the show quickly turned into the Brett Maverick Show. As Maverick, Garner was cool, good-natured, likeable and always ready to use his wits to get him in or out of trouble. The series was highly successful, and Garner continued in it into 1960 when he left the series in a dispute over money.

In the early 1960s Garner returned to films, often playing the same type of character he had played on "Maverick". His successful films included The Thrill of It All (1963), Move Over, Darling (1963), The Great Escape (1963) and The Americanization of Emily (1964). After that, his career wandered and when he appeared in the automobile racing movie Grand Prix (1966), he got the bug to race professionally. Soon, this ambition turned to supporting a racing team, not unlike what Paul Newman would do in later years.

Garner found great success in the western comedy Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969). He tried to repeat his success with a sequel, Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971), but it wasn't up to the standards of the first one. After 11 years off the small screen, Garner returned to television in a role not unlike that in Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969). The show was "Nichols" (1971) and he played the sheriff who would try to solve all problems with his wits and without gun play. When the show was canceled, Garner took the news by having Nichols shot dead, never to return in a sequel. In 1974 he got the role for which he will probably be best remembered, as wry private eye Jim Rockford in the classic "The Rockford Files" (1974). This became his second major television hit, with Noah Beery Jr. and Stuart Margolin, and in 1977 he won an Emmmy for his portrayal. However, a combination of injuries and the discovery that Universal Pictures' "creative bookkeeping" would not give him any of the huge profits the show generated soon soured him and the show ended in 1980. In the 1980s Garner appeared in few movies, but the ones he did make were darker than the likeable Garner of old. These included Tank (1984) and Murphy's Romance (1985). For the latter, he was nominated for both the Academy Award and a Golden Globe. Returning to the western mode, he co-starred with the young Bruce Willis in Sunset (1988), a mythical story of Wyatt Earp, Tom Mix and 1920s Hollywood.

In the 1990s Garner received rave reviews for his role in the acclaimed television movie about corporate greed, Barbarians at the Gate (1993) (TV). After that, he appeared in the theatrical remake of his old television series, Maverick (1994), opposite Mel Gibson. Most of his appearances after that were in numerous TV movies based upon "The Rockford Files" (1974).

James Garner of his real name James Scott Baumgarner, son of a lawyer, leaves his native Oklahoma and the school at 16 years old. Direction the merchant navy then a multitude of odd jobs of all kinds. Sent to Korea during the war, he was injured and decorated with the "Purple Heart", a high military distinction.

On his return to the country, trained by a friend, he is entrusted with a role, without any line of dialogue, in Hurricane on Caine a piece played on Broadway. Very quickly, it accumulates television appearances as well as in advertisements. He begins at the cinema in The Girl He Left Behind by David Butler.

After a few supporting roles, it is the small screen that brings him success with the Maverick series where he gives the reply to Jack Kelly. His naturalness and sympathy seduce the public and James Garner quickly becomes the show of the series, which he will leave after three seasons.

During this period, he worked with renowned directors (William Wellman, Mervyn Leroy, Gordon Douglas), but it was John Sturges and the great escape that make him known cinephiles. Subsequently, he won his best role by playing the "hidden" in the games of love and war. James Garner is illustrated as well in dramatic comedies like Grand Prix of John Frankenheimer (which allows him to discover himself a real passion for car races), the western with the battle of the Ralph Nelson Valley in 1966, seven seconds in hell by John Sturges, where he played Wyatt Earp, a role he resumed in 1988 for Blake Edwards in Merrywood, and also comedy: do not shoot Burt Kennedy's sheriff.

Back on television in 1971, with a series called Nichols again it is a western. He changes his register with the series The Rockford Files, where he embodies an uncompromising private detective. Solid, massive, and sympathetic, he is an amazing Marlowe in the waltz of the Truas (Paul Bogart, 1969) with Garner, the hero of Raymond Chandler, finds all his dimension. Despite the high popularity he keeps thanks to TV, the actor only rare cinema appearances in the 1970s.

In 1980 after many years as a show of the small screen, Garner returned to the cinema. Murphy's Romance will earn him an appointment to the Oscar and the Golden Globe for best actor. He also shines in Victoria the comedy of Blake Edwards. He then turned in quantities of films without however finding his notoriety of yesteryear.

It was not until 1994 and Maverick's adaptation to the cinema to see it in an important role. That of Mel Gibson's father, who takes up the title role. In Space Cowboys in 2000, he found Clint Eastwood which he had met 40 years earlier on the set of an episode of Maverick.

James Garner was an American actor known for his roles in the TV series Maverick and The Rockford Files. Born in 1928 in Norman, Oklahoma, Garner began his acting career in the 1950s by playing in theatrical productions and television advertisements. He made his cinema debut in 1955 in the film The Girl He Left Behind before continuing his career with roles in films such as Sayonara, The Children's Hour and The Great Escape.

Photos

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Filmography

Title Role
The Magic Shoe (2007) (pre-production) Grandfather
The Ultimate Gift (2007) Red Stevens
8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter Jim Egan (2003-2005)
Al Roach: Private Insectigator (2004) Al Roach
The Notebook (2004) Duke
8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter (2002) TV Series Jim Egan (2003-2005)
The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration (2003) (V) (voice) Pat
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002) Shepard James 'Shep' Walker
Roughing It (2002) (TV) Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
First Monday (2002) TV Series Chief Justice Thomas Brankin
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) (voice) Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke
Chicago Hope (1994) TV Series Hubert 'Hue' Miller (2000)
The Last Debate (2000) (TV) Mike Howley
Space Cowboys (2000) Tank Sullivan
God, the Devil and Bob (2000) TV Series (voice) God
One Special Night (1999) (TV) Robert
Shake, Rattle and Roll: An American Love Story (1999) (mini) TV Series
The Rockford Files: If It Bleeds... It Leads (1999) (TV) Jim Rockford
Legalese (1998) (TV) Norman Keane
Twilight (1998) Raymond Hope
The Rockford Files: Murder and Misdemeanors (1997) (TV) Jim Rockford
Dead Silence (1997) (TV) John Potter
My Fellow Americans (1996) President Matt Douglas
The Rockford Files: Punishment and Crime (1996) (TV) Jim Rockford
The Rockford Files: Friends and Foul Play (1996) (TV) Jim Rockford
The Rockford Files: Godfather Knows Best (1996) (TV) Jim Rockford
The Rockford Files: If the Frame Fits... (1996) (TV) Jim Rockford
Streets of Laredo (1995) (mini) TV Series Capt. Woodrow F. Call
The Rockford Files: A Blessing in Disguise (1995) (TV) Jim Rockford
The Rockford Files: I Still Love L.A. (1994) (TV) Jim Rockford
Maverick (1994) Marshal Zane Cooper
Breathing Lessons (1994) (TV) Ira Moran
Barbarians at the Gate (1993) (TV) F. Ross Johnson
Fire in the Sky (1993) Lieutenant Frank Watters
The Distinguished Gentleman (1992) Jeff Johnson
Man of the People (1991) TV Series Councilman Jim Doyle
Decoration Day (1990) (TV) Albert Sidney Finch
My Name Is Bill W. (1989) (TV) Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith aka Dr. Bob
Sunset (1988) Wyatt Earp
Promise (1986) (TV) Bob Beuhler
Murphy's Romance (1985) Murphy Jones
Space (1985) (mini) TV Series Sen. Norman Grant
The Glitter Dome (1984) (TV) Sgt. Aloysius Mackey
Heartsounds (1984) (TV) Harold Lear
Tank (1984) Cmdr. Sgt. Maj. Zack Carey
Victor/Victoria (1982) King Marchand
The Long Summer of George Adams (1982) (TV) George Adams
Bret Maverick (1981) TV Series Bret Maverick (1981-82)
Bret Maverick (1981) (TV) Bret Maverick/Edmund Trueblood Federal Bank Examiner
The Fan (1981) Jake Berman
HealtH (1980) Harry Wolff
Waylon (1980) (TV) James Garner
The New Maverick (1978) (TV) Bret Maverick
The Rockford Files (1974) TV Series Jim Rockford
The Castaway Cowboy (1974) Lincoln Costain
The Rockford Files (1974) (TV) Jim Rockford
One Little Indian (1973) Cpl. Clint Keyes
They Only Kill Their Masters (1972) Eden Landing Chief of Police Abel Marsh
Nichols (1971) TV Series Nichols (1971-72)
Skin Game (1971) Quincy Drew/Capt. Nathaniel Mountjoy, Army Medical Corps.
Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) Latigo Smith
A Man Called Sledge (1970) Luther Sledge
Marlowe (1969) Philip Marlowe
Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) Jason McCullough
The Pink Jungle (1968) Ben Morris
How Sweet It Is! (1968) Grif Henderson
Hour of the Gun (1967) Wyatt Earp (Tombstone city marshal/U.S. marshal)
Grand Prix (1966) Pete Aron
Mister Buddwing (1966) Mr. Buddwing
Duel at Diablo (1966) Jess Remsberg (scout)
A Man Could Get Killed (1966) William Beddoes
The Art of Love (1965) Casey Barnett
36 Hours (1965) Maj. Jefferson F. Pike
The Americanization of Emily (1964) Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison
Move Over, Darling (1963) Nicholas 'Nick'/'Nicky' Arden
The Wheeler Dealers (1963) Henry Tyroon
The Thrill of It All (1963) Dr. Gerald Boyer
The Great Escape (1963) Flight Lt. Bob Anthony 'The Scrounger' Hendley
Boys' Night Out (1962) Fred Williams
The Children's Hour (1961) Dr. Joe Cardin
Cash McCall (1960) Cash McCall
Alias Jesse James (1959) (uncredited) Bret Maverick
Up Periscope (1959) Lt. Kenneth Braden
Darby's Rangers (1958) Maj./Col. William Orlando Darby
Maverick (1957) TV Series Bret Maverick (1957-1960)
Sayonara (1957) Capt. Mike Bailey, USMC
Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend (1957) Sgt. John Maitland
The Girl He Left Behind (1956) Preston
Toward the Unknown (1956) Maj./Lt. Col. Joe Craven

Trivia

Had both knees replaced [2000]

Had quintuple heart bypass surgery [1988]

Part Cherokee Indian.

According to an article on TV westerns in Time Magazine (March 30, 1959), Garner stood 6' 3", weighed 206 lbs, and had chest-waist-hips measurements of 44-33-40

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1990.

Early in his career, he appeared as one of the judges in "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" on Broadway. He said his part consisted mostly of listening to the other actors and he said it was a great lesson. He feels listening is just as important as speaking as an actor.

Before he was an actor, he did everything from work at a gas station to model men's clothing.

Had learned a lot from the late John Ritter, when watching "Three's Company" (1977), and even appeared with the "8 Simple Rules" cast about the popular deceased comedian on "Larry King Live" (1985), on the future of "8 Simple Rules."

Is involved with many humanitarian causes.

Is a member of the National Support Committee of the Native American Rights Fund and the National Advisory Board of the United States High School Golf Association.

Is a volunteer of Save The Children.

Is an avid golfer.

Inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1986.

Was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer in 1979.

He was very disappointed about his show, "The Rockford Files" (1974), being cancelled due to his illness. He accepted his doctor's advice and learned that season 6 was his last.

Had helped organize Martin Luther King's march on Washington for Civil Rights, four years before going to Vietnam. (1963)

Was the first actor to co-star with Julie Andrews, in 3 movies, The Americanization of Emily (1964), Victor/Victoria (1982), and One Special Night (1999) (TV).

In his full glory, James stood 6' 3", but due to lower back and knee problems, he could no longer stretch out taller than 5' 11" by the time he was 70.

Is a Korean War veteran and began his career as a contract player in 1956 for Warner Bros.

He was attending Hollywood High in Los Angeles when his gym teacher recommended him for a job modeling Jantzen bathing suits. He got the job making $25 an hour.

He starred in 3 popular TV series: "Maverick" (1957) for 3 seasons, "The Rockford Files" (1974) for 6 seasons, and "8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter" (2002), for 2 seasons.

Has played two different characters named Jim who served in the Korean War: Jim Rockford in "The Rockford Files" (1974) and Jim Egan in "8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter" (2002).

The Americanization of Emily (1964) is his favourite film of his own.

Family

Spouse : Lois Clarke (August 1956 - present) 2 children

He has 2 brothers, Jack Garner & Charlie Baumgarner

Brother of Jack Garner

Father of Greta (Gigi) Garner-Hewitt, author of "The Cop Cookbook: Arresting Recipes from the World's Favorite Cops, Good Guys, and Private Eyes"

He & his wife married just 14 days after meeting.

Father of Kim

Lost his mother when he was 5 and his two brothers were sent off to live with relatives.

Author of the card

  • Creation date: 01/07/2003 by abdest

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