Movie Musings: Disney and More

The Garner Files

James Garner was one of the very first actors who found success on both television and film. With his dashing looks and deep voice—and his ability to look good in a cowboy hat—one could easily compare him to John Wayne, though slightly more modern, of course. Ironically, John Wayne, himself, named James Garner as the best American actor in a 1973 interview. Throughout his 50-year-career, he played a remarkable variety of characters, some roguish, some gentlemanly, and some just flat-out wisecrackers. He even made some films for the Walt Disney Studios as well.

    James Garner was born in Norman, Oklahoma on April 7th, 1928. He was the youngest of three sons of Weldon Warren Bumgarner and Mildred Scott (Meek). He tragically lost his mother when he was just five years, so he and his brothers were sent to live with other relatives. He reunited with his family in 1934 when his father remarried. His father remarried more than once, though, and one of young James Garner’s stepmothers was a woman named Wilma, an abusive woman who beat James and his two brothers. She at one point even punished him by forcing him to wear a dress in public. When James was 14 he fought her to the point of knocking her down and choking her in self-defense. As a result, the marriage broke up and Wilma left the family and was never heard from again, while Weldon relocated to Los Angeles, leaving his three sons in Norman.

James Garner enlisted in the United States Merchant Marines when he was 16 years old. He spent seven months serving in the California Army National Guard and then 14 months in the Korean War, where he was awarded two Purple Hearts. In 1954, when 26 years old, his friend Paul Gregory talked him into taking a non-speaking role in the Broadway production of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. While in the play, James was able to study Henry Fonda, who later became a friend. After his run in the play, James Garner decided to pursue acting full-time, and he got bit roles in the pilot episode for the television series Cheyenne (1955-1962) and the movies The Girl He Left Behind (1956) and Toward the Unknown (1956). The same year as the two movies, he married Lois Fleischman Clarke, with whom he had two daughters, one biological Greta “Gigi,” Garner and one adopted, Kim, whom Lois had had from a previous marriage. James Garner finally got his first starring role in the series Maverick (1957-1962), playing Bret Maverick, a charming cardshark. He starred opposite Jack Kelly, who played his brother Bart Maverick. The show was a hit and won the Emmy for Best Western series in 1959.

As a result of the success of “Maverick,” Garner also began getting leading roles in movies. While on “Maverick,” he played Captain Bailey in Sayonara (1957) and Cash McCall in Cash McCall (1960). In 1963, he made two films with close friend Doris Day The Thrill of It All and Move Over, Darling. Garner made The Americanization of Emily (1964) with Julie Andrews the very next year. He later said that “Americanization of Emily,” was his favorite of all his movies. (“Americanization of Emily,” was also released the same year that Julie Andrews made Mary Poppins for Disney.) Garner also became close with Andrews, and later reunited with her nearly 20 years later in Victor Victoria (1982), alongside Robert Preston and Lesley Ann Warren, all four of whom appeared under the direction of Andrews’ late husband, Blake Edwards. James worked with Andrews for a third time in the made-for-television film One Special Night (1999).

In 1973, Garner was hired by the Walt Disney Studios to star in One Little Indian opposite Vera Miles and an 11-year-old Jodie Foster. The very next year, he reunited with Miles in Disney’s Castaway Cowboy (1974). After wrapping the movie, Garner made a huge comeback to television in the role of Jim Rockford in The Rockford Files (1974-1980). He won an Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama Series in 1977 and received three Golden Globe nominations for his performance. Tragically, however, he was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer after the show’s last season. He also separated from his wife around this time. Fortunately, he recovered and reconciled with his wife, though made an unsuccessful attempt to return to the role of Bret Maverick in a made-for-television film called The New Maverick, where Bret passes his “cardshark” torch to his younger cousin Ben Maverick, but the network didn’t pick it up. As a result, he returned to movies.

In 1986, James Garner received a Best Actor Oscar Nomination for his performance as Murphy Jones in Murphy’s Romance (1985) opposite Sally Field. In 1994, he played Marshal Zane Cooper, father of Bret Maverick in Maverick (1994), a film based on the series. He also returned to the role of Jim Rockford in the television movie The Rockford Files: If the Frame Fits (1996), and reprised the role for five more movies. In 2000, he lent his voice to a series called God, the Devil and Bob where was the voice of God, and he was the voice of the evil Commander Rourke in Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). He also played Jim Egan on the ABC series 8 Simple Rules (2002-2005). He played Duke, the older version of Ryan Gosling’s character in The Notebook (2004). His final theatrical film appearance was in the role of Howard “Red” Stevens in The Ultimate Gift (2006). 

James Garner passed away in Los Angeles, California due to heart difficulties on July 19th, 2014 at 86 years of age. From his roles in dramas, comedies, and westerns to television shows, to a few voice-overs, he has truly left a unique legacy in entertainment.