By: Stan Jordan
James Garner was born in Norman, OK in 1928. His real name was James Bumgarner. There were three children in the family. He was the youngest. One of his brothers, Jack, was a movie actor in later life. The other brother, Charles, was in the education field.
Jim’s mother died when he was five years old. He hated his new stepmother, they never got along and after a big squabble she left.
James left school and joined the Merchant Marines at the end of World War II. He joined his father in Hollywood and he was very popular in that high school. He got a job as a model, but he didn’t like modeling. He played football, basketball, track and was on the golf team. He never graduated from high school, but he got his GED while in the army.
He spent 14 months in Korea and was awarded two purple hearts.
After the Army, an old friend from high school told him to accept a role in The Caine Mutiny Court-martial. He understudied Henry Fonda there and learned a lot.
He made a number of movies, I guess, about 50 in his career, but he also made a lot of TV movies. He became very popular with his work in the Brett Maverick series in 1957-1960. His slow, easy-going ways and his voice endeared him to his fans. He was the most popular actor for many years. He changed his name to just James Garner after the studio made a mistake and listed him as James Garner. He became a household name for many years.
He made a number of western films and they were very well-received. As far as I’m concerned, Jim never made a bad film, he was a handsome dude and everyone liked his style of acting and the delivery of his lines.
In the 1970’s he starred in the Rockford Files, a police type of action and that was well liked and became another hit show.
Some of his films were: Up Periscope, Darby’s Rangers, Support Your Local Sheriff, Support Your Local Gunfighter, A Man Called Sledge, Hour of the Gun, The Great Escape, Space Cowboys and dozens of other films.
I know that I am one of millions of fans of Brett Maverick well known as James Garner.
I will miss him.
See ya!
