James Garner dies

The Associated Press has an obituary of James Garner:

James Garner, whose whimsical acting style in the 1950s television Western Maverick led to a stellar career in television and films, including The Rockford Files and his Oscar-nominated Murphy’s Romance, has died, police said. He was 86.
He was found dead of natural causes at his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, California, LAPD police officer Alonzo Iniquez said.
Police responded to a call around 8pm and confirmed Garner’s identity from family members, Iniquez told The Associated Press.
There was no immediate word on a more specific cause of death. Garner had suffered a stroke in May of 2008, just weeks after his eightieth birthday.
Although he was adept at drama and action, Garner was best known for his low-key, wisecracking style, especially with his hit television series, Maverick and The Rockford Files.
His quick-witted avoidance of conflict provided a refreshingly new take on the American hero, contrasting with the steely heroics of John Wayne and the fast trigger of Clint Eastwood.
Well into his seventies, the handsome Oklahoman remained active in both television and film. In 2002, he was Sandra Bullock’s father in the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. The following year, he joined the cast of 8 Simple Rules…For Dating My Teenage Daughter, playing the grandfather on the sitcom after star John Ritter, who played the father, died during the show’s second season.
When he received the Screen Actors Guild’s lifetime achievement award in 2005, he quipped: “I’m not at all sure how I got here.”
But, in his 2011 memoir, The Garner Files, he provided some amusing and enlightening clues, including his penchant for bluntly expressed opinions and a practice for decking people who said something nasty to his face, including an obnoxious fan and an abusive stepmother. They all deserved it, Garner declared in his book.
It was in 1957 when the ABC network, desperate to compete on ratings-rich Sunday night, scheduled Maverick against CBS’ powerhouse The Ed Sullivan Show and NBC’s The Steve Allen Show. Maverick soon outpolled them both.
At a time when the networks were crowded with hard-eyed, traditional Western heroes, Bret Maverick provided a breath of fresh air. With his sardonic tone and his eagerness to talk his way out of a squabble rather than pull out his six-shooter, the con-artist Westerner seemed to scoff at the genre’s values. After a couple of years, Garner felt the series was losing its creative edge, and he found a legal loophole to escape his contract in 1960.
His first film after Maverick established him as a movie actor. It was The Children’s Hour, William Wyler’s remake of Lillian Hellman’s lesbian drama that co-starred Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. He followed that with a successful comedy with Kim Novak, Boys Night Out, and then fully established his box-office appeal with the 1963 blockbuster war drama The Great Escape and two smash comedies with Doris Day: The Thrill of It All and Move Over Darling.
Throughout his long film career, Garner demonstrated his versatility in comedies (The Art of Love, A Man Could Get Killed, Skin Game), suspense (36 Hours, They Only Kill Their Masters, Marlowe), Westerns (Duel at Diablo, Hour of the Gun, Support Your Local Gunfighter).
In the 1980s and 1990s, when most stars his age were considered over the hill, Garner’s career remained strong. He played a supporting role as a marshal in the 1994 Maverick, a big-screen return to the television series with Mel Gibson in Garner’s old title role. His only Oscar nomination came for the 1985 Murphy’s Romance, a comedy about a small-town love relationship in which he co-starred with Sally Field. His favorite film, though, was the cynical 1964 war drama The Americanization of Emily, which co-starred Julie Andrews.
Unlike most film stars, Garner made repeated returns to television. Nichols (1971-72) and Bret Maverick (1981-82) were short-lived, but The Rockford Files (1974-80) proved a solid hit, bringing him an Emmy.
His notable television movies include Barbarians at the Gate (as tycoon F. Ross Johnson), Breathing Lessons, The Promise, My Name Is Bill W., The Streets of Laredo, and One Special Night.
He said he learned about acting while playing a non-speaking role as a Navy juror in the 1954 Broadway hit play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, starring Henry Fonda and Lloyd Nolan. “I had no lines, and I had trouble staying awake,” Garner recalled.
After Caine Mutiny, Garner found work in Hollywood as a bit player in the Cheyenne television series. Warner Bros. gave him a screen test and signed him to a seven-year contract, starting at two hundred dollars a week. The studio cast him in supporting roles in three minor films, followed by the important break as Marlon Brando’s sidekick in Sayonara. When Charlton Heston declined a war movie, Darby’s Rangers, because of a money dispute, Garner assumed the role.
Maverick, which co-starred Jack Kelly as brother Bart Maverick, made its debut on 22 September 1957.
Garner was born James Scott Bumgarner (some references say Baumgarner) in Norman, Oklahoma. His mother died when he was five, and friends and relatives cared for him and his two brothers for a time while his father moved to California.
In 1957, Garner married television actress Lois Clarke, and the union prevailed despite some stormy patches. She had a daughter, Kimberly, from a previous marriage, and the Garners had another daughter, Gretta Scott. In the late 1990s, the Garners built a twelve-thousand-square-foot house on a four-hundred-acre ranch north of Santa Barbara, California.
“My wife and I felt we’d just watch the sunset from the front porch,” Garner said in 2000. “But then the phone started ringing with all these wonderful offers, and we decided, ‘Heck, let’s stay in the business for a while.’”

Rico says the guy was always great, and will be missed.