When he appeared as a mystery challenger on a 1963 edition of guessing game series What's My Line?, his gracious host John Daly said of James Garner, who was starring in Maverick at the time of his appearance, that Garner was one of the very few souls that was loved, respected and revered by all of his contemporaries and peers. And in the half century to follow you may have been hard-pressed to find anyone that could negate Mr Daly's assessment. James Garner will not and should not be pigeonholed, and nobody better dare, I says - besides that would hardly be a fair move because the charming Cherokee from Norman, Oklahoma was oh so many things to oh so many different folk. And to think it was a fateful encounter on his way back from the merchant marines - in the carpark of a producer's office and just one look was all it took and soon Garner would mosey his way on down to his first role on the television oater Warner Brothers Presents : Cheyenne which was also the launching pad for fellow actor, somewhat nemesis Charles Bronson (the onus being on Chaz).
And as tough-boiled as he may have been on television, Garner was no stranger to the malady of stage anxiety and would rarely take to the theater, there may have been one or two excursions mind you on rickety route - one in which he starred alongside Charles Laughton . His acting credits amass nearly a hundred starring roles. Garner was an effortless performer, and though understated - a voice that could not have resonated louder and prouder. The actor was shockingly humble for a man of his handsome proportions and mastery of the craft. His was a determinant spirit, he who transcended his painful past healing his own wounds suffered from his abusive martinet of a step-mother (a mother so malevolent that would leave Joan Crawford exclaiming 'shame on you!')
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| The Man, The Myth, The Maverick |
And though James didn't exactly receive all the credit quite in the way he both commanded and deserved, there were some magic moments, like in the year 2005, when the Screen Actors Guild honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. He was nominated earlier, for an Oscar for his role in the 1985 rom-com Murphy's Romance. He also would nab a rightful Emmy for lead actor of the Rockford Files in 1977 and 1958's Sayonara, resulted in a Golden Globe for being the most likely to succeed actor of that year.
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| Brando with some charisma competition via Garner |
Garner like his dear chum David Janssen worked his everloving ticker out and risked literal life and limb, insisting to do all the season one Rockford Files stunts on his lonesome; there was nary a bone in Garner's body that wasn't broken or fractured at one point or another and lets not get started on the bleeding ulcers. Unlike Janssen who died prematurely at the age of 49 in 1980 from a simple case of overworking, Garner apparently despite all his injuries and bouts of poor health, made like a cat and nine-lived it. Even a quintuple bypass in 1988 would only slow Jim down just a mite.
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| Two legends left the earth in two days - The inimitable Elaine Stritch above. |
Now when the light called Elaine Stritch went out on Broadway but two nights before our beloved Garner departed the earth on July the 19th, it was like losing a surrogate granny; Stritch was only three years Garner's senior and beyond any shadow of a doubt the spriest eighty-nine year old you could ever have the fortune of clapping eyes on. And you couldn't say much different for Jimbo; it was in fact as if time stood perfectly still for the two of them. Losing James Garner felt like losing a favorite uncle, yes that one -who could magically produce a quarter from behind your ear, collect your nose in his palm and reapply it to your little face again and by the end of the day slip a shiny new fiver in your pocket without anyone being the wiser. And with all the life that coursed through their respective veins, to say Goodbye hardly seems appropriate, so why don't we just say : so long for now...