Biodata of "James Garner" and his Basic Information

James Garner

Date of Birth: 19 July 2014 , Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA  (acute myocardial infarction)

Birth Name: James Scott Bumgarner

Nickname: "Slick" - as a teen

Height: 6' 2" (1.88 m)

The son of an Oklahoma rug layer, James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner) dropped out of high school at 16 to link the Merchant Marines. He worked in a diversity of jobs and conventional 2 Purple Hearts when he was injured twice throughout the Korean conflict. He had his primary chance to act when a friend got him a non-speaking position in the Broadway phase play "The Caine revolt Court Martial (1954)". Part of his work was to understand writing lines to the lead actors and he began to learn the craft of drama. This play led to little television roles, television commercials and finally a contract with Warner Brothers. Director David Butler saw something in Garner and gave him all the concentration 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 Bret Maverick (Garner), the show fast twisted into the Bret Maverick Show. As Maverick, Garner was cool, good-natured, likable and forever ready to use his wits to get him in or out of trouble. The series was very victorious, 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 movieGrand 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 attempt to solve all evils 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 income 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 likable Garner of old. These includedTank (1984) and Murphy's Romance (1985). For the latter, he was nominated for both the Academy prize 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 Mixand 1920s Hollywood.

In the 1990s Garner conventional rave reviews for his role in the highly praised television movie about corporate greed, Barbarians at the Gate (1993). After that he appeared in the theatrical reconstruct 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).