Age, Biography, and Wiki
James Garner, born James Scott Bumgarner on April 7, 1928, in Norman, Oklahoma, passed away on July 19, 2014. He led a vibrant life, marked by his early struggles and eventual rise to fame in Hollywood. Garner's early life was challenging, with his mother passing away when he was five, and he was raised by his father, a German American widower. His acting career began in the 1950s with notable roles in television series and films.
| Occupation | Movie Actor |
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| Date of Birth | 7 April 1928 |
| Age | 97 Years |
| Birth Place | Denver, Oklahoma, now part of Norman, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Aries |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 19 July, 2014 |
| Died Place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Height, Weight & Measurements
Though specific details about Garner's height and weight are not widely documented, he was known for his tall and lean physique, which contributed to his on-screen presence.
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Dating & Relationship Status
Garner was married to Lois Clarke from 1956 until his death in 2014. They had two daughters, Kimberly and Greta.
His parents were Weldon Warren Bumgarner (1901–1986), a widower, and Mildred Scott (née Meek; 1907–1933), who died five years after his birth. His father was of part German ancestry. He claimed his mother was half Cherokee. His older brothers were Jack Garner, also an actor, and Charles Warren Bumgarner (1924–1984), a school administrator. His family was Methodist. The family ran a general store at Denver Corner on the east side of Norman.
Garner was reunited with his family in 1934 when his father remarried, the first of several times. He had a volatile relationship with one of his stepmothers, Wilma, who beat all three boys. He said that his stepmother also punished him by forcing him to wear a dress in public. When he was 14 years old, he fought with her, knocking her down and choking her to keep her from retaliating against him physically. She left the family and never returned. His brother Jack later commented, "She was a damn no-good woman".
Garner's last stepmother was Grace, whom he said he loved and called "Mama Grace", and he felt that she was more of a mother to him than anyone else had been.
Shortly after Garner's father's marriage to Wilma broke up, his father moved to Los Angeles, leaving Garner and his brothers in Norman. After working at several jobs he disliked, Garner joined the U.S. Merchant Marine at age 16 near the end of World War II. He liked the work and his shipmates, but he had chronic seasickness and only lasted a year.
* "Garner followed his father to Los Angeles in 1945, attending Hollywood High while helping his dad lay carpet. The next five years were back and forth between California and Oklahoma, during which Garner worked in chick hatcheries and the oil fields, as a truck driver and grocery clerk, and even as a swim trunks model for Jantzen..."
After World War II, Garner joined his father in Los Angeles and was enrolled at Hollywood High School, where he was voted the most popular student. A high school gym teacher recommended him for a job modeling Jantzen bathing suits. It paid well ($25 an hour) but, in his first interview for the Archives of American Television, he said he hated modeling. He soon quit and returned to Norman.
After his acrimonious departure from Warner Bros. in 1960, Garner briefly found himself graylisted by Warner until director William Wyler hired him for a starring role in The Children's Hour (1961) with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine, a drama about two teachers surviving scandal started by a student. After that, the graylist was broken and Garner abruptly became one of the busiest leading men in cinema. In Boys' Night Out (1962) with Kim Novak and Tony Randall and The Thrill of It All (1963) with Doris Day, he returned to comedy. Garner also starred opposite Day in Move Over, Darling, a 1963 remake of 1940's My Favorite Wife in which Garner portrayed the role originally played by Cary Grant. (The remake had begun as Something's Got to Give, but was recast and retitled after Marilyn Monroe died and Dean Martin chose to withdraw as a result.)
In the 1970s, Roy Huggins had an idea to remake Maverick, but this time as a modern-day private detective. Huggins worked with co-creator Stephen J. Cannell to rekindle the success of Maverick, eventually recycling many of the plots from the original series in The Rockford Files, according to both Huggins' and Cannell's Archive of American Television interviews. Starting with the 1974 season, Garner appeared as private investigator Jim Rockford for six seasons, for which he received an Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1977. In the 2016 book titled TV (The Book), film and television critic Matt Zoller Seitz stated that the series gave Garner "the role he was put on earth to play". Veteran character actor Noah Beery Jr. played Rockford's father "Rocky".
In 1994, Garner played Marshal Zane Cooper in a movie version of Maverick, with Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick (in the end it is revealed that Garner's character is the father of Gibson's Maverick) and Jodie Foster as a gambling lass with a fake Southern accent.
In 2001, Garner voiced Commander Rourke in Atlantis: The Lost Empire. In 2002, following the death of James Coburn, Garner took over Coburn's role as TV commercial voiceover for Chevrolet's "Like a Rock" advertising campaign. Garner continued to voice the commercials until the end of the campaign. Also in 2002, he played Sandra Bullock's father in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood as Shepard James "Shep" Walker. After the death of John Ritter in 2003, Garner joined the cast of 8 Simple Rules as Grandpa Jim Egan (Cate's father) and remained with the series until it finished in 2005.
In 2004, Garner starred as the older version of Ryan Gosling's character in the film version of Nicholas Sparks's The Notebook alongside Gena Rowlands as his wife, directed by Nick Cassavetes, Rowlands's son. The Screen Actors Guild nominated Garner as best actor for "Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role". In 2006, Garner made his last personal appearance in the film The Ultimate Gift as billionaire Howard "Red" Stevens. In 2010, Garner voiced Shazam in Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam.
Garner was married once, to Lois Josephine Fleischman Clarke, whom he met at a party in 1956. They wed 16 days later on August 17, 1956. "We went to dinner every night for 14 nights. I was just absolutely nuts about her. I spent $77 on our honeymoon, and it about broke me." According to Garner, "Marriage is like the Army; everyone complains, but you'd be surprised at the large number of people who re-enlist." His wife practiced Judaism.
Garner and his wife Lois were still married at his death in 2014, although they had had two periods of separation: the first for three months in 1970, and the second in 1979. The couple reunited two years later in September 1981.
From 1982, Garner gave at least $29,000 to Federal campaigns, of which over $24,000 was to Democratic Party candidates, including Dennis Kucinich (for Congress in 2002), Dick Gephardt, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, and various Democratic committees and groups. For his role in the 1985 CBS miniseries Space, the character's party affiliation was changed from Republican to Democrat, as in the book, to reflect Garner's personal views. Garner said, "My wife would leave me if I played a Republican."
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| Husband | Lois Josephine Fleischman Clarke (m. 1956) |
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Net Worth and Salary
At the time of his death in 2014, James Garner's net worth was approximately $20 million. Adjusted for inflation, his net worth would be around $25 million as of 2024. His primary sources of income included his extensive acting career in film and television, production ventures, and real estate investments. Notably, he earned significant salaries from his roles in "The Rockford Files" and endorsements, such as his $1 million annual contract with Mazda.
Acting Career
James Garner's acting career spanned over five decades, with pivotal roles in "Maverick," "The Rockford Files," and films like "The Great Escape" and "The Notebook." He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in "Murphy's Romance".
Garner's career and popularity continued into the 21st century with films such as Space Cowboys (2000) with Clint Eastwood; the animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) (voice work) with Michael J. Fox and Cree Summer; The Notebook (2004) with Gena Rowlands and Ryan Gosling; and in his TV sitcom role as Jim Egan in 8 Simple Rules (2003–2005).
By October 1964, Garner had formed his own independent film production company, Cherokee Productions. He next starred in the Cherokee co-production, Norman Jewison's romantic comedy The Art of Love (1965) with Dick Van Dyke and Elke Sommer. The Westerns Duel at Diablo (1966) with Sidney Poitier and Hour of the Gun (1967) with Garner as Wyatt Earp and Jason Robards Jr. as Doc Holliday followed, as well as the comedy A Man Could Get Killed (1966) with Melina Mercouri and Tony Franciosa. Grand Prix (1966) with Eva Marie Saint and Yves Montand, directed by John Frankenheimer and co-produced through Garner's Cherokee Productions, left Garner with a fascination for car racing that he often explored by actually racing during the ensuing years. The expensive Cinerama epic by MGM did not fare as well as expected at the box office and, together with the poor performance of his last six films, he was blamed for the movie not doing better, which damaged Garner's theatrical film career.
Garner's only Oscar nomination was for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the film Murphy's Romance (1985), opposite Sally Field. Field and director Martin Ritt had to fight the studio, Columbia Pictures, to have Garner cast, since he was regarded as a TV actor by then despite having co-starred in the box office hit Victor/Victoria opposite Julie Andrews two years earlier. Columbia did not want to make the movie, because it had no "sex or violence" in it. But because of the success of Norma Rae (1979), with the same star (Field), director, and screenplay writing team (Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch), and with Field's new production company (Fogwood Films) producing, Columbia agreed. L wanted Marlon Brando to play the part of Murphy, so Field and Ritt had to insist on Garner. Part of the deal from the studio, which at that time was owned by The Coca-Cola Company, included an eight-line sequence of Field and Garner saying the word "Coke," and also having Coke signs appear prominently in the film. In A&E's Biography of Garner, Field reported that her on-screen kiss with Garner was the best cinematic kiss she had ever experienced.
On November 1, 2011, Simon & Schuster published Garner's autobiography The Garner Files: A Memoir. In addition to recounting his career, the memoir, co-written with nonfiction writer Jon Winokur, detailed the childhood abuses Garner suffered at the hands of his stepmother. It also offered frank, unflattering assessments of some of Garner's co-stars such as Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. In addition to recalling the genesis of most of Garner's hit films and television shows, the book also featured a section where the star provided individual critiques for every one of his acting projects accompanied by a star rating for each. Garner's three-time co-star Julie Andrews wrote the book's foreword. Lauren Bacall, Diahann Carroll, Doris Day, Tom Selleck, Stephen J. Cannell, and many other Garner associates, friends, and relatives provided their memories of the star in the book's coda.
Garner was nominated for 15 Emmy Awards during his television career, winning twice: in 1977 as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (The Rockford Files), and in 1987 as executive producer of Promise.
Garner stated that during this second period apart he split his time between Canada and "a rented house in the Valley." In each case Garner said the separations were caused by the stress of his acting career and were not due to marital problems. In the case of The Rockford Files he was in almost every scene while in constant pain due to his arthritic knees, and under tremendous stress from the studio. Garner stated that when he quit the series in 1979, he simply needed to spend time alone in order to recover.
Garner signed a three-year sponsorship contract with American Motors Corporation (AMC). His shops prepared ten 1969 SC/Ramblers for the Baja 500 race. Garner did not drive in this event because of a film commitment in Spain that year. Nevertheless, seven of his cars finished the grueling race, taking three of the top five places in the sedan class. Garner also drove the pace car at the Indianapolis 500 race in 1975, 1977, and 1985 (see: list of Indianapolis 500 pace cars).
Garner was an avid golfer for many years. Along with his brother, Jack, he played golf in high school. Jack even attempted a professional golfing career after a brief stint in the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball farm system. Garner took it up again in the late 1950s to see if he could beat Jack. He was a regular for years at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. In February 1990 at the AT&T Golf Tournament, he won the Most Valuable Amateur Trophy. Garner appeared on Sam Snead's Celebrity Golf TV series, which aired from 1960 – 1963. These matches were 9-hole charity events pitting Snead against Hollywood celebrities.
In 2003, to endow the James Garner Chair in the School of Drama, he donated $500,000 towards a total $1 million endowment for the first endowed position at the drama school.
Social Network
While Garner was active during a time before widespread social media, his legacy lives on through his work and the fans who continue to appreciate his contributions to film and television.
Garner was the lone star of Maverick for the first seven episodes but production demands forced the studio, Warner Bros., to create a Maverick brother, Bart Maverick, played by Jack Kelly. This allowed two production units to film different story lines and episodes simultaneously, necessary because each episode took an extra day to complete, meaning that eventually the studio would run out of finished episodes to air partway through the season unless another actor was added.
Next came the war dramas The Great Escape (1963) with Steve McQueen, Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964) with Julie Andrews, and Roald Dahl's 36 Hours (1965) with Eva Marie Saint (all three pictures are set in World War II and both the latter two films involve D-Day). In the smash hit The Great Escape, Garner played the second lead for the only time during the decade, supporting fellow ex-TV series cowboy McQueen among a cast of British and American screen veterans including Richard Attenborough, Donald Pleasence, David McCallum, James Coburn, and Charles Bronson in a story depicting a mass escape from a German prisoner of war camp based on a true story. The film was released in the same month as The Thrill of It All, giving Garner two hit films at the box office at the same time. The Americanization of Emily, a literate antiwar D-Day comedy, featured a screenplay written by Paddy Chayefsky and remained Garner's favorite of all his work. In 1963, exhibitors voted him the 16th most popular star in the US and it was hoped that he might be a successor to Clark Gable. He also made Mister Buddwing (1966), a picture depicting a man suddenly suffering from amnesia while sitting on a bench in Central Park.
"The industry is like it always has been. It's a bunch of greedy people," he stated in 1990. Garner sued Universal again in 1998 for $2.2 million over syndication royalties. In this suit, he charged the studio with "deceiving him and suppressing information about syndication". He was supposed to receive $25,000 per episode that ran in syndication, but Universal charged him "distribution fees". He also felt that the studio did not release the show to the highest bidder for the episode reruns.
During the 1980s, Garner played dramatic roles in a number of television films, including Heartsounds with Mary Tyler Moore featuring the true story of a doctor (played by Garner) who is deprived of oxygen for too long during an operation and wakes up mentally impaired; Promise with James Woods and Piper Laurie, about dealing with a mentally ill adult sibling; and My Name Is Bill W. with James Woods, in which Garner portrays the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. In 1984, he played the lead in Joseph Wambaugh's The Glitter Dome for HBO Pictures, which was directed by his Rockford Files co-star Stuart Margolin. The film generated a mild controversy for a bondage sequence featuring Garner and co-star Margot Kidder. In 1984 he also starred in the movie Tank, about a soon-to-be retiring US Army Command Sergeant Major named Zack Carey who butted heads with a corrupt local sheriff after an incident with one of his deputies off base and used a privately owned Sherman tank to exact justice.
In 1993, Garner played the lead in a well-received HBO movie, the true story Barbarians at the Gate, and went on to reprise his role as Jim Rockford in eight The Rockford Files made-for-TV movies beginning the following year. Practically everyone in the original cast of recurring characters returned for the new episodes except Noah Beery Jr., who had died in the interim. According to Garner's memoir The Garner Files, he insisted upon being fully paid in cash before the shooting began on each of the Rockford TV-movies.
"I drank to get drunk but ultimately didn't like the effect. Not so with grass. It had the opposite effect from alcohol: it made me more tolerant and forgiving. I did a little bit of cocaine in the Eighties, courtesy of John Belushi, but fortunately I didn't like it. But I smoked marijuana for 50 years and I don't know where I'd be without it. It opened my mind and now it eases my arthritis. After decades of research I've concluded that marijuana should be legal and alcohol illegal."
In his youth, Garner had raced with "hot cars" in "chases", but his interest in auto racing was magnified during preparations for the filming of Grand Prix. John Frankenheimer, the director and impetus behind the project, was determined to make the film as realistic as possible. He was trying to determine which actor he could focus on for high speed takes. At his disposal were the services of Bob Bondurant, a Formula 1 racer who was serving as technical consultant for the film. The first step was to place the actors in a two-seater version of a Formula 1 car to see how they would handle the high speeds. Bondurant noted that all the actors became quite frightened going over 240 kph, (149 mph) except Garner, who returned to the pit laughing like an excited child. Said Bondurant, "This is your man". From there on out, all the actors were placed in a race driver training program except for Garner, whom Bonderant was assigned to personally train. Garner proved to be a good student, a hard worker and a talented driver. Compared to the other actors in the movie, Bondurant tagged Garner as being 'light years' ahead. By the end of the film Bonderant asserted that Garner could compete on a Formula 1 team, and would best some of the drivers currently in the field.
Longtime friends Tom Selleck (who worked with Garner on The Rockford Files), Sally Field (who starred with Garner in Murphy's Romance), and Clint Eastwood (who guest-starred with Garner on Maverick and starred in Space Cowboys) reflected on his death. Selleck said, "Jim was a mentor to me and a friend, and I will miss him." Field said, "My heart just broke. There are few people on this planet I have adored as much as Jimmy Garner. I cherish every moment I spent with him and relive them over and over in my head. He was a diamond." Eastwood said, "Garner opened the door for people like Steve McQueen and myself."
Education
Garner attended Hollywood High School and later Norman High School, where he was involved in sports like basketball, football, and golf. He dropped out during his senior year.
There he played football and basketball at Norman High School and competed on the track and golf teams. However, he dropped out in his senior year. In a 1976 Good Housekeeping magazine interview, he admitted, "I was a terrible student and I never actually graduated from high school, but I got my diploma in the Army."
In 1954, Paul Gregory, a friend whom Garner had met while attending Hollywood High School, persuaded Garner to take a nonspeaking role in the Broadway production of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, where he was able to study Henry Fonda night after night. During the week of Garner's death in 2014, TCM broadcast a marathon, July 28, of a dozen of his movies, introduced by Robert Osborne, who said that Fonda's gentle, sincere persona rubbed off on Garner, greatly to Garner's benefit.
Garner was a supporter of the University of Oklahoma, often returning to Norman for school functions. When he attended Oklahoma Sooners football games, he frequently could be seen on the sidelines or in the press box. Garner received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at OU in 1995.
On August 28, 1963, Garner was one of several celebrities to join Martin Luther King Jr. in the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom." In his autobiography, Garner recalled sitting in the third row listening to King's "I Have a Dream" speech. In July 1964, Garner, over a master plan for a 92-square-mile Santa Monica Mountains area, engaged in a public quarrel with Karl L. Rundberg, a Los Angeles City Council member, at a council meeting. Later, Garner, Steve McQueen and Burt Lancaster, became founding members of the Friends of the Santa Monica Mountains conservancy group, according to the book Transforming California by Stephanie S. Pincetl, but contested by Dash Stolarz, spokesperson for the state's Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy
