James Garner (1928-2014)
I'm betting there's a debate gong on right now among James Garner fans: Which was the better Garner television vehicle, Maverick or Rockford Files? I suppose it's mostly a matter of when you were born. Maverick had been off the air with little or no syndication for twelve years by the time Garner made his highly successful return to the small screen in 1974, long enough for many viewers, eighteen years and younger, to have come of age with no knowledge that Garner had a career before such enormously popular films as "The Great Escape" (1963), and "The Americanization of Emily" (1964). In fact, Garner's star rose sharply from about the time he became a contract player with Warner Brothers in 1956. That year was the highwater mark for Warner's television backlot division with such innovative westerns as "Cheyenne", "Sugarfoot", and "Bronco".
What they all had in common were handsome leading men dressed in fashion trending western clothing, always ready to save damsels in distress. James Garner's character, a riverboat gambler who lived by his wits was probably the most durable of all these mid-century Warner Brothers creations.
Garner's career was also helped by one other powerful undercurrent: Hollywood's greatest male stars were all nearing their sixties with no obvious successors. Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy and Jimmy Stewart were highly bankable with some of them doing their best work in the period following World War II. Gable and Stewart had served in the war and who could blame them for thinking that perhaps they had some time to make up? While they were starring opposite female leads thirty years their junior, studios like Warner Brothers were quietly training the next generation of young American male film stars. Actors like Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Richard Crenna, Lee Marvin, and Charles Bronson all got their start playing weekly characters on series television.
Of this incredible cohort, James Garner was probably the most versatile, the most durable and probably most beloved in his later years. Like his idol, Spencer Tracy, he had the ability to suggest "naturalness", which is a pretty hard thing to do when there is nothing natural about what you are doing. He was a perfect spokesperson and probably sold a lot of Kodak cameras as well as other things we're not even aware of over the years. And, yet he was often cast as a smart-talking iconoclast in his early work. As it happened, I was watching an episode of Maverick quite possibly at the time of his death and my last memory of him will be my admiration for just how good he was. Take a bow, Mr. Garner.
What they all had in common were handsome leading men dressed in fashion trending western clothing, always ready to save damsels in distress. James Garner's character, a riverboat gambler who lived by his wits was probably the most durable of all these mid-century Warner Brothers creations.
Garner's career was also helped by one other powerful undercurrent: Hollywood's greatest male stars were all nearing their sixties with no obvious successors. Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Spencer Tracy and Jimmy Stewart were highly bankable with some of them doing their best work in the period following World War II. Gable and Stewart had served in the war and who could blame them for thinking that perhaps they had some time to make up? While they were starring opposite female leads thirty years their junior, studios like Warner Brothers were quietly training the next generation of young American male film stars. Actors like Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Richard Crenna, Lee Marvin, and Charles Bronson all got their start playing weekly characters on series television.
Of this incredible cohort, James Garner was probably the most versatile, the most durable and probably most beloved in his later years. Like his idol, Spencer Tracy, he had the ability to suggest "naturalness", which is a pretty hard thing to do when there is nothing natural about what you are doing. He was a perfect spokesperson and probably sold a lot of Kodak cameras as well as other things we're not even aware of over the years. And, yet he was often cast as a smart-talking iconoclast in his early work. As it happened, I was watching an episode of Maverick quite possibly at the time of his death and my last memory of him will be my admiration for just how good he was. Take a bow, Mr. Garner.