James Garner: Classic or UltraMegaSuperClassic

http://www.tvacres.com/images/rockford_cartruck.jpg

I remember seeing a picture of him in his A&E Biography as a high school student, or maybe college freshman, that was literally THE MOST HANDSOME MAN I'VE EVER SEEN.

Yeah, I read that last night, just before I was gonna watch an episode on hulu! bummer.

heart him so much, it's ridiculous.

Talk about yr chiseled features!

http://www.webentory.com/billboards/1768/6824.jpg

I remember seeing a picture of him in his A&E Biography as a high school student, or maybe college freshman, that was literally THE MOST HANDSOME MAN I'VE EVER SEEN.

My mom certainly thought so (either him or Robert Conrad (Wild Wild West). That ad for the Rockford Investigative Agency would make a great T-Shirt.

love him in the great escape.

http://www.cinemaretro.com/uploads/GREATGARNER.jpg

Not a perfect movie, but Garner is great in it (and a great soundtrack too)

http://www.foothillrecords.com/images/lp_lrg/mrbuddwing.jpg

That ad for the Rockford Investigative Agency would make a great T-Shirt.

Yeeeah!

Also, there's a great early episode in which he's thumbing through the yellow pages in a public telephone booth's phone book, and he notices that his ad has been defaced by someone drawing a comic mustache over his picture or some such. He tries to erase it with a pencil, but ends up ripping the page!

There are so many brilliant moments on that show, and obviously tons of credit must go to the writers, but he slipped into that role like he was born to play it. Wow.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/FILM/DVDReviews22/a%20John%20Frankenheimer%20-%20Grand%20Prix/poster2%20John%20Frankenheimer%20Grand%20Prix%20DVD.jpg

Wow! I wanna see that! What a cast...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETuSt8uH0SQ

Wow! I wanna see that! What a cast...

Worth checking out. Mostly garden variety melodrama plot wrapped around the most fantastic racing scenes in any movie before or since. Frankenheimer directed. Next to Le Mans, it's my fave racing movie

Ah, cool!

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MMPH/261528~The-Rockford-Files-Posters.jpg

Underrated performance -- as H. Ross Johnson in Larry Gelbart's Barbarians at the Gate for HBO back in 1993.

Also, just for existing and therefore inspiring one of the greatest riffs in the MST Mitchell:

*Joe Don Baker's lumpy ass has been pushed off a dirt road by lame thugs in a bad car chase, he looks bloated and tired, demi-country twang geetar starts on the soundtrack*

CROW: "Hey, cut out that Rockford music, I'm Mitchell!"

http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/celebrity/images/TV/tvpaper-rockford.JPG
http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/3172286.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=0874C32348254FE48B5020B913036B31A55A1E4F32AD3138

hmm, were the Seattle Times television guide people influenced by
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42369000/jpg/_42369475_hkphooey.jpg
???

the eight-ball parachuting grenade is a nice touch, as well...

he has a day on TCM this Friday. anyone seen Marlowe?

No, I'd love to see it, though. Bruce Lee's in it, too!

My mom LOVES James Garner. Like literally loves.

Happy 83rd birthday!

anyone seen any episodes of "Maverick"? I don't believe I have.

what about that TV film where he and James Woods played the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous?

Happy 84th birthday Mr. Garner!

Heavy heavy sigh...

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/james-garner-dead-86-report-article-1.1873583

Troy Tempest lookalike! coincidence?

Oh sorry hadn't read the thread through so didn't see the obit til just then.
Well 85 is good going isn't it?
& he did do some good stuff.
So R.I.P.

this is a sad one. Rockford was the best. RIP

RIP

:-(

Watched a lot of Rockford Files as a kid. It was parent-approved, despite their general aversion to network TV. I think my dad was a fan from "Maverick" days -- if you were a kid in the 50s, James Garner had to be the coolest thing going. Loved him in the Great Escape. I probably saw Murphy's Romance, but I don't remember it. Mostly James Garner to me represents a kind of ideal midpoint between laconic cool and comic vulnerability -- like Steve McQueen plus Cary Grant.

Which is to say, R.I.P.

I saw Twilight about three weeks ago and he made Paul Newman look like Jack Black.

fyi -- Rockford Files is on Netflix streaming.

RIP Jim Jimmy Jimbo

Mostly James Garner to me represents a kind of ideal midpoint between laconic cool and comic vulnerability -- like Steve McQueen plus Cary Grant.

Well put.

he was an effortlessly cool person, rip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI80VzZJbm8

jailing Bruce Dern in Support Your Local Sheriff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFLTtjeuDc

Forgot that was Bruce Dern. Walter Brennan was the dad, right?

i feel like he came around a decade too late to be fully utilized in the movies, but i love watching him on TV.

xpost

yep, and Jack Elam the deputy. Joan Hackett was so good too. xxp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpZQa1lI0rM

He had a pretty decent movie career, '62-Rockford at least.

http://www.youtube.com/user/853Rockford/videos

rip henley the scrounger

so is Murphy's Romance worth a look? Looks fairly average. Wonder what persuaded the Academy he needed a nod for this one.

Is there any Western from the time Jack Elam is not in? For instance, The War Wagon, is he in that?

Guess not, but Bruce Dern certainly was. The Cowboys? No, but that's got Slim Pickens.

From PBS:

We note the passing of actor James Garner. The star of TV's "The Rockford Files" and “Maverick" had a special ability to instantly connect with audiences—women swooned at his good looks, men saw him as a regular guy. But Hollywood insiders had one more reason to respect James Garner: he was perhaps the best stunt driver in California. Rockford Files creator Stephen J. Cannell didn’t want Garner to do his own car stunts, fearing for the actor’s safety. But when Cannell came to realize that the professional stunt drivers weren’t nearly as good as Garner himself, Cannell agreed to let Garner drive. In an interview with the producers of PBS "Pioneers of Television,” James Garner was eager to discuss why he liked Rockford’s Pontiac Firebird Espirit: “It had the the right wheel base, the perfect engine power; driving it was the most fun I had as an actor.” Garner was so good at one particular driving maneuver that it was named in his honor. The trick involved driving a car backward at high speed, then spinning it 180°, and continuing forward without changing the direction of travel. Today, stunt drivers call that move a “Rockford” because no one did it better than James Garner. It was just one of many ways he was an American original.

Wonder what persuaded the Academy he needed a nod for this one.

Because it was a shit year (by AA standards) and he was getting old? C'mon, youre not new at this tripe.

I see this is AVAILABLE on YT... forgot that Larry Gelbart did the teleplay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPhF_YwWvoM

Because it was a shit year (by AA standards) and he was getting old? C'mon, youre not new at this tripe.

yeah but I don't remember Murphy's Romance getting the kind of look-teevee-guy-can-really-act acclaim

well, esp given that august body's age, they did not think of him just as "TV guy" from Rockford/Maverick but Children's Hour, Great Escape, '60s comedies like the westerns and the one w/ Doris Day, etc. It CAN help to be well-liked too.

The Children's Hour has more laffs than Victor/Victoria.

i will contest that only bcz i think V/V was a rather classy last peak from Blake Edwards. (also a fairly big hit, so Garner got a boost in returning to films after Rockford ended)

He did in fact play a Grant role, as Move Over, Darling was a remake of My Favorite Wife.

"I was vice-president of the Screen Actors Guild when (Reagan) was its president. Ronnie never had an original thought and we had to tell him what to say.”

"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.”

http://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/287535/James-Garner-Why-Steve-McQueen-was-like-my-little-brother/

victor/victoria is pretty good!

i mean, i hate to say this, but julie andrews is kind of the weaker link.

I wouldn't hate to say it!

Forget that she's unbelievable: she's so damn prissy and smug and awful.

unfortunately you can't have blake edwards w/o her after a certain point

it's impossible (for me) to believe that she's so irresistable—causes men to leave their senses—as a woman or a man

but the film is still pretty impressive and kind of renoir-like in a weird way. like french cancan or something.

anyone see the german film from the 30s? I should get around to that.

man I couldn't disagree more: one too many fight sequences (though I'm not as prudish as Kael is about it), rancid flat jokes, about thirty minutes too long. It's hard for me to call a movie Renoir-esque when its lead is determinedly cloddish and uncharismatic.

(I don't like Renoir's post-River films either but for other reasons).

dunno i gen prefer Julie Andrews to Audrey Hepburn

there i said it

I guess I enjoy the subtext in V/V that comes from Blake and Julie both having been rumored for decades to be totally gay

(touched on in an interview recently by Ian McKellen)

You can feed Hepburn to the birds.

i do NOT call it Renoiresque tho

more Wilderesque

must be why I'm skeptical

also

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bHSVCs9rX0A/TQvQLQlVqwI/AAAAAAAAKvw/ylcdsETymz8/s1600/Victor-Victoria-Julie-Andrews_l.jpg

put on yr red shoes and dance the blues

PIR

tribute roundup

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-james-garner-1928-2014

i guess the only renoiresque aspect is the way the film is unusually generous toward all its characters

yeah maybe the slapstick gags are too extended in the film

of course in that sense "renoiresque" doesn't necessarily apply to renoir's best films, but you know...

it would be extremely easy to believe that edwards and andrews were one another's beards, also that they were in love (obv not mutually exclusive by any means)

The best lines are by the supporting players, like Alex Karras' "Do you have heat in you room?" and Lesley Ann Warren's "Do you take toins bein' da goil?"

Robert Preston walks away with every scene, despite the fluffy hair.

he is not in every scene, or most of em

If you've read any of the in-depth obits, it's fascinating that the advice that Garner credited with unlocking the secret of acting for him came from... Charles Laughton! (While 'Jim Bumgarner' was sitting onstage as a juror in this production, during which liberal hero Henry Fonda snapped at Laughton's direction and called him a "fat little faggot.")

http://ibdb.com/production.php?id=2435

Watched Support Your Local Sheriff! last night, which was likely my first exposure to Garner when it was re-released around '73. At least as many parody LOLs as Blazing Saddles for me; v goofy slapsticky perf by the died-too-soon Joan Hackett, and quality support by Harry Morgan ("Puberty hit her hard"), Bruce Dern, Walter Brennan, Kathleen Freeman et al. "I'm on my way to Australia..."

The Mel Gibson Maverick movie is ripe for reappraisal

nooooooooo

did you ever see "Marlowe"? that's one of the nastiest American movies of its era.

just a few weeks ago! trailer has major Rita Moreno spoiler too.

did you ever see "Marlowe"? that's one of the nastiest American movies of its era.

watched this a few weeks back too, after seeing it mentioned in LA Plays Itself. Can't tell if Garner's ineffable charisma helps or hinders its essential nastiness.

directed by Paul Bogart, who later did Skin Game w/ Garner and Lou Gossett, then directed a bunch of "All in the Family" eps.

i’m 3 seasons into Rockford Files, and just started Maverick

why is Jim Garner the absolute best?

i am all-in on James Garner

finished his memoirs “The Garner Files”
v enjoyable. Definitely a quick read, a lot of fun stories but nothing super deep or revealing (as expected, he seemed like a straight arrow). Nice little section in the back with anecdotes from friends & family, his wife Lois seemed like fun; and a section where he reviews his movies & tv shows w star ratings etc.He doesnt beat around the bush, some he’s like “this stunk, i did it for the money” and one he was like “i dont even remember this movie” lol

Also watched “Murphys Romance” tonighg for the first time and loved it. such a chill, low-key romance. Garner sure has some that same Paul Newman magic juice, just handsome & charming in every decade, my god.

It’s a known goddamn fact the prestige of any auto race increases tenfold when James Garner drives the pace car. pic.twitter.com/Mlkwnhk8EZ

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) October 13, 2022

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dp0Nd8LWsAEcgp2?format=jpg&name=small

YouTube user Cosmic Iguana has been posting full episodes of Garner's 1971 series Nichols. Co-starring Margot Kidder and Stuart Margolin. It's set in the early 1900s so it's kind of a western but there's also motorcycles. There's a little of Maverick and a lot of how Garner becomes Rockford. Cool show. Kidder is great.

Here's the pilot, I think Iguana is up to episode 19 of the one and only season

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8dZRM5Tj5o