‘Maverick’ and ‘Rockford Files’ Acting Icon James Garner Dies at Age 86 … RIP

ACTING ICON JAMES GARNER DIES … RIP.

Acting icon James Garner, best known for his role on the hit TV series “Maverick” and “The Rockford Files,” has died at the age of 86. According to police accounts, Garner died of natural causes at his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, CA Saturday evening. Garner also stared in movie hits like “The Great Escape” (1963), “The Americanization of Emily” (1964), “Victor/Victoria” (1982) and “Murphy’s Romance” (1985), the last earning him an Academy Award nomination.

James Garner: April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014 … RIP

James Garner, 86, star of the hit TV series “Maverick” and “The Rockford Files,” has died, Los Angeles police told AFP on Sunday.

Police and fire department personnel responded to a call at Garner’s home at 8 pm Saturday (0400 GMT Sunday), said officer Alonzo Iniguez at the West Los Angeles police station.

Garner “died of natural causes and the body was released to the family,” Iniguez said, giving no further detail.

CNN:

James Garner, the understated, wisecracking everyman actor who enjoyed multi-generational success on both the small and big screen, has died. He was 86.

Police, who were called to his residence Saturday night in Los Angeles, say he died of natural causes.

Garner starred in hit TV series almost 20 years apart — “Maverick” in the late 1950s and “The Rockford Files” in the 1970s. He also had a notable film career, starring in such classics as “Sayonara” (1957), “The Great Escape” (1963), “The Americanization of Emily” (1964), “Grand Prix” (1966) and “Victor/Victoria” (1982), as well as the TV movies “My Name Is Bill W.” (1989) and “Barbarians at the Gate” (1993). More recent films included “Space Cowboys” (2000) and “The Notebook” (2004).

James Scott Bumgarner was born April 7, 1928, in Norman, Oklahoma. His mother died when he was 5 and his father remarried a year later. Garner didn’t get along with his stepmother and, after a particularly vicious argument, left home at 14. His father, who divorced his stepmother, eventually moved to Los Angeles. At 16, Garner followed, attending Hollywood High School and finding a job as a swimsuit model.

“I made 25 bucks an hour!” he told “People Magazine”. “That’s why I quit school. I was making more money than the teachers. I never finished the ninth grade.

After joining the Merchant Marine and the National Guard, he served in the Korean War, where he won a Purple Heart. After the war, he returned to Los Angeles and took up acting — for the same reason he started modeling, he told the L.A. Times.

James Garner discussing acting and talks about some of the greats, Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Steve McQueen, Brando and and many more …