The Gun Counter

James Garner dead at 86. Flaming liberal but great, underrated actor. link

Huh, may he RIP. I wasn't aware of his politics, but I liked his acting.

The films I liked the best are probably the most under-rated. I absolutely loved his "Support your..." series. He and Janck Elam were tbe perfect foils for each other's humor.

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CByrneIV wrote:5th regimental combat team, pusan perimeter, Two purple hearts...

He can get a pass for being an old fashioned bleeding heart liberal.

He was a 1940s/50s liberal, not a 60's through 2010s cloward piven liberal.

Agree wholeheartedly. A good man is the best way to describe him. Never heard a nasty word about him from anyone.

Great actor, great guy, class act.
Married to the same woman for 48 years, which tells you how much of Hollywood rubbed off on him.
You likely wouldn't know his politics without digging, because he had the good grace not to wear them on his sleeve.
And he was generally gracious about his moderate success.
I'm happy to say I literally bumped into him once, in 1996, got to tell him I'd been a fan forever, and he thanked me and walked over towards his set, and I went about my business.
He made a perfect unit scrounger as Hendley, one of three American fliers, in The Great Escape, in no small part because he'd been exactly that for real in the Army in Korea in 1951.
IMHO, Support Your Local Sherrif was the best Western comedy ever made, with Blazing Saddles a raunchy distant second. (Sorry Mel.)
And The Rockford Files was the quintessential must-see TV detective series of the 70s-80s, and literally launched Magnum P.I. and Tom Selleck's career, along with boosting those of about 100 other contract actors at Uni in the late 70s. He was rightfully nominated for Best Actor for 1985's Murphy's Romance, though Columbia hadn't even wanted him in the picture. (Co-star Sally Field reported later that her on-screen kiss with Garner was the best cinematic kiss she had ever experienced.) The series Maverick was iconic, to the point that making the movie version without Garner was unthinkable, and was yet another star turn for him at age 66.
He died at home in his own bed, at peace, and had a helluva run to get from Oklahoma to Brentwood, and while he's gone, it won't sting as much as long as his movies and TV shows are on the shelf to enjoy.

One of the best early memories of my childhood was watching Rockford Files in the living room. I would literally line up my little matchbox cars to be ready to re-enact a car chase if it occurred, and I had a Hot Wheels firebird that I would dutifully prowl around the living room floor when Garner drove.
The kit Garner used to print up business cards instantly while on a job was so fascinating to me that I did my best to make my own.

We'll forgive Garner for Tank, won't we?
Space Cowboys wasn't a good movie, but it had great talent, and those great old men are slowly going away.

evan price wrote:We'll forgive Garner for Tank, won't we?

You're kidding, right?
Until this morning, I was hoping for a sequel!
I can even give you a list of at least 42 cities and PDs where it should be set.

evan price wrote:One of the best early memories of my childhood was watching Rockford Files in the living room.

Rockford Files was the first "adult" show my parents let me watch.

Other than the Support your local Sherrif s I really liked Cash Macall (sp?) .

Aesop wrote:

evan price wrote:We'll forgive Garner for Tank, won't we?

You're kidding, right?
Until this morning, I was hoping for a sequel!
I can even give you a list of at least 42 cities and PDs where it should be set.

I thought that was a fun movie and Garner walked through it and still made it good.