The New York Times describes James Garner’s career and persona beautifully: “James Garner, the wry and handsome leading man who slid seamlessly between television and the movies was best known as the amiable gambler Bret Maverick in the 1950s western Maverick and the cranky sleuth Jim Rockford in the 1970s series The Rockford Files. Mr. Garner was a genuine star but as an actor something of a paradox: a lantern-jawed, brawny athlete whose physical appeal was both enhanced and undercut by a disarming wit. He appeared in more than 50 films, many of them dramas, but as he established in one of his notable early performances, as a battle-shy naval officer in The Americanization of Emily (1964) — and had shown before that in Maverick” — he was most at home as an iconoclast, a flawed or unlikely hero. An understated comic actor, he was especially adept at conveying life’s tiny bedevilments.”
My 10 favorite James Garner movies.
The Great Escape (1963)
The Children’s Hour (1961)
The Americanization of Emily (1964)
Grand Prix (1966)
Murphy’s Romance (1985)
36 Hours (1965)
Victor Victoria (1982)
The Thrill of It All (1963)
Move Over, Darling (1963)
Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)
Honorable mention for Garner’s smaller role in an undervalued film, Sayonara (1957). Always felt he was always a much better match for Doris Day than Rock Hudson. I’ve probably seen The Great Escape a dozen times.
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