James Garner, Rockford Files star, dies aged 86

[Master]

He also admitted that he was "always nervous" when acting, adding: "Keeps me on my toes. I've never been that confident, I don't have the background in acting.

"Some people do, they went to all these classes," he said, explaining that he had initially felt "inferior" to more experienced actors, but that this quickly changed once he worked with them.

"A lot of people say you have to have this foundation, you have to have all the great teachers and all the great theory. I don't think so.

"When I was 25 when I first started acting I'd been around the world a little bit. I'd travelled in a lot of different societies. I felt I knew as much as any of these actors who'd been to acting school."

James Garner
Garner received a lifetime achievement award from the Screen Actors Guild in 2005
Garner's career as an actor began after he won a role in the 1956 film Towards the Unknown, about a group of experimental aircraft test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base in the 1950s, when supersonic flight was in its infancy.

He was also uncredited as Bret Maverick in a 1957 episode of the TV series Sugarfoot, about a civil war adventurer who lacks cowboy skills but roams the West in search of adventure.

But in the same year, Garner secured the lead role in the TV series Maverick.

He starred as one of two poker-playing brothers, alongside Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick, who travelled from town to town trying to make money while avoiding any form of manual labour.

Richard Natale of Variety said that the role of the laid-back, work-shy Maverick fitted "his wry personality like a glove".

Garner was also nominated for nine Golden Globes for shows including The Rockford Files in 1980 and Maverick in 1982, having won in 1958 for most promising newcomer.

He also won a further two for TV series Decoration Day [1991] and Barbarians at the Gate [1994].

The actor also made eight Rockford Files TV movies in the 1990s and starred with Sandra Bullock and Ellen Burstyn in mother-daughter drama Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, in 2002.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28390309

[bcollins]

Aw man! I used to love him on the Rockford Files and Maverick. I hate to hear that.

[Master]

Aw man! I used to love him on the Rockford Files and Maverick. I hate to hear that.

Yes same here, he was a legend.

[bcollins]

I think that's one of the things that sucks the most about getting older is seeing all the great ones go. I guess it's a little bit of recompense that we get to see the new great ones coming up - but it still sucks.

[Dia bando]

I liked James Garner yes I enjoyed his work RIP Mr Garner.