Home › Forums › Open Discussion › RIP James Garner
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July 20, 2014 at 7:38 pm #612051
JanSParticipantAlways one of my favorites…Rockford, Maverick…
a great quote about him:
“For whatever reason, major movie stardom eluded Garner, despite no shortage of opportunities, which explains why his TV work came to professionally define him. Yet whatever projects one chooses to remember from a career that spanned more than 50 years, the thought of Garner’s passing leaves an oversized pair of shoes to fill – if only because so few performers, past or present, have appeared to share his knack for bearing the weight of stardom quite as gracefully.”
July 21, 2014 at 12:34 am #811166
miwsParticipantJuly 21, 2014 at 12:52 am #811167
SmittyParticipantOh man……I remember seeing who could do the best “Rockford” in high school.
Car in reverse doing about 20-25MPH, push in the clutch while pulling up the hand-held parking brake and turning the wheel all at the same time.
Put it into 2nd and keep your forward momentum without coming to a stop.
The perfect 180.
Stupid, but funner then hell!
Angel was my favorite, but RIP James Garner! What a great guy.
July 21, 2014 at 1:13 am #811168
JoBParticipanti will miss his contributions to our lives
July 21, 2014 at 2:05 am #811169
JayDeeParticipantMom loved James Garner, and we had family night watching the Rockford Files. I even drove down to where his mythical trailer was located just to see that it was real. I still consider a sports coat to be the height of fashion, and wish I could jump in my car and start it up as fast as he could. I like that when he slugged someone he winced because it hurt his hand, like “Dang I didn’t want to have to do that…”
July 21, 2014 at 8:13 am #811170
metrognomeParticipantaccording to the P-I (which probably got it somewhere else,) Jimmy was a pothead!! Who knew? Well, anyone who read his autobiography, ‘The Garner Files.’ He thought pot should be legal and ETOH should be outlawed. That sure woulda put a different slant on ‘The Rockford Files.’ Maybe Jimmy Buffett coulda co-starred or Tommy Chong coulda played Angel. Theme song by the Doobie Brothers. And Dennis would have had a whole ‘nother reason for being mad at him (‘Geez, Jim, did you have to light a j in your car outside the station?!? The captain’ll have my badge if someone sees you!! Can I have a toke?’)
July 21, 2014 at 9:35 am #811171
metrognomeParticipanthere’s the best ‘obit’ I’ve read:
[Garner] ‘effortlessly combined strength and humility, humor and capability, frankness and empathy to create an ideal Alpha-male, of the sort that hadn’t existed before, at least not in drama. He constructed a new kind of hero, one who would much rather be playing cards or going fishing. But all right, if no one else was going to save the girl, or solve the case, or prevent the crime, well, then — here, hold this for a second — he’d do it … he brought an essential decency, a quick intellect and an admirable intolerance for delusion, denial and other forms of bull.’
July 21, 2014 at 3:49 pm #811172
sbreParticipant“Bret” was the nick-name bestowed upon me as a very young child after the James Garner character, and most of my family members still call me by that name today, over 50 years later.
I was christened _____ ______ III, named after my grandfather and father. As a child my father quickly inherited the nick-name “Jr.”, but after his father died at the age of 7 and he became the ‘man of the house’ (6 older sisters) he fought to shrug-off that moniker until they started using is given name.
Fast-forward many years later…
As the story goes, during one of our weekly Sunday family-dinners at my (maternal) grandparents house when I was almost 3 they realized that a nick-name was needed for me as my father and I were both responding when our name was spoken, and my grandfather immediately informed everyone that I had already been taken care of.
He pointed out to them how much my “impish ways” and “I’ve got a secret” smile made me look like ‘Bret Maverick’, and how he helped me change a black Pirates hat into one that resembled the card-playing stars’ with some scotch-tape. I still have a photo of my sitting on Grandpa’s lap with that hat on as well as a real-leather gun belt loaded with a pair of cap-shooting pistols that almost came up to my arm-pits. (I was small, they were full-sized)
The family says that I liked the name and would walk-around calling myself that while making sure my hat was pushed-up on my forehead the way that the real Bret liked to sport his.
Fast-forward again to my 10th year on this planet: I too worked hard to loose my nick-name after my parents divorced and I started coming into my own identity, however I never really let my family know how much I liked having that nick-name because I so much wanted to be known by and called my real name. To this day I don’t mind it when they call me Bret.
James Garner has always been on of my favorite actors, and when I was 15 I had the opportunity to meet him and have our picture taken in front of the iconic gold Firebird, the only other photo that ties me to that legend.
RIP James Garner, and please take a minute to say hello to my grandparents and maybe play a hand or two of poker with my Grandpa, he’d like that very much!!!
Signed,
A huge fan
July 21, 2014 at 3:58 pm #811173
wakefloodParticipantI still remember seeing “Support Your Local Sheriff” at the El Rancho drive-in down in Kent as a kid and thinking that James Garner was the coolest ever. (Yes, cooler than Steve McQueen as I never pictured him as having a sense of humor, self-deprecating or otherwise.)
And how often does reality match or exceed the public relations persona??
Truly will be missed.
July 22, 2014 at 1:31 am #811174
metrognomeParticipantsbre – thanks for sharing the memories. I bet being called ‘Bret’ was waaay more cool than being called ‘Trey.’ I wonder how many of us in the first TV Generation picked up our expectations about life and relationships from our TV heroes. I’ll bet that there are very few current ‘leaders’ whose demise will result in such accolades.
wake — Steve McQueen was ‘intense cool’ while Garner was ‘Zen cool.’
July 22, 2014 at 9:03 pm #811175
wakefloodParticipantI like that, gnome. I’m sure there’s levels of cool and indeed other flavors.
Example: McQueen: level 10 Intense Cool. Clint Eastwood: level 9. Charles Bronson: level 6.
James Garner: level 10 Zen Cool. Bruce Willis: level 5.
Which leaves us with numerous guys/gals to rate. Stallone? Ahnold? Does Liam Neeson get ratings in BOTH – or is he Zentense??
People need to know these things.
Time for another thread?
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