Garner was born James Scott Bumgarner on April 7, 1928 in Denver, Oklahoma (now a part of Norman, Oklahoma). His parents were Weldon Warren Bumgarner, a widower, and Mildred Scott (Meek), who died five years after his birth. His older brothers were Jack Garner (1926–2011) and Charles Bumgarner (1924-1984), a school administrator. His family was Methodist. After their mother’s death, Garner and his brothers were sent to live with relatives. Garner was reunited with his family in 1934, when Weldon remarried.
Garner’s father remarried several times. Garner came to hate one of his stepmothers, Wilma, who beat all three boys (especially him). He said that his stepmother also punished him by forcing him to wear a dress in public. When he was 14 years old, he fought with her, knocking her down and choking her to keep her from killing him in retaliation. She left the family and never returned. His brother Jack later commented, “She was a damn no-good woman”. Garner’s last stepmother was Grace, whom he said he loved and called “Mama Grace”, and felt that she was more of a mother to him than anyone else had been.
After World War II, Garner joined his father in Los Angeles and enrolled at Hollywood High School, where he was voted the most popular student. A high school gym teacher recommended him for a job modeling Jantzen bathing suits. It paid well ($25 an hour), but in his first interview for the Archives of American Television, he said he hated modeling; he soon quit and returned to Norman. He played football and basketball at Norman High School, and competed on the track and golf teams.However, he dropped out in his senior year. In a 1976 Good Housekeeping magazine interview, he admitted, “I was a terrible student and I never actually graduated from high school, but I got my diploma in the Army.
15 best James Garner films:
1.The Great Escape
The Great Escape is a 1963 American WWII epic film based on an escape by British and Commonwealth POW from a German POW camp during WWII, starring Steve McQueen, James Garner, and Richard Attenborough. The film is based on Paul Brickhill’s 1944 book of the same name, a non-fiction first-hand account of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Sagan, in the province of Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany. The characters are based on real men, and in some cases are composites of several men.
2.Support Your Local Sheriff!
Support Your Local Sheriff! is a 1969 American Technicolor comedic western film distributed by United Artists, directed by Burt Kennedy, written by William Bowers, and starring James Garner, Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, Harry Morgan, Jack Elam and Bruce Dern. The film parodies the often-filmed scenario of the iconoclastic western hero who tames a lawless frontier town.
3.Murphy’s Romance
Murphy’s Romance is a 1985 romantic comedy film adapted by Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch from a 1980 novel by Max Schott and directed by Martin Ritt. The film stars Sally Field, James Garner, Brian Kerwin, and Corey Haim. The film’s theme song, “Love for the Last Time,” is performed by Carole King.
4.Support Your Local Gunfighter
Support Your Local Gunfighter is a 1971 comic western film starring James Garner, directed by Burt Kennedy, and written by James Edward Grant. The film shares many cast and crew members and plot elements with the earlier Support Your Local Sheriff! but is not a sequel. It actually parodies Yojimbo and its remake A Fistful of Dollars, using the basic storyline of a stranger who wanders into a feuding town and pretends to work as an enforcer for both sides.
5.The Americanization of Emily
The Americanization of Emily is an American comedy-drama war film written by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Arthur Hiller, starring James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas and James Coburn, and loosely adapted from the novel of the same name by William Bradford Huie, who had been a SeaBee officer on D-Day. Both Garner and Andrews consider it their personal favorite of their films. Set in London in 1944 during World War II, in the weeks leading up to D-Day..
6.The Notebook
The Notebook is a 2004 American romantic drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a young couple who fall in love during 1940. Their story is narrated from the present day by an elderly man telling the tale to a fellow nursing home resident. The Notebook received mixed reviews but performed well at the box office and received several award nominations, winning eight Teen Choice
7.Move Over, Darling
Move Over, Darling is a 1963 comedy film starring Doris Day, James Garner, and Polly Bergen and directed by Michael Gordon. The picture was a remake of a 1940 screwball comedy, My Favorite Wife, with Irene Dunne, Cary Grant and Gail Patrick. In between these movies, a version entitled Something’s Got to Give began shooting in 1962, directed by George Cukor and starring Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin, but was never finished.
8.Space Cowboys
Space Cowboys is a 2000 American space adventure film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, and James Garner as four older “ex-test pilots” who are sent into space to repair an old Soviet satellite
9.Maverick
Maverick is a 1994 Western comedy film directed by Richard Donner and written by William Goldman, based on the 1950s television series of the same name created by Roy Huggins. The film stars Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick, a card player and con artist collecting money to enter a high-stakes poker game. He is joined in his adventure by Annabelle Bransford, another con artist, and lawman Marshall Zane Cooper. The film also stars Graham Greene, James Coburn, Alfred Molina
10.Grand Prix
Grand Prix is a 1966 American action film with an international cast. The picture was directed by John Frankenheimer with music by Maurice Jarre and stars James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford, Jessica Walter and Antonio Sabàto. Toshiro Mifune has a supporting role as a race team owner, inspired by Soichiro Honda. The picture was photographed in Super Panavision 70 by Lionel Lindon, and presented in 70 mm Cinerama in premiere engagements. Its unique racing.
11.My Fellow Americans
My Fellow Americans is a 1996 American comedy film starring Jack Lemmon and James Garner as feuding ex-presidents. Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Bacall, Esther Rolle, John Heard, Wilford Brimley, Bradley Whitford and Jeff Yagher are also in the cast. It is named for the traditional opening of Presidential addresses to the American people. Lemmon’s perennial collaborator, Walter Matthau, was slated to costar. Health problems kept him from appearing so Garner ..
12.Skin Game
Skin Game is a 1971 American independent comedy western starring James Garner and Louis Gossett, Jr. and directed by Paul Bogart and Gordon Douglas, The supporting cast features Susan Clark, Edward Asner, Andrew Duggan, Parley Baer and Royal Dano.
13.Duel at Diablo
Duel at Diablo is a 1966 western film starring James Garner in his first Western since leaving Maverick and Sidney Poitier in his first Western. Based on Marvin H. Albert’s 1957 novel Apache Rising, the film was written by Albert and Michael M. Grilikhes and directed by Ralph Nelson who had directed Poitier in Lilies of the Field. The supporting cast includes Bibi Andersson, Bill Travers, Dennis Weaver and John Hoyt; Ralph Nelson has a cameo as an Army Major.
14.Hour of the Gun
Hour of the Gun is a 1967 Western film depicting Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday during their 1881 battles against Ike Clanton and his brothers in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, and the gunfight’s aftermath in and around Tombstone, Arizona, starring James Garner as Earp, Jason Robards, Jr. as Holliday, and Robert Ryan as Clanton. The movie was directed by John Sturges.
and is in 15th place
36 Hours
36 Hours is an American suspense film, based on the short story “Beware of the Dog” by Roald Dahl. The picture stars James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, and Rod Taylor and was directed by George Seaton. On 2 June 1944, a German army doctor tries to obtain vital information from an American military intelligence officer by convincing him that it is 1950 and World War II is long over.
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