JAMES GARNER once claimed he “almost decked” fellow Hollywood actor Lee Marvin after he tried to make a move on his wife

JAMES GARNER once claimed he “almost decked” fellow Hollywood actor Lee Marvin after he tried to make a move on his wife.

James Garner fury at Lee Marvin after actor made move on his wife: ‘Almost decked him’

James was an American actor and producer whose career spanned more than seven decades, starring in famed roles such as Bret Maverick in the Fifties Western ABC series, ‘Maverick’. As well as his budding TV career, James appeared in more than 50 theatrical films, including The Great Escape (1963) with Steve McQueen, Blake Edwards’s Victor/Victoria (1982) with Julie Andrews, and Murphy’s Romance (1985) with Sally Field, for which he received an Academy Award nomination While many actors of his era failed to continue in their careers post-20th century, the style of the Golden Era of Hollywood no longer a sought-after commodity, James managed to break into contemporary cinema.

He starred in a number of early Noughties films, like like ‘Space Cowboys’ (2000) with Clint Eastwood, voiced an animated film titled ‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire’ (2001) with Michael J Fox and Cree Summer, as well as ‘The Notebook’ (2004) and his TV sitcom role as Jim Egan in ‘8 Simple Rules’ (2003–2005).

Known to take no prisoners in his youth, James recalled many of his wild and wacky experiences in his 2011 memoir, ‘The Garner Files’.

From the outset written in his charming and self-detracting style, he said: “People who don’t know me think I’m easy-going but I’m a pessimist by nature and an old curmudgeon.”

Recalling one incident that happened with fellow Hollywood actor Lee Marvin, he revealed that he “almost decked” him after Lee had made a move on his wife.

James wrote: “In Hollywood you have to ‘defend your quote’ — keep your fee as high as possible and never accept less.

“Lee Marvin raised his quote to a million dollars a picture after he won an Oscar for Cat Ballou and had trouble getting parts.

“I never worked with Lee, but I thought that as an actor he was very colourful.

“As a guy, he was a pain in the a**. He just didn’t care. He was a drinker.

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