HE WAS THE REAL DEAL
SIXTY YEARS AFTER MAVERICK, THE STAR’S FRIENDS & FAMILY SHARE WARM MEMORIES OF A MAN’S MAN
Gigi Garner was only 13 when a massive earthquake struck LA in 1971. “Everything was shaking, my books were flying off the wall, and I was scared to death,” James Garner’s daughter recalls to Closer. “But when I heard my dad running down the hallway, I knew everything was going to be OK.”
James brought that kind of reassuring presence to all of his roles, starting with his breakout turn as the titular gambler in the TV western Maverick, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. It wasn’t an act, as Gigi and many of James’ friends and co-stars tell Closer. “I always run into actors who say, ‘I worked with Jim, and he was beyond helpful,’” says Stuart Margolin, James’ best friend and Rockford Files sidekick. “Usually if you work with a star, you’re lucky to even talk to him. Outside of my father, I don’t recall anybody treating me better than Jim.”
He came a long way from Norman, Okla., where he was born James Bumgarner in 1928. His mother died when he was 5, and one of his stepmothers frequently beat him. “People who had abusive childhoods like my dad often continue the cycle and end up being abusive to their family,” Gigi says. “My dad stopped the cycle and tried to give us everything he didn’t have.”
Drafted into the Army in 1950, he served in the Korean War and earned two Purple Hearts. “He played this character called the Scrounger in The Great Escape, and he was that guy in real life — whatever people needed,
“My goal has always
been longevity, not fame &
fortune.”
— James