James Garner: Maverick or Rockford?

Veteran actor, James Garner passed away on July 19, 2014 at the age of 86. Garner became famous in 1957 with his role as Bret Maverick in the TV western “Maverick” which went on to include Jack Kelly as his brother Bart, Roger Moore as their cousin, Beau, and Robert Colbert as their youngest brother named Brent.

Wikipedia usually begins every article about an actor with the role he was most known for. In Garner’s case, they mention both Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford. The New York Times starts out its obituary for Garner in the same way. After “The Rockford Files”, incidentally, Garner reprised his Maverick role in a one season series in 1981 that was called “Bret Maverick”, and he also made a slew of “Rockford” movies in the 1990s. So it is small wonder that he is identified with these roles.

Nonetheless, Pop Matters has a great article that highlights the fact that there was far more to Garner than those two iconic roles, and lists 10 great Garner films (in their opinion – the 10 greatest). Many are well-worth seeing and we saw some favorites in there, such as “The Americanization of Emily” (1964) and “Victor/Victoria” (1982), two movies he made with Julie Andrews.

Trivia: James Garner played Wyatt Earp in two movies: Hour of the Gunman (1967) and Sunset (1988).