Talk:James Garner/Archive 1

Query
Why is James Garner (born April 7, 1928) is an American actor, best known for his work in feature films, and on television in the series Maverick and The Rockford Files not an acceptable introduction? Mike H (Talking is hot) 01:08, July 10, 2005 (UTC)

I'm not in the acting business but I know someone who is a casting director. He observed that some actors have an inherent likeability. Apparently, "like James Garner" is still used in the business to describe likeability. A cite would be needed though.

"Man of the People" is redirected to a Star Trek(TNG) episode page. Perhaps we could get this changed? I'd do it myself but it is late and I'm off to bed. Maybe later... Greylond 04:23, 20 April 2006 (UTC)Greylond

Someone needs to add a picture of him when he was younger, such as from Maverick. He looks so different. I think James Garner probably deserves 3 or 4 pictures to tell the truth, and definatly more text.

Not even a mention of Stingray's Captain Troy Tempest: garner in puppet form.

The mention of Garner's Academy Award nomination should not be buried in the section titled "Top-quality TV-movies." ForDorothy 21:51, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

... maybe point to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Garner

Odd chronology?
It says he moved to LA at 17, then joined the merchant marine at 16? Doesn't sound right. Clarityfiend 16:40, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

Bruce Lee
Bruce Lee wasn't a Karate practioner. Father Shandor 21:56, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Mariette Hartley
I've rewritten most of the material relating to Mariette Hartley: it looked as if it was written by a someone with only a rudimentary grasp of English. I've left in  the unsourced "Both she and the actor were crazy about each other", although I can't find any corroboration of this. Can anyone who knows better than me either confirm or delete it? potatoscone 16:08, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

They got along well, but were not "crazy" about each other. However, I don't have a citation for that. I'm just a long time Garner fan and know a lot about him.67.142.130.32 23:43, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I agree, so I removed the clause with the word "crazy". Hope this edit works for you all. MDfoo 00:45, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. potatoscone 12:27, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps it should be noted that they worked so well in the commercials that many people though Hartley was Garner's wife! WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 20:38, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Garner goes into detail about Hartley in his new autobiography and talks about being quite fond of her. Wish I had the book handy. Roccobam (talk) 13:01, 10 July 2012 (UTC)

Stepmother interview section
I have hidden but not removed the interview section. It is far too long and unnecessary to include the whole thing even though it is interesting. I am including the text here for review for length and appropriateness. Instead, I paraphrased it in the part of the biography which mentions Wilma and her abusiveness; I included the reference of course. If there is any objection to my hiding the section, please present your reasoning. As it is part of a copyrighted work and quoted at length, I think it needs at the least some editing. Otherwise, once this is resolved, I believe we can remove the hidden text sometime in the future. Besides being lengthy, it uses italics for an inordinate amount of text which is at least annoying.--SidP 00:42, 19 April 2007 (UTC)

In his book, The Art of the Interview: Lessons from a Master of the Craft, Lawrence Grobel quoted a portion of an interview he had done with Garner:

''In 1994, I interviewed James Garner, who told me that when he was four, his mother died and a year later, his father remarried “a nasty bitch” who “used to beat the hell out of me”. I asked him if she was the one who made him wear a dress and called him Louise if he did anything wrong.''

''Garner: Yeah, where did you find that out? It was out in the country and we’d be in some little store and I’d just go hide because it would embarrass me terribly. Then my brothers would tease me and call me Louise and a fight would break out.''

Q: How often did that happen?

''Garner: Oh gosh, a lot. If I did anything wrong I’d have to go put on the dress.''

Q: At what point did you fight back?

''Garner: At around thirteen. I decked her. I had her on the bed, choking her. My dad and my brother pulled me off of her. I can understand how kids can rebel to the point of murder. I don’t agree with it, but I don’t know what I’d have done, because she was tough. Tough. I’m sure I wouldn’t have let go of her until she quit breathing because she’d have killed me if she got up. Then they held me down so she could slap me. But that’s the night that broke up the marriage with my dad and her.'' [Lawrence Grobel, The Art of the Interview, Three Rivers Press, 2004, p. 161. ISBN 1-4000-5071-5]

Beef spokesman
His famous commercials for the beef industry should be mentioned. Badagnani 17:51, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Robert Mitchum did the "Beef . . . it's what's for dinner" commercials for more than fifteen years, until his death in 1997. Are you perhaps confusing the two or did Garner do beef commercials after Mitchum died? 96.245.116.174 (talk) 02:19, 5 May 2012 (UTC)

Bumgarner?
I have never seen the name "Bumgarner" before. The German/Yiddish name is "Baumgärtner", usually written "Baumgartner" in English (the more "conventional" transliteration of "Baumgaertner" is surprisingly rare).

"Baum" means tree, "gärtner" means gardener. A "Baumgärtner" is someone who raises trees ("forester" is a rough English translation). "Bum" means buttocks, which makes the combination "Bumgarner" rather surprising.

I thought his name was "James Baumgartner", and I am sure I have seen that exact spelling before, but searching the internet gets zero hits. The sites I find are about equally split between "Baumgarner" and "Bumgarner". Notably, IMDB has "Baumgarner", as does Yahoo Movies. I see two possibilities:


 * 1) "Baumgarner" is right, "Bumgarner" is a misspelling, spread in part by people checking WikiPedia
 * 2) "Bumgarner" is right, "Baumgarner" is a misspelling, spread in part by all the Jews in show biz to whom "Bumgarner" looks laughably wrong

With the usual sources so split we need another source. Does anyone have a cite for this name? —  Randall Bart     Talk   16:27, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

"Bumgarner" is the correct spelling. He spells it out himself in Google's Archive of American Television Interview with James Garner Part 1 of 6. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2133383634683037136&q=%22Archive+of+American+Television+Interview+with+James+Garner%2267.142.130.32 23:38, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Much appreciated for this reference. That settles it. All Hallow&#39;s Wraith (talk) 09:24, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Bumgarner is the correct spelling of his name but the original spelling of the name Bumgarner is Baumgartner, the family changed the spelling of the name for personal reasons. My grandfather was James Gardners first or second cousin and my last name is Bumgarner. Its German and originates from East Prussia.

The name Baumgartner is german but originates from the South of Germany and Austria not East Prussia but the name is spread all over Germany. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.162.4.189 (talk) 21:20, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
 * All I know it that it was Bumgarner and I think it was the studio who wisely made him drop the unthinkable first syllable. God, that business of his stepmother constantly making him wear a dress when he was a child is chilling!  Upsmiler (talk) 07:09, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Stroke
If there is a reliable source which confirms that Garner's source was severe, then it needs to be presented. It is not true that a minor stroke wouldn't have required speech therapy, that reasoning isn't sound. Nothing presented to date confirms he was partially paralyzed. One cannot simply change "minor" to "severe" with no reliable sourcing, and simply saying "But it was confirmed!" Do not change this until a source is presented. Wildhartlivie (talk) 12:05, 5 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Still needs a reliable source. -- Rodhull andemu  15:56, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Joe Santos
This is a minor, picky point, but the character played by Joe Santos is hardly Rockford's friend. He doesn't trust Jim, and rarely offers him any assistance. WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 20:41, 3 December 2008 (UTC)

Nicotrol commercials
Not only was Garner a beef spokesperson, he also did commercials for Nicotrol. It seems he used to smoke, and quit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Beebarbiem (talk • contribs) 17:14, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

Compelling war story
I have heard an very interesting story about an experience Garner had in th eKorean Wwar. He was injured and was behind enemies lines in the company of an injured enemy soldier. They helped each other and both survived. I wish could remember more details. It would be a nice addition to this biography. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.213.42.209 (talk) 07:09, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

What's the "eKorean Wwar"? Anyway, I think you mean the Korean War, and I hope your intentions are sincere. But it occurred to me that the story you heard might have just been a vicious rumour designed and spread by some right-winger to make Democrat James Garner look like a commie sympathizer/traitor (a typical tactic of that ilk). How sad that they would condemn a person for just trying to stay alive, but you know the whole spiel "death before dishonor", etc.? What a waste. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.16.125.178 (talk) 20:22, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

"But it occurred to me that the story you heard might have just been a vicious rumour designed and spread by some right-winger to make Democrat James Garner look like a commie sympathizer/traitor (a typical tactic of that ilk)." So nice of you to bring unsubstantiated innuendo and baseless accusations to the Talk Page. Pure POV rubbish, but that is a typical tactic of your ilk. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.64.0.252 (talk) 23:41, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Error in Maverick
I've spotted an error where it says that he played a role as Bret Maverick in Maverick. He didn't play Bret Maverick (which was played by Mel Gibson), he played Marshall Cooper "Coop", who was Maverick's father. Just thought it was worth pointing out. 79.156.252.240 (talk) 14:07, 12 September 2010 (UTC)


 * I can't find where it says that. Can you copy the exact sentence to be specific? Thanks. - BilCat (talk) 22:08, 12 September 2010 (UTC)

68.236.163.13 (talk) 18:55, 2 February 2011 (UTC)i belive you are referring to the MOVIE "maverick" wherein James Garner did play Mel Gibson's father. but years ago there was a western tv series called Maverick wherein James Garner was the star.
 * Yes, Garner played Bret Maverick 55 times in Maverick, the legendary smash hit television series, from 1957 to 1960, then again for one season around 1982 in Bret Maverick, playing the same character in a second TV series. In the movie with Mel Gibson, he played Bret Maverick's father so the "Coop" name was an alias, but it's an open question whether Gibson was playing Garner's TV character or that character's son. Garner thinks that he was playing the same part he'd played earlier but a lot of people assume that he was playing his character's father "Beau Maverick," which Garner played once in the series episode "Pappy," and is not to be confused with that character's nephew and Bret's cousin "Beau Maverick," played by Roger Moore for 14 episodes in the first TV series' third season. Confused enough yet? Upsmiler (talk) 07:00, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Photo of James Garner
There really should be a better photo of James Garner. That one on the article is so unflattering and doesn't project his true presence. One like this http://static.reelmovienews.com/images/gallery/james-garner-photo.jpg would be MUCH better. Could a mod that is in charge of great American actors please change the photo, Thanks !! 118.209.178.56 (talk) 20:34, 11 October 2010 (UTC)
 * I'd like to see the one currently right below it, with Connie Stevens, as the lead photo since it looks more the way Garner did for most of his career and I think it's the best picture of him I've ever seen, but the one you chose would also be fine, I guess. Upsmiler (talk) 07:02, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Main Photo Switchout
Wish we could finally switch out the unflattering main photo, if only for variety after at least several years. What about the one in the gallery with Louise Fletcher? Looks more like the Garner most people remember. Roccobam (talk) 18:03, 25 August 2012 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 15:04, 1 May 2016 (UTC)