RIP 'Maverick'

LOS ANGELES — Actor James Garner, whose whimsical style in the 1950s TV Western “Maverick” led to a stellar career in TV and films such as “The Rockford Files” and his Oscar-nominated “Murphy’s Romance,” has died, police said. He was 86.

http://nypost.com/2014/07/20/actor-james-garner-dead-at-86/

Damn. I met him once in a hospitality suite at Indy. Great guy. Great actor. Great race car driver. I'm not a fanboy type, but I have always been a big fan of his. I have 3 episodes of the Rockford Files on my DVR right now.
BTW, his autobiography is a really good read as well.

Rockford Spin in the parking lot as a tribute.

Memorial beef kabobs for dinner tonight.

Man that sucks. I was home sick for a couple weeks recently and watched a lot of Rockford. Unlike a lot of old shows it really held up well, mostly because of him.

I didn't know he was a racer too.

Sad to hear, I have always enjoyed his work. I have 'The Racing Scene' on DVD, it shows he was not only humble and funny but knowledgeable as well.

Hate this. Will be watching a Rockford files marathon.

I believe he ran a bunch of Baja 1000's back in the day. He was my favorite part of the movie Grand Prix.

E36 M3. We've been watching the Rockford Files lately and I think we are on the last episode tonight. RIP James, you handsome devil.

RIP Mr. Garner. He was a great spokesperson for Mazda back in the 80's. A couple of my favorites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB5ek34PVes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgBETeQgz0E

I'm gonna have to put 'Grand Prix' on later, rest easy Maverick.

Don't forget:

He was known to do a bit of driving in his time.

One of my favorite roles:

just heard....

Besides his other credits does anyone remember Nichols in the early 70's?

Sheriff who rode an Indian instead of a horse in a western town, 1915 or so.

Bob Bondurant did the driver training for Grand Prix and he said Garner had the most natural talent of any of the actors. TV clip from the era:

http://testdrivejunkie.com/1971-james-garner-bob-bondurant-driving-school/

The 442? http://phscollectorcarworld.blogspot.com/2012/06/lost-star-cars-james-garners-olds-442.html

Love to know the story behind this pic:

aircooled wrote:

YES!

The "support your local" films have been my favorites since childhood. The pairing of Elam and Garner is one of the best straight man/funny man duos ever. Right up there with Reynolds and Deluise.

fasted58 wrote: Besides his other credits does anyone remember Nichols in the early 70's? Sheriff who rode an Indian instead of a horse in a western town, 1915 or so.

I loved that show. One season only, so I guess nobody else cared.

RIP, Mr Garner.

Damn.

He's probably one of my favorite actors.

RIP

RIP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3E2HgnXKAA

Memorial flying J turn complete. RIP.

Garner said in one interview that he did each of those flying J turns himself.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

And every time I tried them in my mom's Caprice it would flood.

fasted58 wrote: Besides his other credits does anyone remember Nichols in the early 70's? Sheriff who rode an Indian instead of a horse in a western town, 1915 or so.

Absolutely! I loved that show. Matter of fact, recently I looked it up to see why it didn't last. Politics and lack of sponsorship from what I could tell. My roommate at the time was a fanatic about it so we definitely watched it every week.

Circumstances allowed me to watch a lot of Rockford Files over the last couple of weeks. I was thinking at the time that we might hear this announcement at any time.

Aw man, I can still hear his distinctive voice in that Disney Sheriff movie. He still had it in Space Cowboys decades later.

Name 30 somethings that can fill those shoes ....... ?

Bummer. Immediate first thought, Maverick = Tom Cruise (sorry, teenager in the 80's, not the 70's) and I wasn't all that concerned. Garner, on the other hand, is a true loss.

This still:

was shot on the Monza banking, shortly before its use was discontinued due to the number of deaths. Frankenheimer didn't want to film at lower speeds then fiddle with the film speed to profuce the illusion of going faster, so the vast majority of the driving shots in the film were at speeds approaching that of the then current F1 cars, about 150 MPH. Yeah, the guy had balls.