James Garner. Always the Maverick

Sunday evenings many Americans waited to see which Maverick brother would show up on the TV series "Maverick". There were 124 episodes of Maverick made. They were in black and white and James Garner starred in 52 of them. James Garner, playing Brett Maverick was deemed the most popular Maverick brother.

James Garner was brilliant at portraying Maverick as a gambler that was interested in money and women and found himself in trouble nearly every episode. But unlike most westerns of that era, Maverick was fairly tame on the gunfights and violence. Brett Maverick and his brothers would talk, joke and even get on their horses and ride away rather than shoot someone. The Maverick TV series was as close to a western comedy as you could get. Garner called Maverick "the reluctant hero".

Born on April 7th 1928 in Norman, Oklahoma, James Baumgarner lost his mother when he was 5. He had 2 brothers, Jack Garner and Charlie Baumgarner. His young childhood was filled with separation as his brothers were sent to live with others. Rumor has it that his step mother was mean. The son of a carpet layer took many part time jobs in his youth to help make ends meet. James Garner left school at age 16 to join the Merchant Marines. He was later awarded the Purple Heart for wounds incurred during the Korean War.

Maverick was the flame that lit James Garners fame. He left Maverick under hard feelings that dealt with the writers strike. He ended up suing the studio because they laid him off during the writers strike. Garner said that he could have been used for promotional jobs and such. The studios said no, Garner won the lawsuit and got his contract broken. He wanted his future to be in his hands, with him doing the decision making, rather than have to do what the studios wanted him to do.

Listening to different interviews of James Garner, that Maverick side always shows up. He said he thought TV shows and movies were starting to show a lack of responsibility to the public. Garner didn't think that TV and movies should wield bad influence over the public. He said he told Warren Beatty that he didn't think Bonnie and Clyde should make heroes out of murderers.

James Garner went on to make many more movies and TV shows like Rockford Files. Rockford Files (1974-1978) was a lot like Maverick in that James Garner's character was fairly loathe to shooting for shootings sake. In later movies a darker side of Garner may have surfaced, as viewers were so used to the laughable and lovable James Garner. To me, he just showed that he could be an excellent character actor.

James Garner married Lois Clarke 2 weeks after they met. Garner was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Mueseum in 1990. Among other things he loves to golf and has been involved in many humanitarian causes. He was involved with a campaign to alert women about the dangers of Lupus, a disease his daughter Greta (Gigi) suffers from. The Screen Actor's Guild Awards awarded James Garner the Life Achievement Award in 2005. Garner and Marriet Hartley did many commercials for Polaroid, they were very funny and very entertaining. Many viewers thought the 2 were actually married in real life.

James Garner filed a restraining order on behalf of Jack Kelly, Roger Moore and Robert Colbert and himself demanding that John McCain and Sarah Palin cease and desist referring to themselves as Maverick or Mavericks. At this writing, I do not know how this ended.

From bad knees to heart problems to a stroke in 2008, James Garner has battled health problems. He uses a wheelchair frequently these days. At this writing, this Maverick is now 81 years old.

James Garner is always a Maverick. Whether you like all of his sides or a few, James Garner has had a great acting career and I will forever be his Maverick fan.

Other articles by this writer are here

1st of series of James Garner interview
Video interview of James Garner
article about use of Maverick