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“The
Garner Files: A Memoir” by James Garner and Jon
Winokur; Simon&Schuster (282 pages, $25.99)
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Many
actors have breathed life into a memorable or even
iconic role but only a few are capable of reconstructing
an archetype. In “Maverick” and then again in “The
Rockford Files,” James Garner stepped into two of
TV’s most calcified genres — the Western and the
detective series — and set a new standard that others
have been chasing down since. Bret Maverick and Jim
Rockford were different in many ways — Maverick was a
fast-talking con man in the Old West, Rockford a modern
L.A. private investigator with motivation issues — but
they shared an important trait: They were reluctant
heroes. Each would much rather wisecrack his way out of
a jam, but if you pushed him hard enough, you would
invariably find yourself counting angels on the ceiling.
So it’s
not surprising that it’s taken Garner, now 83, this
long to write a memoir. But having made up his mind to
write it, with the help of Jon Winokur, Garner follows
his own heroic dictum: Plenty of self-deprecating humor,
a general air of live-and-let-live, but when it comes
down to it, no pulled punches.
For
Garner fans, “The Garner Files” is catnip; Winokur
perfectly captures and sustains the actor’s voice,
which includes a penchant for digression, intentional
understatement and occasional declarations of war
(against bullies; against studio bookkeeping; against
certain directors, certain actors and certain studio
heads). For industry aficionados, it is a candid
accounting, sometimes literally, of a process that is
too often over-glamorized and under-chronicled. Two of
the most fascinating chapters involve his suits against
Universal over syndication of “The Rockford Files”
and a description of the physical damage caused by being
an action star (he eventually had to have both knees
replaced).
For the
rest of the world, including and especially those too
young to remember even “The Rockford Files,”
Garner’s memoir offers a rare glimpse of a certain
type of man, an archetype in itself. In her
introduction, Julie Andrews describes Garner as a
“man’s man,” but that has too brutish a
connotation. Garner, like his characters, is first and
foremost a gentleman, the sort who lives by a personal
code that preaches patience and tolerance, up to a
point. “When I’m pushed, I shove,” Garner writes,
quoting one of his own characters, Murphy Jones of the
movie “Murphy’s Romance.”
There are
more than a few fistfights in “The Garner Files,” as
well as thrown furniture and golf clubs, but usually
there’s a reason, as when costar Tony Franciosa
actually punched stuntmen during fight scenes: “... he
kept doing it despite my warnings to stop ... so I had
to pop him one.”
Garner
comes by his voice and his persona naturally enough.
Born James Bumgarner in Norman, Okla., he lost his
mother when he was 4; he and his two brothers were split
up among relatives. The Bumgarners survived the
Depression better than many Oklahomans, but when
James’ father, Weldon, remarried and reunited the
family, the result was disaster. Weldon drank and his
new wife Wilma beat the children viciously. Finally,
James fought back. The marriage fell apart, but Weldon
left again. James was 14.
After
working a series of jobs, he joined the Merchant Marine;
undone by chronic seasickness, he headed to California
to live with his aunt and enrolled at Hollywood High,
where he was recommended for a Jantzen bathing suit ad.
“I wasn’t interested until I heard they were paying
$25 an hour. That was more than the principal made!”
He was soon kicked out of high school (“There was a
slight problem: I never went to classes”), drafted
into the Army and headed to Korea, where he was wounded
twice and developed an antiwar mentality that would
later make Charlie Madison, the dog robber in “The
Americanization of Emily,” his favorite role.
Garner
became an actor the old-fashioned way — a soda jerk he
met while working at a Shell station once told him that
with his good looks he could be a big star. By the time
Garner returned from Korea, that soda jerk was a stage
producer, who quickly gave him a non-speaking role in
the stage production of “The Caine Mutiny Court
Martial.” There, Garner sat as part of the jury, night
after night watching Henry Fonda and learning how to
act.
“The
Garner Files” tells the story of Garner’s career
with many entertaining backstage stories and Garner’s
opinion of his luminous costars, but the kid who
survived his own childhood is always present and
accounted for. After falling in love with Lois, his wife
of 55 years, at first sight and marrying her almost as
quickly, he accepted a contract with Warner Bros. at a
less than commensurate salary because he had a family to
support.
That
contract took him off the big screen and into
“Maverick,” a move he was not thrilled with, partly
because it was so ill paid. When it became a hit, he dug
his heels in and after he was laid off because a writers
strike shut down production on “Maverick,” he dug
them in further.
He and
his lawyer, a young man by the name of Frank Wells (who
would eventually run Disney), sued Warner Bros. for
breach of contract. The judge ruled in his favor and
despite all the predictably dire warnings, he did work,
and sue, in this town again.
Garner is
a self-described curmudgeon and there are times when
“The Garner Files” wobbles dangerously toward the
querulous. But it never topples because he is
unfailingly candid about his own desires — which are
to make money and do the roles he believes he is best
suited to do.
By those
standards, he is a wildly successful man, and by more
ephemeral ones as well. Thirty pages at the end of the
book are titled “Outtakes” and filled with
anecdotes, memories and testimonials from Garner’s
friends, family and colleagues, including Lauren Bacall,
Doris Day, James Woods and David Chase (who got his
start on “The Rockford Files”). Although there is an
air of Tom Sawyer creeping back to hear his own funeral
about this chapter, it is a fine, frank and fun
collection.
More than
that, it provides proof that the man the reader has just
spent several hours listening to does actually exist
outside his own narrative. Just in case you were
wondering. Like James Garner knew you were.
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