There was that incident at a golf tournament where a heckler grabbed his hand and twisted his thumb, so Garner pushed him. No charges were filed. Doesn’t sound like a bully to me.
But behind his unruffled image, a hint of suppressed anger was crucial to Garner’s screen charisma. By his own admission, he had a notoriously combustible temper. Beaten by his stepmother as a child, he finally punched her back when he was just 14. He would later cheerfully boast about “decking” fellow actors and film-makers including co-star Tony Franciosa, director John Frankenheimer and even a fan who heckled him during a golf game.
IIRC, the actual Garner quote is “Didn’t enjoy working with Tony Franciosa, who kept abusing the stunt men. He purposely wasn’t pulling his punches in fight scenes, and he kept doing it despite my warnings to stop . . . so I had to pop him one.”
And there was a road rage incident, but Garner was on the receiving end, being punched through the window of his car, then punched some more and kicked in the head when he got out of his car. The other driver was arrested and charged with felony assault.
The NYT article quoted Garner as saying that he preferred to live and let live, but when he was pushed, he shoved back. Sounds like me and a lot of people.
For 30 years, I’ve said that there are three actors whose deaths will make me cry (I always referred to them as “The Big Three”). James Garner is the first of the three to go, and apparently I was right.
He was wonderful in so many roles – of course The Rockford Files, Victor/Victoria and Barbarians at the Gate. I don’t think anyone has mentioned Murphy’s Romance. I saw it on T.V. recently, and it still holds up.
Somewhere I still have a magazine with James Garner on the cover and the headline “The Last Real Man.”
