The Garner Files: A Memoir

by James Garner

  One Special Night (1999)

  My third time out with Julie Andrews and it was a charm. We shot it in Montreal thirty-six years after our first collaboration, The Americanization of Emily, but who’s counting?

  We’ve both lost our spouses and take refuge in a cabin on a stormy winter’s night and . . . guess what happens?

  In one scene, I had to hold a cigar and Julie noticed that my hands were shaking. “What’s the matter?” she said.

  “I’m nervous!”

  “After all these years, you’re still nervous?”

  “I’m always nervous when I work. It keeps me on my toes. When the camera starts to roll, I’m all right.”

  The Last Debate (2000)

  John Badham directed Jon Maas’s adaptation of Jim Lehrer’s novel. I’m a newspaper columnist who conspires to sway an election in favor of a Democrat. How did they know?

  About the Authors

  James Garner has starred in numerous television shows and films, from Maverick and The Rockford Files to The Great Escape, with Steve McQueen, and Victor/Victoria, with Julie Andrews.

  Jon Winokur is the author of various nonfiction books, including The Portable Curmudgeon, Zen to Go, and Advice to Writers. He lives in Los Angeles.

  My mother, Mildred Scott Meek Bumgarner, circa 1929. (Personal collection)

  My father, Weldon Warren “Bill” Bumgarner, circa 1935. (Courtesy of Terry Bumgarner)

  With my mother and older brothers Jack (left) and Charles, circa 1930. (Courtesy of Terry Bumgarner)

  James Scott Bumgarner, age four. (Personal collection)

  At the Denver, Oklahoma, country store with the hand-operated gasoline pump, circa 1933. Left to right: brother Jack, me, my father, and brother Charles. (Personal collection)

  My first-grade class at Washington school, circa 1935. I’m in the back row, fourth from the left. (Personal collection)

  Left to right: Charles, Jack, and me, circa 1935. (Personal collection)

  My Lucky Strike “endorsement,” seventh grade at Norman Junior High. (Personal collection)

  At the Pickwick pool in Burbank, California, circa 1944. (Personal collection)

  My first “head shot,” circa 1945. (Courtesy of Bill Saxon)

  Left to right: Jack, me, and Charles, in 1949. (Courtesy of Terry Bumgarner)

  Hollywood, 1949. (Personal collection)

  With my father in Los Angeles, on my way to Korea in 1951. (Personal collection)

  Private Bumgarner, 1951. (Courtesy of Terry Bumgarner)

  Ralph Edwards springs the trap: “James Garner, this is your life . . .” (Personal collection)

  On the set of This Is Your Life, June 1958. Left to right, standing: Ralph Edwards, Jack Garner, Uncle John Bumgarner, Aunt Leona Bumgarner, Charles Bumgarner. Seated: Grandma Abby Meek, Grandma Louella Bumgarner. (Courtesy of Terry Bumgarner)

  Gary Cooper gives Kim his autograph in the Warner Bros. commissary. (Courtesy of Kimberly Garner)

  Fisticuffs at the Crosby Pro-Am, 1981. (Courtesy of Bill Saxon)

  With Gigi, in her favorite photograph. (Courtesy of Gigi Garner)

  With Gigi, Henry Fonda, Lois, Shirlee Fonda, and Kim on Henry’s seventy-fifth birthday. (Personal collection)

  With Tom Selleck, 1978. (Personal collection)

  Luis Delgado at the 1978 Rock ford Files Christmas party. (Courtesy of Robert Howe)

  Left to right: Jack Garner, Bill Saxon, and Jim Paul Dickenson at the Bel-Air Country Club, circa 1991. (Courtesy of Bill Saxon)

  Sportswear ad, circa 1948. mptvimages.com

  With (left to right) Robert Gist, Charles Nolte, Henry Fonda, and John Hodiak in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954). (Eileen Derby Images)

  With (left to right) Reiko Kuba, Marlon Brando, Miyoshi Umeki, and Red Buttons in Sayonara (1957). mptvimages.com

  Cigarette break in costume as Bret Maverick, circa 1960. (Joe Shere/mptvimages.com)

  With Jack Kelly on the set of Maverick, 1958. (Gene Trindl/mptvimages.com)

  With fellow Warner Bros. TV cowboys, circa 1960. Left to right: Will “Sugarfoot” Hutchins, Peter “Lawman” Brown, Jack “Maverick” Kelly, Ty “Bronco” Hardin, Wayde “Colt .45” Preston, and John “Lawman” Russell. (Missing: Clint “Cheyenne” Walker.) (Bison Archives)

  My greatest talent: making one eye look at the other. (Leo Fuchs/mptvimages.com)

  Rare photo: practicing my swing, circa 1958. (Sid Avery/mptvimages.com)

  The Children’s Hour (1961), with Fay Bainter, Shirley MacLaine, Audrey Hepburn, and Karen Balkin. (Al St. Hilaire/mptvimages.com)

  With Marlon Brando and Diahann Carroll at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963. (Eliot Elisofon/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

  On the set of The Great Escape with (left to right) James Coburn, Steve McQueen, and director John Sturges, 1963. (Corbis)

  Manhandling Doris Day in Move Over, Darling (1963). (Corbis)

  With Julie Andrews in The Americanization of Emily (1964). (Everett Collection)

  With Lois at John F. Kennedy airport, 1964. (Getty Images)

  Rehearsing the beach scene in The Americanization of Emily. Note the gaffer’s leg in the background. (Don Cravens/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

  With Yves Montand in Grand Prix (1966). (Everett Collection)

  A close call filming Grand Prix. (Keystone Archives/Heritage Images/Imagestate)

  With Sidney Poitier in Duel at Diablo (1966). (Kobal Collection/Picture Desk)

  In my little blue Mini Cooper, 1966. (Gunther/mptvimages.com)

  Driving the Baja 1000 with Scooter Patrick, 1968. (Ron Johnson)

  Having fun at the Baja 1000, 1969. (Ron Johnson)

  Congratulating AIR racing team driver Lothar Motschenbacher after he finished second in the 1969 24 Hours at Daytona. (Courtesy of Louis Galanos)

  With Paul Newman in the pits at the 1985 Indianapolis 500. (Indianapolis Star)

  My “homage” to Henry Fonda, seen here in My Darling Clementine. (Photofest) above: In Support Your Local Sheriff (1969). (akg-images/The Image Works)

  As “Nichols,” 1970. (Everett Collection)

  On the Raiders’ sidelines with George Blanda on December 22, 1975, just after he’d kicked an extra point against the Kansas City Chiefs that made him the first player to score 2,000 points. (Getty Hulton Archives/Getty Images)

  With Noah Beery, Jr.— “Pidge”—on the set of The Rock ford Files, 1978. (Gene Trindl/mptvimages.com)

  On the set of The Rock ford Files with Charles Floyd Johnson, Stephen J. Cannell, Meta Rosenberg, David Chase, and Juanita Bartlett, 1979. (Gene Trindl/mptvimages.com)

  With Julie Andrews and Robert Preston in Victor/Victoria (1982). (Corbis)

  With James Woods in Promise 1986). (Everett Collection)

  With Jack Lemmon in My Fellow Americans (1996). (Photofest)

  As Captain Woodrow Call in Larry McMurtry’s Streets of Laredo (1995). (historicallycorrect™)

  With (left to right) Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland and Clint Eastwood in Space Cowboys (2000). (Corbis)

  With Gena Rowlands in The Notebook (2004). (Everett Collection)

  Maverick statue in Norman, Oklahoma. (Courtesy of Robert Howe)

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