James Garner, TV Star, Dies Aged 86

James Garner of the TV program 'Maverick' arrives at the Emmy Awards with his wife, Lois Clarke, in 1958. Associated Press

James Garner, who died Saturday at the age of 86, was the ultimate affable man of action.

Although he appeared in over 40 films and was nominated for an Oscar for his star turn in "Murphy's Romance"—a 1985 comedy about a small-town love story in which he co-starred with Sally Field —Mr. Garner made his greatest impact on the small screen, first as the star of the western series "Maverick" and then as detective Jim Rockford on "The Rockford Files."

He was found dead of natural causes Saturday at his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, police said.

His film career included such gold-plated projects as "The Great Escape," "The Children's Hour" and "The Americanization of Emily," plus two smash comedies with Doris Day —"The Thrill of It All" and "Move Over, Darling."

James Garner in 1989 Associated Press

Matthew Weiner, creator of the TV show "Mad Men," said the character of ad executive Don Draper was inspired by Mr. Garner. "The characters he played were always a little cynical but had at their wounded core the heart of a Boy Scout," Mr. Weiner said.

Mr. Garner was born James Scott Bumgarner, although some references say Baumgarner, in Norman, Okla. He left home at 14 and worked as a chauffeur for a traveling salesman. Later he moved to Los Angeles where he pumped gas and installed carpets, taking time out to serve in the Army in the Korean War.

He became an actor more or less by accident, when a friend who had become a stage producer got him a nonspeaking role in the Broadway production of "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial." After a few small TV roles, Mr. Garner signed a studio contract with Warner Bros. in 1956. The studio shortened his name and cast him in "Sayonara," an Army romance set in Japan. The film starred Marlon Brando and the two young actors struck up a friendship.

In 1957 the ABC network, desperate to compete on ratings-rich Sunday night, scheduled "Maverick" against CBS's CBS -0.94% powerhouse "The Ed Sullivan Show" and NBC's "The Steve Allen Show." ''Maverick" soon outpolled them both.

At a time when the networks were crowded with hard-eyed, traditional Western heroes, Bret Maverick provided a fresh breath of air. With his sardonic tone and his eagerness to talk his way out of a squabble rather than pull out his six-shooter, the con-artist Westerner seemed to scoff at the genre's values.

"I don't know what it is about people," he once said in an interview. "They like to see me get whipped."

The series not only launched Mr. Garner, but also helped popularize the word "maverick," which previously was a mainly Texas slang for stray cattle. When Warner's writers went on strike in 1960, the studio stopped paying Mr. Garner, who sued for breach of contract and won.

Mr. Garner returned to television in 1974 in what became his signature role, Jim Rockford—a downtrodden everyman who lived in a mobile home in a parking lot by the beach in Malibu, and took on a new case each week. The series ran six seasons, produced by Mr. Garner's company, and has been in syndication since.

In the late 1980s Mr. Garner sued Universal for $21 million for withholding syndication payments on "Rockford Files." He received an out-of-court settlement.

Well into his 70s, he remained active in both TV and film. In 2002, he was Sandra Bullock's father in the film "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." In 2003, he joined the cast of "8 Simple Rules…For Dating My Teenage Daughter," playing the grandfather on the sitcom after star John Ritter, who played the father, died during the show's second season.

Mr. Garner portrayed tycoon F. Ross Johnson in the 1993 TV movie "Barbarians at the Gate." He played a supporting role as a marshal in the 1994 "Maverick," a big-screen return to the TV series with Mel Gibson in Mr. Garner's old title role. When he received the Screen Actors Guild's lifetime achievement award in 2005, he quipped, "I'm not at all sure how I got here."

But in his 2011 memoir, "The Garner Files," he provided some amusing and enlightening clues, including his penchant for bluntly expressed opinions and a practice for decking people who said something nasty to his face—including an obnoxious fan and an abusive stepmother. They all deserved it, Mr. Garner declared in his book.

In 1957, Mr. Garner married TV actress Lois Clarke, and the union prevailed despite some stormy patches. In the late 1990s, they built a 12,000-square-foot house on a 400-acre ranch north of Santa Barbara.

An outspoken liberal, Mr. Garner was quoted in news reports as chastising John McCain for calling himself a maverick in his 2008 presidential run. "I never said any of those things," Mr. Garner wrote in his memoir. He added: "But I wish I had."