James Garner dies

Great Escape star was 86.

by Jennie Kermode

James Garner in Marlowe
James Garner in Marlowe

In the 1960s, James Garner was a cinema legend, one of the top choices to play tough guy gunslingers and rough-edged urban gunslingers. In the 1970s, he reinvented himself and won a whole new set of fans with TV movie series The Rockford Files. Now, at the age of 86, he has died.

Garner was known for films like The Great Escape, Support Your Local Gunfighter, Hour Of The Gun and The Children's Hour, and was much admired as a character actor. He was also a war hero, winning two purple hearts for his service in Korea. He worked in cinema up until 2008, when complications from a minor stroke left him in poor health. After a long period of decline he finally passed away in his Los Angeles home.

He is survived by his wife, Lois, and their daughters, Kim and Gigi.

Share this with others on...
News

About a bear Iain Gardner on immigration, community and A Bear Named Wojtek

Tests of love Dennis Iliadis and his star Konstantina Messini on twisty meet-the-parents thriller Buzzheart

You must remember this Loïc Espuche on childhood revulsion, shyness, shame, kissing and Yuck!

Lights and shadows Dustin Pittman with Ed Bahlman on Alan J Pakula, James Ivory, Brian De Palma and Jerry Schatzberg

Innocence lost Sebastián Parra R on growing up too fast and world building in Seed Of The Desert

UK hopes ride high as Oscar International Film shortlist announced Ireland also makes the grade

More news and features

Interact

More competitions coming soon.


DJDT

Versions

Time

Settings from settings.local

Headers

Request

SQL queries from 1 connection

Templates (11 rendered)

Cache calls from 2 backends

Signals