James Garner is an American actor whose career has lasted over 56 years. He is best known for his work on the TV shows Maverick, The Rockford Files, 8 Simple Rules, and a number of others. He is also very much into politics and is a strong supporter of the Democratic Party.
Early Life:
James Scott Bumgarner was born on April 7th 1928 in the beautiful state of Oklahoma. His father was a carpet layer by trade and worked very hard to keep the family together and provide for their needs. This did not stop James from dropping out of high school; he did so at the age of 16 in order to join the Merchant Marines. After working with them during the Korean War James was wounded, given a purple heart, and dismissed from the military. Now he was down on his luck and had to take many odd jobs working at gas stations and small stores. His luck stated to change when a friend of his was able to get him a non-speaking role in a Broadway stage play. After landing a few more odd acting jobs such as commercials and extras on TV shows, James was finally noticed and signed a contract with Warner Brothers.
TV Career:
James' first Major role was on the show Conflict; for three episodes he played the part of Jim Curtis. After this he went on to take one episode jobs such as his work on Young Maverick before finally scoring his signature role in the 1974 show The Rockford Files. On this show he played the part of Jim Rockford for a total of 122 episodes. Of recently he has lent his voice to God in the show God the Devil and Bob, and then given life to the character Jim Egan from the show 8 simple Rules… for Dating My Teenage Daughter. In all James has pulled 30 nominations and taken 17 of them home with him. These include Emmy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Golden Laurel Awards, People's Choice Awards, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. He even has his own Star on the Hollywood Star Walk of Fame; it is located at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. so if you are ever in the area swing by and pay it a visit.
Other achievements:
One of the great things about James' life is that he did not wait for something to become popular for him to support it. While many people in the business were trying to stay out of the civil rights issues to secure their jobs, James made sure he helped out in whatever way he could; he even helped organize Martin Luther King's "March on Washington and to this day he is a humanitarian rights champion. He is definitely the kind of actor that you can tell your children to look up to, if you have not seen any of his movies or TV shows go check them out, I am sure you will be very thankful that I introduced you to this great actor.
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