HOLLYWOOD TIDBITS: VICTOR/VICTORIA

The film's screenplay was adapted by Blake Edwards (Julie Andrews' husband) and Hans Hoemburg from the 1933 German film "Viktor und Viktoria" by Reinhold Schünzel. According to Edwards, the screenplay took only one month to write. There was also a 1935 remake named "First a Girl," made in the United Kingdom and directed by Victor Saville, about a woman who stands in for a female impersonator and becomes a hit. Julie Andrews watched the 1933 version to prepare for her role. The film had been planned as early as 1978 with Julie Andrews to star alongside Peter Sellers, but Sellers died in 1980 while Andrews and Blake Edwards were filming "S.O.B." (1981), so Robert Preston was cast in the role of Toddy that originally was envisaged for Sellers.

Reportedly, Andrews struggled with her role in this movie. Andrews has said of this, "There were so many things to be worked out. As someone who likes to be in control, I felt wobbly. There was something else, too. When you get older, you kind of get on to yourself. You know the tricks you play to get by, and you like them less and less if you care about your work. I was trying hard to get away from them, and was sometimes falling back."

The costume worn by Julie Andrews in the number "The Shady Dame from Seville" is in fact the same costume worn by Robert Preston at the end of the film. It was made to fit Preston, and then, using a series of hooks and eyes at the back, it was drawn in tight to fit Andrews' shapely figure. Additional black silk ruffles were also added to the bottom of the garment, to hide the differences in height. The fabric is a black and brown crepe, with fine gold threads woven into it, that when lit appears to have an almost wet look about it. Preston did the final musical number in one take, which explains why he was so clearly out of breath, physically stressed, and sweating profusely during the second half of the number.

Although Edwards' movies garnered numerous Oscar nominations over the years, this was the only time that he received an Academy Award nomination, for Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium. However, in 2004, he was awarded an honorary Oscar in recognition of his writing, directing, and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen...

RIP: GENA ROWLANDS

Gena Rowlands, the wife and muse of John Cassavetes whose unvarnished abilities found in such films as Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night and Gloria put her in the pantheon of acting legends, died Wednesday. She was 94.

Rowlands died surrounded by family members at her home in Indian Wells, California. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in 2019.

Rowlands received Oscar nominations for her performances in A Woman Under the Influence (1974), where she played an isolated, emotionally vulnerable housewife who lapses into madness, and Gloria (1980), where she sparkled as a pissed-off child protector who rails against the Mob.

She lost out to Ellen Burstyn of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Sissy Spacek of Coal Miner’s Daughter in those Academy Award races. Her greatness wasn’t formally acknowledged by the Academy until she received an honorary Oscar at the 2015 Governors Awards.

“You know what’s wonderful about being an actress?” Rowlands said at the ceremony. “You don’t just live one life — yours — you live many lives.”

Cassavetes directed his wife in A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria as well as in Shadows (1959), A Child Is Waiting (1963), Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Opening Night (1977) and Love Streams (1984). He wrote all but one of those dramas as well, and together, the couple kick-started the independent film movement in America.

Survivors include their son, writer-director Nick Cassavetes, for whom Rowlands starred as a lonely widow in Unhook the Stars (1996) and as an elderly woman with dementia in The Notebook (2004). She also appeared in her son’s She’s So Lovely (1997), based on a script from John Cassavetes.

Her daughters, Zoe Cassavetes and Xan Cassavetes, are writer/directors as well.

At her best when playing beleaguered heroines, Rowlands often downplayed her corn-fed Midwestern beauty, subverting her good looks when the part called for it — as in Opening Night, when she portrayed the aging and insecure stage actress Myrtle Gordon.

Rowlands attended the University of Wisconsin but left to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in in New York. It was there that she met Cassavetes, an alum a year ahead of her who spotted Rowlands in a student production of J.B. Priestley’s Dangerous Corner.

Four months after they met, she and Cassavetes were married in 1954 and were together until he died from cirrhosis in February 1989. He was 59.

Rowlands‘ first professional stage appearance came in a Provincetown Playhouse drama. She also did live TV and was cast by producer-director Joshua Logan in 1956 to play a young woman who falls in love with an older man (Edward G. Robinson) in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night.

After 18 months with the play, Rowlands signed with MGM and made her feature debut as Jose Ferrer’s confident wife in the drama The High Cost of Loving (1958). She went on to perform in the Dalton Trumbo Western Lonely Are the Brave (1962) with Kirk Douglas, in The Spiral Road (1962) opposite Rock Hudson and in Tony Rome (1967) with Frank Sinatra.

Rowlands also won three Emmy Awards (from eight nominations), with one for playing the first lady in 1987’s The Betty Ford Story and another for portraying a waitress in a diner who is romanced by another Cassavetes regular, Ben Gazzara, in 2002’s Hysterical Blindness.

Her more recent film appearances came in Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth (1991) — the first film she made after Cassavetes‘death — Silent Cries (1993), Hope Floats (1998), The Weekend (1999), The Skeleton Key (2005) and Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (2014). She retired from acting in 2014....

HEALTHWATCH: GENA ROWLANDS

Gena Rowlands is living with Alzheimer’s disease, her son Nick Cassavetes announced. Nick directed his mother in 2004’s “The Notebook,” said Rowlands is “in full dementia.” A four-time Emmy winner and two-time Golden Globe winner, Rowlands is a screen icon best known for her acclaimed collaborations with husband John Cassavetes, including the films “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974) and “Gloria” (1980). Both performances earned her Oscar nominations for best actress. She received an honorary Academy Award in 2015.

“I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes said. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”

Rowlands played the older version of Rachel McAdams’ Allie in “The Notebook,” with James Garner and Ryan Gosling starring as the older and younger version of her love interest, Noah. The film grossed $117 million at the worldwide box office and endures as one of the most popular romance films of the 2000s.

Cassavetes’ grandmother and Rowlands’ mother, the actress Lady Rowlands, also had Alzheimer’s disease. Rowlands told O magazine in 2004 while promoting “The Notebook” that she channeled her mother while playing Allie.

“This last one — ‘The Notebook,’ based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks — was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer’s,” Rowlands told the publication at the time. “I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn’t directed the film, I don’t think I would have gone for it — it’s just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie.”

Speaking to our blog, Nick Cassavetes said that he has nothing but fond memories of working with his mother on “The Notebook” set. He remembered one moment in which studio executives forced him to reshoot the ending because they wanted Rowland’s older Allie to cry more when she realizes her history with Garner’s Noah.

“She said, ‘Let me get this straight. We’re reshooting because of my performance?,'” Cassavetes remembered. “We go to reshoots, and now it’s one of those things where mama’s pissed and I had asked her, ‘Can you do it, mom?’ She goes, ‘I can do anything,’. I promise you, on my father’s life, this is true: Teardrops came flying out of her eyes [on the first take] when she saw [Garner], and she burst into tears. And I was like, okay, well, we got that… It’s the one time I was in trouble on set.”

Rowlands’ last feature film role was the 2014 comedy “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” co-starring Cheyenne Jackson...

THE PASSING SCENE OF 2014

This is the fifth year now that I have written a story on some of the entertainment personalities that have died during the year. Every year there are great losses on the list as well as forgotten entertainers that deserve to be remembered more than they were. This year is no different, and here are just some of the talented people who left us in 2014…

Legendary comedian Robin Williams died on August 11th at the age of 63. Williams gained recognition firstly on the television sitcom "Mork And Mindy", which aired from 1978 to 1982. He made his film debut in 1980's musical Popeye. he starred or co-starred in widely acclaimed films including The World According to Garp (1982), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Dead Poets Society (1989), Awakenings (1990), The Fisher King (1991), Aladdin (1992), Good Will Hunting (1997), and One Hour Photo (2002), as well as financial successes such as Hook (1991), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Jumanji (1995), The Birdcage (1996), and Night at the Museum (2006). On a personal note, this death has hit me harder than all the other deaths in 2014. Williams death, of a suicide, is also especially sad because he made millions of people laugh through the years, but Williams could not find the happiness in his own life.

Actor and director Richard Attenborough died on August 24th at the age of 90. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his roles in Brighton Rock, The Great Escape, 10 Rillington Place, Miracle on 34th Street and Jurassic Park.He won the 1982 Academy Award for Best Director and as the film's producer, the Academy Award for Best Picture for his historical epic Gandhi. Attenborough also directed the screen version of the musical A Chorus Line (1985) and the anti-apartheid drama Cry Freedom (1987). He also directed Robert Downey Jr in the acclaimed biography Chaplin (1992).

Screen legend Mickey Rooney died on April 6^th at the age of 93. He began his film career in silent movies as a child actor. In the 1930s, he was signed to MGM Studios where he became the most popular movies star from 1939 to 1940. He made a series of movie musicals with Judy Garland as well as some beloved classics like Boy’s Town (1938), The Human Comedy (1943), and National Velvet (1944). Rooney left MGM in 1948, but he continued to make movies and television appearances until his death. Weeks before his death he shot scenes for Night And The Museum III, which was just released. My personal favorite role he played was as songwriter Lorenz Hart in the 1948 musical Words And Music. He died after choking on food.

Comedian Jan Hooks died on October 9th at the age of 57. She best known for her work on NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL), where she was a repertory player from 1986 to 1991 and continued making cameo appearances until 1994. Her subsequent work has included a regular role on the final two seasons of Designing Women, a recurring role on 3rd Rock From the Sun, and a number of roles in film and television.

Voice actor Dick Jones died at the age of 87 on July 7^th. He worked for Disney Studios and was the voice of Pinocchio in the 1940 movie.

Actress Sheila MacRae died at the age of 92 on March 6^th. She appeared in such films as Caged (1950), Backfire (1950) and Sex and the Single Girl (1964). Sheila also played Alice Kramden on 52 episodes of The Jackie Gleason Show from 1966 to 1970. She also was married to singer Gordon MacRae from 1941 to 1967. She had been suffering from dementia.

Singer and actor Herb Jeffries died on May 25^th at the age of 100. He began his career working with Erskine Tate and his Vendome Orchestra when he moved to Chicago from Detroit at the urging of Louis Armstrong. His widest fame as a singer came when he sang with the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1940 to 1942. Herb also played a cowboy in a number of movies of the 1940s and 1950s. Even though he retired in 1995, he remained active and performed occasionally up until 2010.

Child star Shirley Temple died on February 10th at the age of 85. Temple began her film career in 1932 at the age of three. In 1934, she found international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935 for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer to motion pictures during 1934, and film hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s. Licensed merchandise that capitalized on her wholesome image included dolls, dishes and clothing. Her box office popularity waned as she reached adolescence. She appeared in a few films of varying quality in her mid-to-late teens, and retired completely from films in 1950 at the age of 22. She was the top box-office draw in Hollywood for four years in a row (1935–38) in a Motion Picture Herald poll

Television actress Ann B Davis died at the age of 88 on June 1^st. She gained worldwide fame for playing Alice on the TV comedy “The Brady Bunch”, but she won her two Emmys for her role of the secretary on “The Bob Cummings Show” in the 1950s. She died after a fall.

French actor Jacques Bergerac died at the age of 87 on June 15th. He appeared in films like Les Girls (1957) and Gigi (1958) or MGM Studios, but he was more famous for his ex-wives. He was married to actress Ginger Rogers from 1953-1957 and to actress Dorothy Malone from 1959-1964. He left show business to run the Paris office of Revlon Make-up in 1969.

James Garner

Actors James Garner died on July 19th at the age of 86. On television Garner starred on the popular shows "Maverick" from 1957 to 1962 and "The Rockford Files" from 1974 to 1980. Garner's acting ability and good looks made him a natural in movies as well. Garner also starred in more than fifty films, including The Great Escape (1963), The Americanization of Emily (1964), Grand Prix (1966), Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria (1982), Murphy's Romance (1985), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, Space Cowboys (2000), and The Notebook (2004).

British character actor Bob Hoskins died on April 29^th at the age of 71 of pneumonia. He was a popular actor in films for decades and appeared in such beloved classics as Mona Lisa (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1989), and Hook (1991). He also appeared as Bobby Darin’s uncle in the movie biography Beyond The Sea (2004). He made his last movie in 2012.

Buddy DeFranco, who played the great clarinet solo on "Opus One" with Tommy Dorsey -- and was one of the finest clarinetists in modern jazz -- died on December 24th at the age of 91. He was bandleader of the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 1966 to 1974, under the name, "The World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra, Directed By Buddy DeFranco". He made his last record in 2006.

Director and actor Harold Ramis died on February 24^th at the age of 69 of vasculitis. He was a legendary writer and director who made his best films in the 1980s and 1990s. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters (1984) and Russell Ziskey in Stripes (1981); he also co-wrote both films. As a writer-director, his films include the comedies Caddyshack (1980), National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Groundhog Day (1993) and Analyze This (1999). Ramis was the original head writer of the television series SCTV, on which he also performed, and one of three screenwriters of the film National Lampoon's Animal House (1978).

Songwriter Mary Rodgers died at the age of 83 on June 26^th. She was a composer who wrote the score for the Broadway musical Once Upon A Time On A Mattress. She also was a children’s author, and she wrote “Freaky Friday”. Mary was the daughter of famed songwriter Richard Rodgers (1902-1979).

German born actress Luise Rainer died at the age of 104 on December 30th.  She was the first actor to win multiple Academy Awards and the first person to win them consecutively. She was discovered by American studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talent scouts while acting on stage in Austria and Germany and after appearing in Austrian films. She is as of yet the longest-lived person ever to have received an Academy Award

Actress Mona Freeman died at the age of 87 on May 23^rd. She started out as a child actress in the 1940s, but soon moved on to adult roles. Some of her famous movies included Mother Wore Tights (1947), Dear Wife (1949), and Jumping Jacks (1952). She dated Bing Crosby briefly in 1954, and she left Hollywood in 1961 to raise a family and become a painter.

Jerry Vale

Singer Jerry Vale died on May 18^th at the age of 83 after a lengthy illness. He specialized in Italian songs, and some of his greatest hits included: “Have You Looked Into Your Heart”, “Two Purple Shadows”, and “Pretend You Don’t See Her”. Vale had to retire from singing after suffering a stroke in 2002. He also appeared as himself in the movies Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995).

Actress Lauren Bacall died on August 12th at the age of 89. A popular actress that was married to Humphrey Bogart from 1945 to 1957, she had a distinctive husky voice and sultry looks. She first appeared as a leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have and Have Not (1944) and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in Bogart movies The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948). Her performance in the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.

Actress Patrice Wymore died on March 22^nd at the age of 87. Wymore's first film appearance was in the 1950 film Tea for Two, opposite Doris Day and Gordon MacRae, where she made an impression with the Latin flavoured rendition of “Crazy Rhythm”. She was signed to Warner Brothers, but never really appeared in a huge role. She played Frank Sinatra’s girlfriend in the 1960 film Ocean’s 11. She left Hollywood in 1967. She also was the last wife of actor Errol Flynn. They were married from 1950 until his death in 1959.

The last of the original von Trapp children, Maria Franziska von Trapp, died at the age of 99 on February 18^th. She was a member of the Trapp Family Singers, whose lives inspired the musical and film The Sound of Music (1964). She was portrayed as the character "Louisa".

Actress and activist Ruby Dee died at the age of 91 on June 11^th. Her first major Hollywood movie was The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), and she received wide acclaim for her film version of the play A Raisin In The Sun (1961). Dee was married to actor Ossie Davis from 1948 until his death in 2005. She was nominated for an Oscar for playing Denzel Washington’s mother in American Gangster in 2007. Dee was also an Emmy and Grammy winner.

Actress Elaine Stritch died at the age of 89 on July 17th. She was mostly known for her Broadway and live performance work. The actress's notable Broadway credits include her Tony Award nominated roles in the original production of William Inge's 1955 play Bus Stop, and musicals by Noël Coward (Sail Away, 1961) and Stephen Sondheim (Company, 1970), the latter included her performance of the song "The Ladies Who Lunch", plus the 1996 revival of the Edward Albee play A Delicate Balance and her 2001 Tony Award winning one-woman show Elaine Stritch at Liberty. She won an Emmy Award in 1993 for her guest role on "Law & Order" and another in 2004 for the television documentary of her one woman show. From 2007 to 2012, she had a recurring role as Alec Baldwin's mother  on NBC's "30 Rock", a role that won her a third Emmy in 2007.

Silent film star Carla Laemmle died on June 12^th at the age of 104. Her first movie was in 1925’s Phantom Of The Opera. She also starred in The Broadway Melody (1929) and Dracula (1931). She is one of the last surviving silent screen actresses and Carla was a favorite at classic movie convention shows throughout the country.

Sid Caesar

Legendary comedian Sid Caesar died at the age of 91 on February 12^th. He was one of the last surviving pioneers of early television which also included Bob Hope, Milton Berle, and Steve Allen.  He starred on Your Show of Shows from 1950 to 1954. The show gave such writers as Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, and Woody Allen their first breaks. Sid also appeared in such popular movies as It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World (1963), Grease (1978), and History of the World Part 1 (1981). Sid was also married to his wife for 66 years. They met and married in 1943 and remained married until Florence Caesar died on March 3, 2010.

Troubled actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died on February 2^nd at the age of 46 of a drug overdose. He won an Oscar for his role as author Truman Capote in Capote (2005). His three other Oscar nominations came for his supporting work playing a brutally frank CIA officer in Charlie Wilson's War (2007), a priest accused of pedophilia in Doubt (2008), and the charismatic leader of a nascent Scientology-type movement in The Master (2012).  

Actress Polly Bergen died on September 20th at the age 84. She won an Emmy Award in 1958 for her performance as Helen Morgan in The Helen Morgan Story. Her film work included 1962's Cape Fear and 1963's The Caretakers, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. 

Character actor Eli Wallach died at the age of 98 on June 24^th. He was a prolific actor that worked well into his 90s. Wallach’s debut film was a huge role for him in 1956’s Baby Doll. He also starred in The Magnificent Seven (1960), The Misfits (1961), and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (1966). Wallach was married to actress Anne Jackson from 1948 until his death. His last movie was the 2010 film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

Actress Juanita Moore died on January 1^st at the age of 99. She was the fifth African American to be nominated for an Academy Award in any category, and the third in the Supporting Actress category at a time when only a single African American had won an Oscar. Her most famous role was as Annie Johnson in the movie Imitation of Life (1959).

Actor Efrem Zimbalist Jr. died on May 2^nd, 2014 at the age of 95. He was known for his starring roles in the television series 77 Sunset Strip and The F.B.I.  He is also known as recurring character "Dandy Jim Buckley" in the series  Maverick. He was the father of actress Stephanie Zimbalist and the son of Efrem Zimbalist Sr (1890-1985), who was a famous violinist.

Billie Rogers

Female trumpeter and jazz pioneer Billie Rogers died at the age of 96 on January 18^th. She was one of the first female musicians to play in an all-male band. She was with the Woody Herman Orchestra from 1941 to 1944. She led her own band briefly in 1944, and then she played with the Jerry Wald Orchestra from 1945 to 1947. She retired in 1948 to raise a family.

These entertainment legends, pioneers, and personalities are gone now, but hopefully the fans will see to it that they are never really forgotten…

JAMES GARNER WAS MY FATHER

Here is a terrific tribute to James Garner. It is too well written to be from my pen. It was written by author Patricia Rust...

I should qualify this by saying that I was just a small child and the show Maverick was on television. My late father, William Rust, looked just like Maverick, who was a fabulous, sly, and clever gambler in the Wild West (a role reprised by Mel Gibson), and Maverick turned out to be played by James Garner, not my dad. But you couldn't convince me of that!

My dad would dress as Maverick and shoot his eyebrows straight to the sky and back down to the dry dusty plains of the Ole West, and he had a Maverick hat with pink silk lining. I repeat: pink silk lining! Yes, sir, he was Maverick through and through and even taught us children how to play poker! We would put our silver plastic cowboy guns up on the game table and play "Spit in the Ocean" with Maverick himself... or so we thought!

Both James Garner and my father, William Rust, stood well over six feet of solid muscle and had black curly hair which was de rigeur for a leading man then. They both shared that square-jawed head that could project danger, especially when they worked their eyebrows and bedroom eyes. They were, in a word, drop-dead handsome. They were the very definition of handsome! While they did not look exactly alike, people see what they want to see, and I guess when they saw Dad, they wanted to see Mr. Garner -- so they did!

Who knows whether my father was gracious enough to accept being mistaken for James (Jim) Garner, or James Garner was gracious enough to sometimes be considered to be my father! They were both such gentleman at a time when being a gentleman counted for something!

With the recent passing of James Garner, we lost not only a major television and film talent, but a true gentleman who was warm, winsome and wonderful, and for whom my father was mistaken for, at the very least, once a day but usually more. And sometimes by a whole crowd!


  This look alike phenomenon kept life interesting. We lived in Brentwood, a suburb with lots of celebrities and notables, and Mr. Garner could often be seen at the local independent market called Vicente Foods, known for its great produce and farm-fresh eggs. When I saw him there, he was always gracious. Of course, I was always with a parent or grandparent.

I didn't have to say something idiotic such as, "You look just like my daddy," because when I was with my father, the two men would look at each other, smile, then simply start laughing. My father thought laughter was something short of sacred so I must have already comprehended this because the laughter brought me such joy. Also, for men to be shopping was also pretty cool... it showed they were "liberated" men, not bound by the strains of convention. These were cool men!

My father and Mr. Garner were able to joke beyond their looking like brothers... they joked that maybe there was more going on in their families than they knew! They always promised a joint family barbecue but both were busy with their adored families and lives and that never came to pass -- except in my imagination where it happened many times!

Dad's career was not in acting so he was not competing for roles or attention -- he was a businessman... though it was with entertainers. I can't say that I could see much of a difference between the two men and I would happily have taken both home with the fresh eggs and great produce! The only difference was that Dad had blue eyes and Mr. Garner had brown.

As a grown up, I would also see Mr. Garner at industry events. Once with Angela Lansbury, who is equally gracious, he was just as warm then, as though I were still five, even when I was all grown up and a contributing member to the entertainment industry myself! His hair had thinned a bit while my fathers only thickened and whitened, which left my father to look more like our local anchorman, Jerry Dumphy, while Mr. Garner colored his.

That did not stop people, however, and once, when my father fell at a local restaurant, an ambulance was called for James Garner! Mr. Garner and my father shared many common interests and when my father had back surgery for a local bodysurfing injury, Mr. Garner was the first to want to know how it went because he suffered with a bad back. Later, showing off his "new back," my father somersaulted through the entry of the Riviera Country Club and everyone gave James Garner credit! Mr. Garner could never have done what Dad did, but Dad was delighted that people thought it was Mr. Garner.

Mr. Garner was grateful to acting because he never set out to become an actor but was "discovered" when he went with a friend to an audition, I believe. I think he was always slightly astonished by his remarkable success and never took it for granted. He also had some great writers such as Stephen Cannell and some terrific writers for the big screen, too, and got to play cool parts such as Philip Marlowe, Maverick, Rockford, and even his Polaroid commercials with Mariette Hartley were loved. I adored James Garner and I feel like a lost my father's twin brother at his passing. He will be missed for his warm ways and enormous heart and talent...

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RIP: JAMES GARNER

Movie and television legend James Garner has passed away. He was found dead of natural causes at his home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles Saturday evening, Los Angeles police officer Alonzo Iniquez said early Sunday. Police responded to a call around 8 p.m. PDT and confirmed Garner's identity from family members, Iniquez told The Associated Press.

Although he was adept at drama and action, Garner was best known for his low-key, wisecracking style, especially with his hit TV series, "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files."

His quick-witted avoidance of conflict provided a refreshingly new take on the American hero, contrasting with the steely heroics of John Wayne and the fast trigger of Clint Eastwood.

Well into his 70s, the handsome Oklahoman 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." The following year, 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.

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, Garner declared in his book.

It was in 1957 when the ABC network, desperate to compete on ratings-rich Sunday night, scheduled "Maverick" against CBS's powerhouse "The Ed Sullivan Show" and NBC's "The Steve Allen Show." ''Maverick" soon out polled 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.

After a couple of years, Garner felt the series was losing its creative edge, and he found a legal loophole to escape his contract in 1960.

His first film after "Maverick" established him as a movie actor. It was "The Children's Hour," William Wyler's remake of Lillian Hellman's lesbian drama that co-starred Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine.

He followed in a successful comedy with Kim Novak, "Boys Night Out," and then fully established his box-office appeal with the 1963 blockbuster war drama "The Great Escape" and two smash comedies with Doris Day — "The Thrill of It All" and "Move Over Darling."

Throughout his long film career, Garner demonstrated his versatility in comedies ("The Art Of Love," ''A Man Could Get Killed," ''Skin Game"), suspense ("36 Hours," ''They Only Kill Their Masters," ''Marlowe"), Westerns ("Duel at Diablo," ''Hour of the Gun," ''Support Your Local Gunfighter").

In the 1980s and 1990s, when most stars his age were considered over the hill, Garner's career remained strong. He played a supporting role as a marshal in the 1994 "Maverick," a big-screen return to the TV series with Mel Gibson in Garner's old title role. His only Oscar nomination came for the 1985 "Murphy's Romance," a comedy about a small-town love relationship in which he co-starred with Sally Field.

His favorite film, though, was the cynical 1964 war drama "The Americanization of Emily," which co-starred Julie Andrews.

Unlike most film stars, Garner made repeated returns to television. "Nichols" (1971-72) and "Bret Maverick" (1981-82) were short-lived, but "The Rockford Files" (1974-80) proved a solid hit, bringing him an Emmy.

Among his notable TV movies: "Barbarians at the Gate" (as tycoon F. Ross Johnson), "Breathing Lessons," ''The Promise," ''My Name Is Bill W.," ''The Streets of Laredo" and "One Special Night."

He said he learned about acting while playing a non-speaking role as a Navy juror in the 1954 Broadway hit play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial," starring Henry Fonda and Lloyd Nolan.

"I had no lines, and I had trouble staying awake," Garner recalled.

After "Caine Mutiny," Garner found work in Hollywood as a bit player in the "Cheyenne" TV series. Warner Bros. gave him a screen test and signed him to a seven-year contract starting at $200 a week.

The studio cast him in supporting roles in three minor films, followed by the important break as Marlon Brando's sidekick in "Sayonara." When Charlton Heston declined a war movie, "Darby's Rangers," because of a money dispute, Garner assumed the role.

"Maverick," which co-starred Jack Kelly as brother Bart Maverick, made its debut on Sept. 22, 1957.

Garner was born James Scott Bumgarner (some references say Baumgarner) in Norman, Okla. His mother died when he was 5, and friends and relatives cared for him and his two brothers for a time while his father was to California.

In 1957, Garner married TV actress Lois Clarke, and the union prevailed despite some stormy patches. She had a daughter Kimberly from a previous marriage, and the Garners had another daughter, Gretta Scott. In the late 1990s, the Garners built a 12,000-square-foot house on a 400-acre ranch north of Santa Barbara.

"My wife and I felt ... we'd just watch the sunset from the front porch," Garner said in 2000. "But then the phone started ringing with all these wonderful offers, and we decided, 'Heck, let's stay in the business for a while.'"

One of his last great roles was as the aging devoted husband in 2004's "The Notebook". Garner had been in failing health for years after suffering a stroke in 2008, a few weeks after his 80th birthday...