James Garner James Garner James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014) was an American actor, producer, and voice artist. He starred in several television series over more than five decades, including such popular roles as Bret Maverick in the 1950s western series "Maverick" and Jim Rockford in "The Rockford Files", and played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including "The Great Escape" (1963) with Steve McQueen, Paddy Chayefsky's "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)
The Rockford Files work with the material on set, felt the rewrite was unsatisfactory, and could not figure out why it had been approved for shooting. When he discovered that neither Cannell nor any of the other production staff members knew anything about the rewrite, Garner issued a directive that Cannell, not Huggins, had final say on all script material. Though Huggins was credited as a producer for the entire run of the series, this effectively ended his creative involvement with the show, as he submitted no further material to "The Rockford Files" and did not involve himself in the day-to-day running of