James Garner, legendary film and television actor, dies at 86

James Garner, the charming leading man from Oklahoma who made it look easy on NBC's The Rockford Files and in films opposite Doris Day, Julie Andrews and Sally Field during more than a half-century in show business, has died. He was 86.

Garner died Saturday, TMZ reported. Police were dispatched to his Los Angeles home at approximately 8 p.m. No cause of death has been made available. He had a severe stroke in 2008 and rarely was seen in public after that.

The amiable actor was best known for playing the Los Angeles private eye in Rockford, which ran from 1974-80 before knee and back injuries -- many sustained because he did his own stunts -- forced him to quit. "I couldn't take that many beatings any more," he once said. "Every hiatus, I had a knee operation for five straight years, and sometimes for both knees."

Garner was nominated for the Emmy for best actor in a drama series for five consecutive years, winning in 1977. Rockford, produced by Roy Huggins and writer Stephen J. Cannell, racked up three best drama nominations from 1978-80 and took the trophy in 1978.

Garner also toplined the 1957-62 ABC Western-comedy hybrid Maverick, also produced by Huggins, in which he starred as a dapper cardsharp who would just as soon slip out the back door than face down a gunman. "Bravery gets you nothing but hurt," he once said. Both TV series showcased Garner’s sense of humor and expertise in playing the reluctant hero.

The dark-haired star also appeared in dozens of films, including two light romantic comedies from 1963 with Day, The Thrill of It All and Move Over, Darling; two with Andrews (1964’s The Americanization of Emily and 1982’s Victor Victoria); and one with Field, the 1985 romantic comedy Murphy’s Romance, for which he received his lone Oscar nomination.

Whatever his roles, Garner’s acting appeared effortless. Los Angeles Times critic Charles Champlinwrote in 1986 that “James Garner is to the American character what David Niven was to the English character: a lover in preference to a fighter (but capable of heroics), worldly and charming with elements of the vagabond and the debonair rascal, a sort of innocent rogue with an easy way with urbane dialogue.”

Garner was fastidious about the kind of roles and movies in which he performed.

“I don’t want to do movies with a lot of profanity, and I don’t want to take my clothes off,” he once said. “I don’t do horror pictures, or I would take my clothes off. Seriously, I’m simply not an exhibitionist.”