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.

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