Background
Garner, James was born on April 7, 1928 in Norman, Oklahoma, United States.
Garner, James was born on April 7, 1928 in Norman, Oklahoma, United States.
Studied at New York Berghof School and University Oklahoma.
Here is the list of the mere movies that Garner made, no matter that he could seldom muster the intensity to match the great screen actors: The Girl He Lcfi Behind (56, David Butler); Toward the Unknown (56, Mervyn Le Roy); Sayonara (57, Joshua Logan); Shoot Out at Medicine Bow (57, Richard L. Bare); Darby’s Rangers (58, William Wellman)—his first lead role; Cash McCall (59, |oseph Pevney); Up Periscope (59, Gordon Dou¬glas); the male stooge in The Children’s Hour (61, William Wyler); Boys’ Night Out (62, Michael Gordon); The Great Escape (63, John Sturges); with Doris Day in Move Over, Darling (63, Gordon), which had been intended as the Mon¬roe-Dean Martin Something’s Got to Give; The Thrill of It All (63, Norman Jewison), with Doris Day again: and The Wheeler Dealers (63, Arthur Hiller).
The closest he came to true movie stardom was in the clever 36 Hours (64, George Seaton); The Americanization of Emily (64, Hiller); The Ari of Love (65, Jewison); Mister Buddwing (66, Delbert Mann); Duel at Diablo (66, Ralph Nelson); Grand Prix (66, John Frankenheimer); A Man Coidd Get Killed (66. Ronald Neame); as Wyatt Earp in Hour of the Gun (67, Sturges); How Sweet It Is! (68, Jerry Paris); The Pink Jungle (68, Mann); doing Raymond Chandler in Marlowe (69, Paul Bogart)—actually a model for Rockford; very funny in Support Tour Local Sheriff! (69, Burt Kennedy); rather nastv in A Man Called Sledge (70, Vic Morrow); very good in Skin Game (71, Bogart); Sup¬port Your Local Gunfighter (71, Kennedy); They Only Kill Their Masters (72, fames Goldstone); One Little Indian (73, Bernard McEveety); and The Castaway Cowboy (74. Vincent McEveety).
Too many of these films were like bad TV movies, so Garner settled for the very demanding Rockford, which eventually took its physical toll on him. But he w'on an Einmv in it in 1977 and became a beloved figure.
He has made only a few theatrical movies since then: H E A L TH (80, Robert Altman); The Fan (81, Edward Bianchi); veiy funny in Victor/Victoria (82, Blake Edwards); the very silly Tank (84, Marvin Chomskv); getting his nomination as the pharmacist in Murphy’s Romance (85, Martin Ritt); as Wyatt Earp again in Sunset (88, Edwards); Fire in the Sky (93, Robert Lieberman); with Mel Gibson, in Maverick (94, Richard Donner).
But that is not all. He has become the actor and producer of prestigious TV movies: with Mary Tvler Moore in Heartsounds (84, Glenn Jordan); Promise (86, Jordan), in which he looks after a schizophrenic brother (James Woods); My Name Is Bill W. (89, Daniel Petrie), in which he and Woods form Alcoholics Anonymous; most spec-tacularly, in the satiric Barbarians at the Gate (92, Jordan), a project that made Wall Street seem slow and cautious; and Breathing Lessons (94, John Erman).
Gamer’s popularity is undimmed: with Jack Lemmon as ex-presidents in My Fellow Americans (96, Peter Segal); Dead Silence (97, Petrie); Twilight (98, Robert Benton); Legalese (98, Jordan); One Special Night (99, Roger Young); as God in God, the Devil and Bob (00, Jeff DeGran- dis and Dan Fausett); Space Cowboys (00, Clint Eastwood); The Last Debate (00, John Badham); Roughing It (01, Charles Martin Smith); on TV in First Monday (02, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (02, Callie Khouri).
Tay Garnett (William Taylor Garnett) (1898-1977), b. Los Angeles 1928: Celebrity; The Spieler. 1929; The Flying Fool; Oh Yeah!. 1930: Officer O’Brien; Her Man. 1931: Bad Company. 1932: One Way Passage; Okay America; Prestige. 1933: Destination Unknown; S O S. Iceberg (codirected with Arnold Fanck). 1935: China Seas; She Couldn't Take It; Professional Soldier. 1937: Slave Ship; Love Is News; Stand-In. 1938: Joy of Living; Trade Winds. 1939: Eternally Yours. 1940: Slightly Honorable; Seven Sinners. 1941: Cheers for Miss Bishop. 1942: My Favorite Spy. 1943: Bataan; The Cross of Lorraine. 1944: Airs. Parkington. 1945: Valley of Decision. 1946: The Postman Always Rings Twice. 1947: Wild Harvest. 1948: A Connecticut \ankee in King Arthur s Court. 1950: The Fireball. 1951: Soldiers Three; Cause for Alarm. 1952: One Minute to Zero. 1953: Main Street to Broadway. 1954: The Black Knight. 1956: Seven Wonders of the World (codirected). I960: A Terrible Beauty. 1963: Cattle King/Guns of Wyoming. 1970: The Delta Factor.
A writer first, Garnett spent several years scripting and adapting: Who’s Your Friend (25, Forrest K. Sheldon); The Cruise of the Jasper B (26, James W. Horne); No Control (27, Scott Sidney and E. J. Babille); Rubber Tires (27, Alan Hale); Turkish Delight (27, Paul Sloane); White Gold (27, William K. Howard); The Wise Wife (27, E. Mason Hopper); The Cop (28, Donald Crisp); Power (28, Howard Higgins); and Skyscraper (28, Higgins).
Garnett’s early movies are his best: Her Man is a lost film with a great reputation, a version of Frankie and Johnny” set in Havana; One Way Passage is a classic women’s picture, with Kay Francis and William Powell deliriously sophisticated in forlorn romance, while China Seas benefits from a Jules Furthman script tossed back and lorth by Gable and Harlow. But within two years, Garnett was landed instead with Tvrone Power and Loretta Young in Love Is News.
Stand-In is a wordy comedy about Hollywood, and Trade Winds and Eternally Yours are far behind the earlier films. Seven Sinners has Dietrich and John Wayne uneasy with each other, and by the end of the war Garnett was producing routine, patriotic fodder, Bataan, and two Greer Garson pictures: Mrs. Parkington and Valley of Decision. But The Postman Always Rings Twice begins as a sultry and moody melodrama with John Garfield and Lana Turner, and Wild Harvest is a good Alan Ladd adventure. After that, Garnett made an assortment of poor films and worked as a director in TV.
Joined United States Merchant Marine. Served with United States Army, Korea.
Married Lois Clarke, August 17, 1956. Children: Kimberly, Gretta, Scott.