Jack Garner
Encyclopedia
Jack Edward Garner was an American film and television
actor, known for The Rockford Files
and numerous other television roles. He is the brother of James Garner
.
, on September 19, 1926, to Mildred Scott Meek and Weldon Warren “Bill” Bumgarner. He was the second of three brothers including actor James Garner
(youngest) and Charles Bumgarner (oldest). The family operated a general store
on Denver Corner in eastern Norman. The brothers were sent to live with relatives after their mother died, while Garner's father remarried several times.
Garner was a star athlete at Norman High School, playing on the state championship basketball team in 1945. Jack Garner played as a minor league baseball
pitcher
for a team affiliate with the Pittsburgh Pirates
for eleven years. He then worked for several golf courses in Florida after leaving the minor leagues. Years later, brother James Garner wrote about Garner's athletic abilities in his memoir, "At Norman High, he was a point guard on a championship basketball team and quarterback
ed an all-state football team...But his best sport was baseball: Jack was a pitcher in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization for 11 years. He was a better athlete than I was and a lot more outgoing. I was always in his footsteps." Later in life, Garner became a golf pro at the Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, California
. His golf experience allowed him to coach at the country club and elsewhere. Garner taught Dan Aykroyd
, his co-star in the 1996 film, My Fellow Americans
, to properly swing a golf club for a scene in that movie.
to reconnect with their father, who had relocated to southern California
. Both changed their names to Garner after the move west. The third brother, Charles Bumgarner, who died in 1984 at the age of 60, remained in Norman and became a school administrator. Garner entertained as the lead singer for the Coconut Grove nightclub
, located in the now defunct Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles early in his career.
Jack Garner began acting in television during the late 1960s. His roles included guest appearances on Love, American Style
, The Bionic Woman
, The Doris Day Show
, Daniel Boone
, The Green Hornet
, Medical Center
and Murder, She Wrote
. He appeared in The Rockford Files in more than sixty television episodes of the show. Garner later appeared in Bret Maverick
portraying Jack the Bartender from 1981 o 1982. Garner reprised his Rockford Files roles in a series of television movies based on the series from 1996 to 1999.
Garner's film roles included Wild Rovers
in 1971, Maverick
in 1994, My Fellow Americans
in 1996 and Sunset
in 1988.
Jack Garner suffered a fall in September 2011, which resulted in a broken hip. Doctors determined that his heart was not strong enough to withstand surgery to repair the hip so Garner was transferred to a facility for long-term care. However, his condition suddenly worsened within one week. Garner died at a hospice
in Rancho Mirage, California
, near his home in Palm Desert
, on September 13, 2011, six days shy of his 85th birthday. He was survived by his former wife, Betty Bumgarner; his daughter, Liz Bumgarner, and son-in-law, Don Dykstra; and brother, James Garner. His memorial service was held at the Wiefels Mortuary in Palm Springs, California
.
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
actor, known for The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files
The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah...
and numerous other television roles. He is the brother of James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
.
Early life and career
Garner was born Jack Edward Bumgarner in Norman, OklahomaNorman, Oklahoma
Norman is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is located south of downtown Oklahoma City. It is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, Norman was to have 110,925 full-time residents, making it the third-largest city in Oklahoma and the...
, on September 19, 1926, to Mildred Scott Meek and Weldon Warren “Bill” Bumgarner. He was the second of three brothers including actor James Garner
James Garner
James Garner is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades...
(youngest) and Charles Bumgarner (oldest). The family operated a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
on Denver Corner in eastern Norman. The brothers were sent to live with relatives after their mother died, while Garner's father remarried several times.
Garner was a star athlete at Norman High School, playing on the state championship basketball team in 1945. Jack Garner played as a minor league baseball
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
for a team affiliate with the Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...
for eleven years. He then worked for several golf courses in Florida after leaving the minor leagues. Years later, brother James Garner wrote about Garner's athletic abilities in his memoir, "At Norman High, he was a point guard on a championship basketball team and quarterback
Quarterback
Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
ed an all-state football team...But his best sport was baseball: Jack was a pitcher in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization for 11 years. He was a better athlete than I was and a lot more outgoing. I was always in his footsteps." Later in life, Garner became a golf pro at the Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, California
Glendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
. His golf experience allowed him to coach at the country club and elsewhere. Garner taught Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
, his co-star in the 1996 film, My Fellow Americans
My Fellow Americans
My Fellow Americans is a 1996 American comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Dan Aykroyd and James Garner as feuding ex-presidents. Lauren Bacall, Esther Rolle, John Heard, Wilford Brimley, Bradley Whitford and Jeff Yagher also appear in supporting performances...
, to properly swing a golf club for a scene in that movie.
Acting
Jack and James eventually moved to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to reconnect with their father, who had relocated to southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. Both changed their names to Garner after the move west. The third brother, Charles Bumgarner, who died in 1984 at the age of 60, remained in Norman and became a school administrator. Garner entertained as the lead singer for the Coconut Grove nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
, located in the now defunct Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles early in his career.
Jack Garner began acting in television during the late 1960s. His roles included guest appearances on Love, American Style
Love, American Style
Love, American Style is an hour-long TV anthology produced by Paramount Television and originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974...
, The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman is an American television series starring Lindsay Wagner that aired for three seasons between 1976 and 1978 as a spin off from The Six Million Dollar Man. Wagner stars as tennis pro Jaime Sommers who is nearly killed in a skydiving accident. Sommers' life is saved by Oscar Goldman ...
, The Doris Day Show
The Doris Day Show
The Doris Day Show is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 1968 until September 1973. In addition to showcasing Doris Day, the show is remembered for its many abrupt format changes over the course of its five-year run...
, Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (TV series)
Daniel Boone is an American action/adventure television series starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone that aired from September 24, 1964 to September 10, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone's Native American friend, for the...
, The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
, Medical Center
Medical Center (TV series)
Medical Center is a medical drama series which aired on CBS from 1969 to 1976.-Synopsis:The show starred James Daly as Dr. Paul Lochner and Chad Everett as Dr. Joe Gannon, surgeons working in an otherwise unnamed university hospital in Los Angeles. The show focused both on the lives of the doctors...
and Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
. He appeared in The Rockford Files in more than sixty television episodes of the show. Garner later appeared in Bret Maverick
Bret Maverick
Bret Maverick is an American Western series starring James Garner in the role that made him famous in the 1957 series Maverick: a professional poker player traveling alone year after year through the Old West from riverboat to saloon...
portraying Jack the Bartender from 1981 o 1982. Garner reprised his Rockford Files roles in a series of television movies based on the series from 1996 to 1999.
Garner's film roles included Wild Rovers
Wild Rovers
Wild Rovers is a 1971 American Western film directed by Blake Edwards and starring William Holden and Ryan O'Neal.Originally intended as a three-hour epic, it was heavily edited and changed by the studio without Edwards' knowledge, including a reversal of the ending from a negative one to a positive...
in 1971, Maverick
Maverick (film)
Maverick is a 1994 Western comedy film based on the 1950s television series of the same name, created by Roy Huggins. The film was directed by Richard Donner from a screenplay by William Goldman and features Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner, as well as several cameo appearances...
in 1994, My Fellow Americans
My Fellow Americans
My Fellow Americans is a 1996 American comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Dan Aykroyd and James Garner as feuding ex-presidents. Lauren Bacall, Esther Rolle, John Heard, Wilford Brimley, Bradley Whitford and Jeff Yagher also appear in supporting performances...
in 1996 and Sunset
Sunset (film)
Sunset is a 1988 film released by TriStar Pictures. Written and directed by Blake Edwards, the movie stars Bruce Willis as legendary western actor Tom Mix and James Garner as legendary lawman Wyatt Earp....
in 1988.
Jack Garner suffered a fall in September 2011, which resulted in a broken hip. Doctors determined that his heart was not strong enough to withstand surgery to repair the hip so Garner was transferred to a facility for long-term care. However, his condition suddenly worsened within one week. Garner died at a hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...
in Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage, California
Rancho Mirage is a resort city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 17,218 at the 2010 census, up from 13,249 at the 2000 census, but the seasonal population can exceed 20,000. In between Cathedral City and Palm Desert, it is one of the eight cities of the Coachella...
, near his home in Palm Desert
Palm Desert, California
Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census, up from 41,155 at the 2000 census...
, on September 13, 2011, six days shy of his 85th birthday. He was survived by his former wife, Betty Bumgarner; his daughter, Liz Bumgarner, and son-in-law, Don Dykstra; and brother, James Garner. His memorial service was held at the Wiefels Mortuary in Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
.
Selected filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Wild Rovers Wild Rovers Wild Rovers is a 1971 American Western film directed by Blake Edwards and starring William Holden and Ryan O'Neal.Originally intended as a three-hour epic, it was heavily edited and changed by the studio without Edwards' knowledge, including a reversal of the ending from a negative one to a positive... |
||
| 1996 | My Fellow Americans My Fellow Americans My Fellow Americans is a 1996 American comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Dan Aykroyd and James Garner as feuding ex-presidents. Lauren Bacall, Esther Rolle, John Heard, Wilford Brimley, Bradley Whitford and Jeff Yagher also appear in supporting performances... |
President Haney's Caddy |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Streets of Laredo | ||
| 1974 | The Rockford Files The Rockford Files The Rockford Files is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974 and January 10, 1980. It has remained in regular syndication to the present day. The show stars James Garner as Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford and features Noah... |