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“Movie, television legend James Garner dies at 86”: The Associated Press posted this obit last night following the death of the iconic actor on Saturday, July 19th. Related: Emily Yahr of The Washington Post compiles a series of online tributes made to Garner, while Peter Sobczynski of RogerEbert.com urges readers to rent the actor’s 1964 anti-war satire, “The Americanization of Emily” (right now!).
“There’s no better display of Garner’s everyman majesty than the NBC series ‘The Rockford Files’ (1974-80). He played an L.A. private eye and wrongly jailed ex-con who seemed to rarely get paid, or even get thanks, for the cases he took, while helplessly getting drawn into trouble to help someone who was neither a client nor maybe even a friend. He lived in a trailer with an answering machine that, in the show’s opening titles, always took a message that had nothing to do with a paying job, but more often was a complaining call from a cranky creditor. Through it all, Jim Rockford, however down on his luck, persevered hopefully. He wore the veneer of a cynic, but led with his heart. Putting all that on screen was Garner’s magic.”
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“From …read more