James Garner

James Garner ________ Incidental Images

“I don’t like to watch me on the screen. I don’t think I’m very good.”
– James Garner

Most everybody else had a different opinion.

There was a purity about James Garner – as plain and pure as the driven rain.
People sensed it … and liked it.

Some Trivia:

Lost his mother when he was 5, and he & his two brothers were split up & sent off to live with relatives.He has two brothers, Jack Garner & Charlie Bumgarner. Jack died in 2011 and Charlie died in 1985.

Before he was an actor, he had 75 odd jobs including pumping gas to modeling men’s clothing.

Had both knees replaced.

Had quintuple heart bypass surgery.

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1990.

Had helped organize Martin Luther King’s famous “March on Washington” civil rights demonstration, four years before going to Vietnam. (1963).

James Garner ________ Western Icon Passes

April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014

Who was that tall dark stranger there … ?

Leaving things a lot better than when he found it …

Western Heritage Awards

1996 Won Bronze Wrangler Television Feature Film / Streets of Laredo (1995)
Shared with: Suzanne De Passe (executive producer), Robert Halmi Jr. (executive producer), Larry McMurtry (executive producer), Diana Ossana (executive producer), Larry Levinson (producer), Joseph Sargent (director), Sissy Spacek (principal actor), Sam Sheppard (principal actor)

Inducted Hall of Great Western Performers

In 1990, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Golden Boot Award

Academy Awards, USA

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Actor in a Leading Role / Murphy’s Romance (1985)

Screen Actors Guild Awards

2005 Won Life Achievement Award

2005 Nominated Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role / The Notebook (2004)
1999 Nominated Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries / Legalese (1998)
1996 Nominated Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries / The Rockford Files: A Blessing in Disguise (1995)
1995 Nominated Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries / The Rockford Files: I Still Love L.A. (1994)

Golden Globes, USA

1995 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV / Breathing Lessons (1994)
1994 Won Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV / Barbarians at the Gate (1993)
1991 Won Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV / Decoration Day (1990)
1987 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV / Promise (1986) For playing “Bob Beuhler”.
1986 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical / Murphy’s Romance (1985)
1985 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV / Heartsounds (1984)
1982 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series – Comedy/Musical / Bret Maverick (1981)
1980 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV Actor – Drama / The Rockford Files (1974)
1979 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV Actor – Drama / The Rockford Files (1974)
1978 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV Actor – Drama / The Rockford Files (1974)
1964 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy / The Wheeler Dealers (1963)
1958 Won Golden Globe Most Promising Newcomer – Male Together with John Saxon and Patrick Wayne.

Primetime Emmy Awards

1994 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special / Breathing Lessons (1994)
1993 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special / Barbarians at the Gate (1993)
1991 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special / Decoration Day (1990)
1989 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Drama / Comedy Special Hallmark Hall of Fame
Shared with: Peter K. Duchow (executive producer), Daniel Petrie (producer)
For episode “My Name Is Bill W. (#38.3)”.
1989 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special
Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951) For episode “My Name Is Bill W. (#38.3)”.
1987 Won Primetime Emmy Outstanding Drama/Comedy Special
Promise (1986) Shared with: Peter K. Duchow (executive producer),
Glenn Jordan (producer), Richard Friedenberg (co-producer)
Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Special / Promise (1986)
For playing “Bob Beuhler”.
1985 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special / Heartsounds (1984)
1982 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series / Bret Maverick (1981)
1980 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series / The Rockford Files (1974)
1979 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series / The Rockford Files (1974)
1978 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series / The Rockford Files (1974)
1977 Won Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series / The Rockford Files (1974)
1976 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series / The Rockford Files (1974)
1959 Nominated Primetime Emmy
Best Actor in a Leading Role (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series / Maverick (1957)

Bambi Awards

1999 Won Honorary Bambi Lifetime Achievement
1977 Won Bambi TV Series International / The Rockford Files (1974)

Golden Apple Awards

1987 – Male Star of the Year / Promise (1986) – Shared with James Wood

Thanks Jim …. you are missed already.

The Guns of Laredo … Part 3 … the Rifles

In Streets of Laredo we see mainly 3 standard rifles – plus a couple of oddities. There are others long guns, but their appearance is too brief to mention.

Firstly we have the Winchester 73′ rifle – ‘the rifle that won the West’? Combined with the Colt 45 pistol, these are backbone of many a Western Film and probably a good chunk of Old West history as well.

James Garner (Captain F. Woodrow Call) carries two rifles (not sure why .. but Why Not?): a Winchester 73′ and a 1860 Henry Rifle Brass Frame .45 LC.

Streets of Laredo Garner with Yellowboy — **Woodrow / Garner with his Henry**

Streets of Laredo Garner with Yellowboy 2 — **Garner using the Henry – folding sight.**

Ned Beatty (Judge Roy Bean) and his Winchester 73‘

Between drinking and hanging people the Judge shoots things.

George Carlin gets ready to demonstrate the ‘Yellow Boy‘.

Hang on to your ears.

The 2 Unusual Weapons

Streets of Laredo Smith and Cannon — **Smith and Cannon**

Charles Martin Smith and Cannon? Sounds like a Law Firm. And he’s got the guns to back it up.

The first of the 2 unusual weapons that I spoke of, is the The Holland & Holland Paradox shotgun (well named).

From the Internet Movie Firearms Database (http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Holland_%26_Holland_Paradox)

“The Holland & Holland Paradox was an interesting design. It was a smoothbore until the end of the bores where there was rifling … The 8 and 10 gauge shotguns were considered to be the most effective against Elephant, Cape Buffalo ect, but lacked the accuracy and range of a rifle. The Paradox design was a compromise which offered improved performance from the smoothbore design … “

In other words, Charles Martin Smith is carrying an elephant gun. Sheesh.

This weapon eventually contributes to the demise of our main antagonist.

Thanks to my brother Richard for finding this information.

Don’t ask me what the pistols are though … he never pulled ’em.

Charles Martin Smith seems to have a fondness for shotguns:

Streets of Laredo Smith and Shotgun — **Charles Martin Smith with shotgun in *The Untouchables* – 1987**

That other weapon is claimed to be a Model 1889 Schmidt-Rubin rifle with Scope.

Streets of laredo Model 1889 Schmidt-Rubin rifle — **Model 1889 Schmidt-Rubin rifle – without scope**

Apology: I lost my sources for this reference. I do recall the the individual who recognized this rifle said that this weapon did not exist in the era of Streets of Laredo. I would not be surprised as we find this quite often in Westerns (and other movies) where technology from the future is imported to the past. Most often nobody cares or notices, but some Gun and Western history fans/experts do take note.

The only thing I can say for sure it that if Joey Garza (Alexis Cruz) takes a liking to your gun, you better just give it to him. And run away. Fast.

But it might not do any good.

The Guns of Laredo … an interesting mix.

The Guns of Laredo … Part 2 … the Handguns

Bob Dylan

Streets of Laredo contains most your standard Western gunfare: Yer Colt 45, Yer Winchester ’73, and Yer double barrel shotgun ….

But it also has 2 unique weapons – plus another that’s fairly uncommon.

I was not able to locate any resources that specifically itemized the Guns in Streets of Laredo. It took considerable detective work to discover the identity of at least 2 of the firearms. A Thank You goes to my brother Richard who identified the mysterious and unusual shotgun carried by Charles Martin Smith.

The Handguns:

Most of the main characters use handguns at some point Streets of Laredo – including Sissy Spacek and Sonja Baca.
The handgun of choice appears to be the famous Colt 45 – either long or short barrel.

Alexis Cruz

Sonja Baca

Ned Beatty

A Colt Refused

Near the beginning Episode 1 (of 3) of Streets of Laredo, James Garner (Captain Woodrow Call) is offered a pearl handled Colt by his employer – which he refuses – upon advice there may ‘strings attached’.

Uncommon Gun Number One

Randy Quaid, who plays the very surly John Wesley Hardin in Streets of Laredo, brandishes a nickel plated handgun that looks almost too grand to be a ‘shootin’ iron’ of the Old West.
But there it is. This gun was not easy to for me to identify and I’m still not certain I have it right, but I’m going with a:

Smith & Wesson Schofield

Subsequent editions of a successful weapon design often remain or appear almost identical to the original – even over years of production – with only minor refinements. Or can be copied by other Manufacturers.
In other words, they aren’t easy to identify. So this is just a guess on my part.

Randy Quaid

Top Breaking handguns.

When you consider that the ‘top breaking’ feature (similar to double barrel shotgun) of this handgun appears to be make loading and unloading quicker and easier, you’d think they would have been more popular, but it seems the side loading style of the Colts was more common. I do not know who originally invented this design, but it was clearly used by other manufacturers as well – including Colt.

Next:

The Guns of Laredo … Part 3 … the Rifles

James Garner Westerns con’t: Streets of Laredo / 3 part mini-series 1995 / Part 1

“Capt. Woodrow F. Call: I will not tolerate rude behaviour!”

Fortunately, Streets of Laredo is chock full of rude behaviour.

I selected this version of the very famous song The Streets of Laredo by Ed Bruce (http://www.edbrucemusic.com/) (writer of “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” and “You’re the Best Break This Old Heart Ever Had“) because Bruce is a close friend and co-hort of James Garner. And I like it.

Larry McMurtry’s Streets of Laredo • Official Trailer • Miniseries

I have no problem understanding what people like about McMurtry’s writings: Lonesome Dove (1986 Pulitzer Prize winner) etc. of which Streets of Laredo is part of his enduring saga of Woodrow Call – and others – It’s the people in his stories. They are fully realized and believable. Real. And we like them and admire them. His people are honest, hard working, caring, loyal, honest … good people. Not perfect in any way – but good. They have standards and they have a code – and they stick by – and stick together. We come to care about them and relate quite a bit with them – I hope. McMurty’s stories are good too – filled with these interesting characters and his great knack for excellent dialogue. No problem finding quotes in his writing.
Streets of Laredo is excellent. Streets of Laredo starts out with a coyote howling in the sunset and plaintive death march of the song Streets of Laredo … giving a sense of loss – that something is ending rather than beginning. And in the opening scene we see the no longer young Woodrow Call (Garner) preparing for a journey … his last quest ??

Posters

They don’t usually make many posters and such for TV events (tell that to Game of Thrones) so we often have to rely on DVD covers and the like for any promotional images. As such:

Notice anything about one of these DVD images?
It’s reversed. Yes. This is something that you encounter
very often on the internet – reversed images. Why? I don’t know.
It’s annoying. For one thing it’s dishonest. Secondly, sometimes
you can’t tell which is the honest/correct/original image.
Why do people do this? It can’t be done accidentally.
It’s a head scratcher … ??

Reviews

SOL IMDB — **I rate it an 8 out of ten**

SOL Rotten Tomatoes — **“54%” !!??? – that’s insane.**

STREETS OF LAREDO – DVD review
I was completely caught up in this gritty Western.
http://moviemet.com/review/streets-laredo-dvd-review#.UrWy6tJDtwA

James Plath

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 – 12:00 am
” … a considerably better-than-average Western . . . even if it isn’t quite the same caliber as “Lonesome Dove.” It hooked me right from the beginning, and that’s worth something. Like the best mini-series, “Streets of Laredo” depends upon strong characters to make the difference, and they do.”
“Alexis Cruz does a fantastic job as the child killer, but so does Randy Quaid as John Wesley Hardin and Ned Beatty as the self-appointed law west of the Pecos, Judge Roy Bean. Even comedian George Carlin turns in a decent performance as grizzled carryover from “Lonesome Dove.”
Bottom Line: As a stand-alone mini-series, “Streets of Laredo” merits a high 7 to a low 8 out of 10. As a sequel? It’s probably not going to satisfy anyone looking for consistency from film to film. But I think the first point trumps the second. Always.”

______________________________

If interested in finding Streets of Laredo you’ll have no problem – it’s freely available on YouTube – all 3 parts in blazing Hi Res that you can watch right on your computer – though I downloaded it and Rose and I enjoyed watching it on her big screen TV.

That’s enough for today …

Coming Up …
Streets of Laredo: The Cast