James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner, April 7, 1928) 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. These included his roles as Bret Maverick, in the popular 1950s western-comedy series, Maverick; Jim Rockford, in the popular 1970s detective drama, The Rockford Files; and the father of Katey Sagal's character on 8 Simple Rules following the death of John Ritter. He has starred in dozens of movies, including The Great Escape (1963), Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964), Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria (1982) and Murphy's Romance (1985), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/James+Garner">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.