Actor James Garner has suffered a minor stroke. The 80-year-old actor was hospitalized last week, but his publicist say he is doing well and should be returning home soon. The actor went into a Los Angeles hospital Friday after falling ill at his home. Publicist Jennifer Allen told the Associated Press “he’s still in the hospital but my understanding is he is doing well and will be going home soon. When, exactly, we have not been told yet.”
Garner got his big break in show business when he landed the role of Bret Maverick in the comedy Western show “Maverick” from 1957 to 1960. Despite the success of the show, Garner quit in 1960 after a quarrel with Warner Brothers.
Many others remember Garner best from his other big series “The Rockford Files,” which ran from 1974 until 1980. The show, about a modern day private detective, was very successful as well, but again Garner chose to end the series. By 1980, he was 52 years old and after doing many of his own stunts, he was suffering from some physical ailments. He had knee problems and in 1979, he was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer. He had also injured his back during one stunt. He would return to TV as Jim Rockford in eight made for television movies.
Garner may be best known by many for his television shows “Maverick” and “The Rockford Files,” but he has also appeared in many movies over his long career. He appeared in The Notebook, Space Cowboys, Fire in the Sky, and Victor Victoria among others. He received an Academy Award nomination in 1985 for playing opposite Sally Field in Murphy’s Romance. He returned to television in 2003 to play Katey Segal’s father on “8 Simple Rules…for Dating My Teenage Daughter.”
In 2005, Garner was given the Screen Actor’s Guild lifetime achievement award.