| Jack Garner | |
| Birth Name: | Jack Edward Bumgarner |
| Birth Date: | 19 September 1926 |
| Birth Place: | Norman, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Rancho Mirage, California, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Years Active: | 1971–2011 |
| Relatives: | James Garner (brother) |
Jack Garner (born Jack Edward Bumgarner; September 19, 1926 – September 13, 2011) was an American actor. He was the elder brother of James Garner.[1] [2] [3] [4]
Garner was born in Norman, Oklahoma, the son of Mildred Scott (née Meek) and Weldon Warren "Bill" Bumgarner.[1] [3] [5] He was the second of three boys including actor James Garner (youngest) and Charles Bumgarner (oldest).[3] [5] The family operated a general store on Denver Corner in eastern Norman.[3] The boys were sent to live with relatives after their mother died, while Garner's father remarried several times.[1]
Garner was a star athlete at Norman High School, playing on the state championship basketball team in 1945.[3] Jack Garner played as a minor league baseball pitcher for a team affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates for eleven years.[1] [5] [6] He then worked for several golf courses in Florida after leaving the minor leagues.[5] 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 quarterbacked 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."[3]
Garner became a longtime member of the Professional Golfers' Association, played competitively, and later became a golf pro at[7] Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, California.[2] [5] His golf experience allowed him to coach at the country club and elsewhere.[4] Garner taught Dan Aykroyd, his brother's co-star in the 1996 film My Fellow Americans, to properly swing a golf club for a scene in that movie.[4]
Jack and James eventually moved to Los Angeles to reconnect with their father, who had relocated to southern California.[1] [2] [4] Both changed their names to Garner after the move west.[3] The third brother, Charles Bumgarner, who died in 1984 at the age of 60, remained in Norman and became a school administrator.[3] Jack 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.[5]
Garner began acting in television during the late 1960s.[1] His roles included guest appearances on Love, American Style; The Bionic Woman; The Doris Day Show; Daniel Boone; The Green Hornet; Mannix; Medical Center and Murder, She Wrote.[1] [4] He appeared in The Rockford Files in more than twenty episodes of the show,[1] usually in bit roles, though he assumed the recurring supporting role of the indecisive, fence-sitting Captain McEnroe in the show's final season. Garner later appeared in Bret Maverick portraying Jack the Bartender from 1981 to 1982.[1] Garner reprised his Rockford Files role of McEnroe in a series of television movies based on the series from 1996 to 1999.[2]
Garner's film roles included Wild Rovers in 1971, Maverick in 1994, My Fellow Americans in 1996 and Sunset in 1988.[1]
Garner suffered a fall in September 2011, which resulted in a broken hip.[3] [4] 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.[3] However, his condition suddenly worsened within one week.[3] 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.[2] He was survived by his former wife, Betty Bumgarner; his daughter, Liz Bumgarner, and son-in-law, Don Dykstra (they have no children); and younger brother, James Garner.[1] [2] His memorial service was held at the Wiefels Mortuary in Palm Springs, California.[4]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Wild Rovers | Cap Swalling | ||
| 1988 | Sunset | Cowboy Henry | ||
| 1996 | My Fellow Americans | President Haney's Caddy |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971–1972 | Nichols | Van Vechyen | 2 episodes | |
| 1974 | The Rockford Files | Capt. McEnroe, various uncredited minor roles | ||
| 1974 | Emergency! | Gambler | 1 episode (Propinquity) | |
| 1981–1982 | Bret Maverick | Jack the bartender | All 18 episodes of the show[8] | |
| 1991 | Man of the People | Bernie | 2 episodes | |
| 1995 | Streets of Laredo | Old Waiter in Café |