Want to know the best James Garner movies? How about the worst James Garner movies? Curious about James Garner’s box office grosses or which James Garner movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which James Garner movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
James Garner (1928-2014) was an American Oscar® nominated actor. Garner pretty much had two careers. On television he starred in not one but two all-time great shows…Maverick and The Rockford Files. His feature film career lasted over 50 years and included many classic films like The Great Escape, Sayonara and Grand Prix. His IMDb page shows 95 acting credits from 1956-2010. This page will rank 48 James Garner movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances, some of his movies made outside of the Hollywood system and his straight to DVD movies were not included in the rankings.
Drivel part of the page: When I originally wrote this page, my state of Virginia, had just had it’s worst earthquake in over 100 years (I lived about 100 miles away from the epi-center), Hurricane Irene was closing in on my area (I live 15 miles from Va Beach), and the Great Dismal Swamp fires (about 20 miles away) had reached “can be seen from space” status. So what was I am thinking? Safety of my family? Tape for the windows? Batteries for the flashlights? Will Irene put out the fires? Nope…..I was thinking I should do another UMR movie page before I lose power. Well it turned out the storm only knocked out the power for a few hours…and I managed to finish the page in time….and my Garner movie page quickly became one of my more popular pages. When I was much younger, James Garner was known to me for two things. I knew he was on the very popular show, The Rockford Files and that he was in the Polaroid commercials with Mariette Hartley. It was only after the discovery of one of my favorite movies of all-time, The Great Escape, that I realized that Garner had already had a very successful movie career.
James Garner Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
James Garner Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort James Garner movies by co-stars of his movies
- Sort James Garner movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort James Garner movies by yearly box office rank
- Sort James Garner movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each James Garner movie received.
- Sort James Garner movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the sort and search buttons to make this page very interactive….for example you just want to see the Doris Day/Garner movies….just type in “Doris Day” in the search box….and up they pop. Or if you want to see his type rated movies according to critics and audiences click the sort button in that column.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above James Garner Table
- Twelve James Garner movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 25.00% of his movies listed. Sayonara (1957) was his biggest box office hit.
- An average James Garner movie grossed $70.60 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 28 James Garner movies are rated as good movies…or 58.33% of his movies. The Great Escape (1963) was his highest rated movie while The Distinguished Gentleman (1992) was his lowest rated movie.
- Nine James Garner movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 18.75% of his movies.
- Three James Garner movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 6.25% of his movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 19 James Garner movies scored higher that average….or 39.58% of his movies. Sayonara (1957) got the the highest UMR Score while Sunset (1988) got the lowest UMR Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About James Garner
1. James Garner served in the Army’s 24th Infantry Division during the Korean War. He was wounded twice during his time in Korea. He received the Purple Heart for the first injury.
2. James Garner’s two most successful television shows ended prematurely. Garner quit Maverick the series in the third season because of a dispute with Warner Brothers. And he had to quit The Rockford Series for health reasons after season six.
3. James Garner’s first starring role was 1958’s Darby’s Rangers…..he got the role after Charlton Heston turned down the role.
4. James Garner was married to Lois Clarke. They married 14 days after meeting for the first time. They got married on August 17, 1956. According to Garner, “Marriage is like the Army; everyone complains, but you’d be surprised at the large number of people who re-enlist”. Garner has two daughters: Kimberly, from Clarke’s first marriage, whom he adopted when she was nine years old, and Greta “Gigi” Garner…who is an author. Gigi wrote the books…Girl Talk and The Cop Cookbook.
5. James Garner turned down the lead role in First Blood. Imagine if he had taken that role? Stallone would have probably made 13 Rocky movies instead of the 6 he did make.
6. In February 2005 James Garner received the Screen Actors Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
7. James Garner has one Oscar® nomination to his credit…..1985’s Murphy’s Romance…Best Actor ……he also picked up two Golden Globe® nominations for his movies…Murphy’s Romance and 1963’s The Wheeler Dealers.
8. For his television career, James Garner received 9 Golden Globe® nominations…including two wins……and received 15 Emmy® nominations with two wins.
9. James Garner’s daughter, Gigi Garner, has an awesome tribute page to her father….check out that tribute here at http://mavrock1.tumblr.com/ . It should also be noted that probably one of James Garner’s greatest accomplishments…was being a great father….I got this information directly from Gigi Garner.
10. Check out James Garner‘ career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
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For comments….all you need is a name and a comment….please ignore the rest.
HEY, GREAT PAGE. I HAVE SEEN SO MANY OF JAMES GARNER MOVIES – HE IS A GREAT ACTOR – HE ALWAYS DOES SUCH A GOOD JOB IN HIS ROLES. THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY WAS A VERY GOOD MOVIE – SO MANY OF THEM WERE SO ENTERTAINING. THANKS FOR SUCH A WONDERFUL HUB – HARD TO BELIEVE HE IS NOW 83…NICE TO KNOW HE HAS SUCH A LONG MARRIAGE TOO..
Hey BERN1960….he has had a great long career….anytime you are still doing something well after 55 years…you must have been pretty good at it….and that is exactly what Garner has done. I was also glad to see that he has had a nice long marriage as well…..as always thanks for your comments.
Janice Aplvolfe
I liked this, you have done a great job of researching Mr. Garner’s movie career. This was an enjoyable read.
Thanks for stopping by Janice Apvolfe….and I am very glad you enjoyed reading the hub about Mr. Garner.
Hi,Cogerson. I love The Rockford Files. I’ve not had the opportunity to see Maverick (tv) as yet, but if and when I do…Thanks for making this hub! And I still say you should stay safe!
He is one of the few actors whose recent films I have seen quite a few of them. Usually I avoid them.
Regarding the top 10 lists:
1. I have seen 6 of his box office hits: 1,2,4,7,8,and 9
2. I have seen 9 of his top 10 critics picks-the only one haven’t seen is Grand Prix
3. I have seen 8 of his movie Score 10 (the other I haven’t seen is Move over darling)
Overall: so far I have seen 23 of his movies. The lowest on your movie score list is Darby’s Rangers. Of his top 20, I have seen 13 of them. Of his films he made before I was born (1976) I have seen 16. That is 70% of the films I’ve seen of his career-much lowest percentage than most actors-shows how much I’ve actually watched in terms of recent films (by which I mean during my lifetime as I love the studio era).
I prefer his comedies (what? I like someone’s comedies enough to watch multiple times? Since when?)and his mysteries although one of my favourites of all time is The Great Escape.
Here are the twenty-three I’ve seen in their movie order, some with comments, some without:
Sayonara-I keep forgetting he was in this
Marverick-can’t stand Mel Gibson, but I put up with him for James
The Great Escape-I try to see this at least once a year
Space Cowboys
Victor/Victoria-halarious musical I adore
Murphy’s Romance-own my own copy, but haven’t seen since Cory Haim died
The Thrill of it All
The Americanization of Emily
The Notebook-ooh, if you haven’t seen James Garner cry…
The Children’s Hour-difficult to watch, but excellent
Boy’s Night Out-lots of fun
Support your Local Sheriff-just saw this for the umpteenth time
36 Hours-a wonderful thriller not known by a lot of people not old enough to remember when it was first released
Cash McCall
My Fellow Americans-made me sad to see two of my favourites swearing all the time no matter what happened in the plot
Support Your local Gunfighter-a lot of the same people (by the way he was extremely loyal. He should have quit Rockford earlier than he did but he wanted people to remain employed)
Mister Buddwing-another wonderful thriller
Hour of the Gun-more realistic than Gunfight at the OK corral, but I did not enjoy it
Up Periscope
Duel at Diablo
Marlowe-odd seeing hippies in this film based on a book written decades early, but enjoyed the film
Darby’s Rangers
My favourite film is Support Your Local Sheriff, followed closely by The Great Escape. A comedy western and a war film. bizarre for me, I know. But Victor Victoria is number 3 🙂
Hey Flora….well you have seen more than me….I am sitting at 16 of his movies that I have seen….but I have seen The Great Escape about 50 times..lol.
After doing this hub….I am thinking I need to watch the movies he made from 1964 to 1969…the only one I have seen is Support Your Local Sheriff. 36 Hours, The Art of Love, Mister Buddwing and The Wheeler Dealers all look like movies that I would enjoy.
As for your Top 3….I would say we have the same Top 3…but I would move Victor/Victoria to #2….and Sheriff to #3.
Looking at your comments.
Maverick….I always get a kick out of seeing Coburn and Garner in the same movie…years after The Great Escape
The Notebook….I think this is this generation’s Love Story…it seems to gain greatness as each year passes.
Boy’s Night Out…I like this movie as well….got a Golden Globe for Best Picture…when it was released.
The Children’s Hour….I agree 100%…not an easy movie to get through….but Hepburn, Garner and Maclaine are excellent.
Glad you liked the Garner hub….hopefully he can make a couple more movies…I heard he has done great after his most recent medical trouble.
Good work Cogerson, Garner has always been one of my faves.
One of my dad’s favourite actors too. As a kid I really enjoyed the Support your Local Sheriff and Gunfighter films, great fun.
Marlowe was a big favourite but that was mostly because Bruce Lee (my idol at the time) had a supporting role.
The Great Escape is another favourite I watch every year on DVD.
Sayonara no.1 on the moviescore, hmmm that’s a bit misleading, much more a Brando film than a Garner film. But it’s been years since I last saw it.
I enjoyed the movie Maverick, but the tv series passed me by, didn’t watch it.
Hey Steve….I agree 100% about Sayonara being somewhat misleading….if I would have done a Top 5 breakdown by film….I was going to skip it and mention that he only had a small part in the movie….but the movie was huge and he got 8th billing…which is low but not bad for one of his first movies.
I was surprised that Marlowe did not make much money at the box office. He made it at the end of his peak as a leading man.
I think I watch The Great Escape about once a year myself…..the movie has so many great scenes….the funny thing…..ever freaking time Garner and Pleasance make it to the plane and take off….I think they are going to make it….but they never do….maybe one day. Thanks for checking out my Garner movie page.
Mr. James Garner, I have some great memories of him and my parents, they never seemed to like the same people. But they liked him, my dad loved him as a kid in Maverick and then later as Jim Rockford. My mom fell in love with Garner in his two Doris Day movies and the two Julie Andrews movies. Great memories. Glad to see he is still with us, although I do remember reading he had a stroke a few years ago. Great job Cogerson
Thanks for stopping by hinton1966….my mom also liked Garner alot, and my father-in-law as a huge Rockford fan….I really think he is the last of the actors from that time….I mean the man played Marlon Brando’s best friend in a movie 54 years ago….as well was neighbors with Steve McQueen 40 years ago…lots of history in that man. Thanks for your comments