James Garner dies at 86; TV antihero of 'Maverick,' 'Rockford Files'

[CigarNut]

If Sam Spade was a tough guy, Jim Rockford was … well, he could throw a punch, but he didn't like to because it hurt his hand.

Rockford's idea of a good time was eating Oreos and fishing with his dad, not spending a lost weekend with some smoky blonde. And tough talk just wasn't his thing; when some hood was beating the tar out of him, Rockford sputtered, "Does your mother have any idea what you do for a living?"

Still, the perennially broke investigator always managed to set things right, and by the end of every episode of "The Rockford Files," Rockford — a.k.a. actor James Garner — also gave viewers something they weren't getting from other tough guy heroes: laughs.

Garner, a master of light comedy who won an Emmy as Rockford and earlier had shot to fame as a charming and dry-witted gambler on the hit TV western "Maverick," died Saturday at his Los Angeles home. He was 86.

Garner's death was confirmed by his publicist, Jennifer Allen. He underwent quintuple bypass surgery in 1988 and suffered a stroke in 2008, but the cause of his death was not immediately known.

May He Rest In Peace.