Jack Garner - Acting

Acting

Jack and James eventually moved to Los Angeles to reconnect with their father, who had relocated to southern California. Both changed their names to Garner after the move west. The third brother, Charles Bumgarner, who died in 1984 at the age of 60, remained in Norman and became a school administrator. 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.

Jack Garner began acting in television during the late 1960s. His roles included guest appearances on Love, American Style, The Bionic Woman, The Doris Day Show, Daniel Boone, The Green Hornet, Medical Center and Murder, She Wrote. He appeared in The Rockford Files in more than sixty television episodes of the show. Garner later appeared in Bret Maverick portraying Jack the Bartender from 1981 to 1982. Garner reprised his Rockford Files roles in a series of television movies based on the series from 1996 to 1999.

Garner's film roles included Wild Rovers in 1971, Maverick in 1994, My Fellow Americans in 1996 and Sunset in 1988.

Jack Garner suffered a fall in September 2011, which resulted in a broken hip. 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. However, his condition suddenly worsened within one week. 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. He was survived by his former wife, Betty Bumgarner; his daughter, Liz Bumgarner, and son-in-law, Don Dykstra; and brother, James Garner. His memorial service was held at the Wiefels Mortuary in Palm Springs, California.