Jack Garner

 Jack Garner, born Jack Edward Bumgarner (September 19, 1926 – September 13, 2011)

Garner was an actor, best known for The Rockford Files and numerous other television roles. He was the elder brother of James Garner. Garner was a star athlete at Norman High School (Oklahoma), playing on the state championship basketball team in 1945. He also played as a minor league baseball pitcher for a team affiliate with the Pittsburgh Pirates for eleven years. Later, Garner taught Dan Aykroyd, his co-star in the 1996 film My Fellow Americans, to properly swing a golf club for a scene in that movie. 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, Mannix, Medical Center and Murder, She Wrote. He appeared in The Rockford Files in more than sixty television episodes of the show, usually in small roles. 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 in Palm Desert, on September 13, 2011, six days shy of his 85th birthday.