James Garner, a Hollywood legend who worked in films and TV across six decades, has died at age 86.
Garner first found success as witty gunslinger Bret Maverick on the television western Maverick in the 1950s, and later played the character's father in a 1994 Maverick movie starring Mel Gibson.
Altogether Garner appeared in more than 50 films, earning an Oscar nomination for his performance in Murphy's Romance and winning an Emmy for playing the lead on The Rockford Files.
In more recent years he'd appeared in the films Space Cowboys and The Notebook, in which he played an older version of Ryan Gosling's character, as well as the television series 8 Simple Rules.
Garner, a lifelong smoker -- even after undergoing open-heart surgery, according to his New York Times obituary, worked well into his 70s, before suffering a stroke at age 80. Garner died of natural causes, though a cause of death has not been released.
[Via L.A. Times]
