James Garner: Richard Castle's Spiritual Godfather

James Garner, the charming, charismatic TV legend whose career was epitomized by The Rockford Files (1974-1980) and Maverick (1957-1960) died Saturday evening in his Los Angeles home. Here he is in 1959 with a pre-Rawhide Clint Eastwood (who taunts him by referring to his character as "Mr. Maverack")






And here he is in the 1974 pilot for the Rockford Files with a young, pre-Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner. Watching this, and seeing that this pilot was written by Stephen J. Cannell, the TV impressario who served as the de-facto "godfather" of Castle's poker games, I couldn't help but think that the character of Richard Castle owes quite a bit to Jim Rockford (especially if we overlook the fact that Rockford usually wouldn't be caught dead helping the cops). But the charm's the same!

MTMG