Great man, car nut, Indy 500 pace car driver

Present today in the TAG Heuer suite at the Indianapolis 500 will be Gigi Garner, daughter of the late, great actor James Garner, a man who deserved the spotlight but never behaved like he wanted it. Garner’s easy-going manner and man-of-the-people attitude probably removed his mystique for many, and therefore robbed him of some of the adulation he deserved.

But he’s never lost his appeal to me, and I suspect countless more like me. My mother and grandfather adored Garner for his role in Maverick. I love him for, among other projects, The Rockford Files (its theme tune is the ringtone on my mobile), and while I was too young to appreciate the show first time around, I watched endless repeats in the ’90s and regularly devour the 122 episodes I now have on DVD. Oh, and I believe the humor in Support Your Local Sheriff! still stands up today.

Those reading this will undoubtedly appreciate the fact that Garner was very much a car guy. For many, John Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix is the greatest motorsport movie of all time, and its intoxicating blend of glamor and danger gains layers of lustrous allure on learning that Garner did his own driving. Out of the car, Garner’s character Pete Aron was full of self-doubt yet also ready to brave whatever was thrown in his path at a time when the perils of sport were all too obvious. While a character such as James Bond was smooth, slick, cocksure of himself and always had a gadget or five to pull him out of trouble, Aron was a suave, heroic yet very human figure, fighting the same earthly bonds of emotion and judgment as the rest of us, but doing it better. That’s someone who the adolescent me was destined to admire, and was a direct result of how Garner had brought his character to life.

Yet even before that, he evoked the “I wish I was that guy” reaction in me. It came while watching The Great Escape for the first of many times. Steve McQueen’s dramatic attempts…