A Look Into James Garner's 58-Year-Long Marriage That Started 14 Days After He Met His Wife

Sep 04, 2019

It took only 14 days to start and 58 years to finish. We're talking about the marriage of actor James Garner and his wife Lois Clarke.

The year was 1956. James Garner was a contract actor working for Warner Brothers. He was attending a rally for Adlai Stevenson, the 1956 Democratic presidential nominee. Love struck in a moment, when he cast his eyes on the woman of his dreams, Lois Clarke.

He asked her out of the spot. They had 14 dinner dates over the next 14 days. James recalled how much in love he was with her. And Lois definitely shared that emotion with him. After so many dinner dates, they decided to tie the knot.

They got married at the Beverly Hills courthouse on August 17, 1956. Kim, Lois's daughter from a previous marriage, was seven years old at the time. In his biography, "The Garner Files", James recalled as per NJ.com, “I spent $77 on our honeymoon, and it about broke me.”

But, it was money well spent, since it was the start of 58 years of marriage. He thought their success was due to the fact that they complemented each other quite well. Not everyone took the news of their marriage very well. James' family was against it, mainly due to the differences in religion and background. James was an Oklahoma boy, born and raised. He was also Methodist. Lois, on the other hand, was born and raised in Los Angeles. Plus, she was Jewish.

Lois and James didn't have a problem with those differences, however, Garner writes in his memoir, highlighted in Country Living. Neither was religious and it just didn't matter, according to Garner. One of the best things to come from their long marriage was the birth of their daughter, Greta Garner, also known as Gigi. She came along a couple of years after the couple tied the knot.

In the almost six decades of their marriage, Garner went from a contract player to a world-renown actor. In the course of his career, he starred in over 70 films and a few television shows. His first break came when he starred as Bret Maverick in the "Maverick" series, which ran from 1957 to 1960. He also played Jim Rockford in "The Rockford Files" TV show that ran from 1974 to 1980.

The marriage did have its bumps. The couple separated for a few months in 1970 and again for over a year in 1980. However, they remained married and became a strong couple in the remaining years. The couple remained strong until James passed away at the age of 86 on July 19, 2014. He was one month away from his 58th wedding anniversary.

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