James Garner with The Children’s Hour co-stars Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine

As his friend Julie Andrews puts it: “He was a man’s man, a ladies’ man, a good ol’ boy in the best sense... and a sweet-heart. I don’t know a lady who isn’t a little bit in love with him.” But in his soon-to-be published memoir The Garner Files, written at the grand old age of 83, the actor – best known for his starring roles in the TV series Maverick and The Rockford Files, not to mention that festive film favourite The Great Escape – admits that appearances can be deceptive. “People who don’t know me think I’m easy-going but I’m a pessimist by nature and an old curmudgeon,” he says. Oh, and did he mention his life-long fondness for marijuana? Until now, Garner has avoided writing an autobiography, arguing he’s pretty average. But he appears to have relished clearing up some misconceptions and settling a few scores.

People who don’t know me think I’m easy-going but I’m a pessimist by nature and an old curmudgeon James Garner

“Something funny happens as you get older,” he says. “You don’t hold back so much.” He certainly doesn’t pull his punches. Charles Bronson was bitter and belligerent, he says, while Hollywood mogul Jack Warner was the rudest and most vulgar man he ever met. Charlton Heston’s acting technique was “stiff as a board”, while he nearly “decked” Lee Marvin when he made moves on his wife in a limousine. Even old friends get it in the neck, none more so than Steve McQueen, his co-star in the 1963 war classic The Great Escape.

“Steve was trouble if you invited him to breakfast. He didn’t like anything. Like Marlon Brando he could be a pain in the ass on set. Unlike Brando, he wasn’t an actor. “He was a movie star, a poser who cultivated the image of a macho man. He had a persona he brought to every role and people loved it but you could always see him acting. That’s the kiss of death, as far as I’m concerned.” He claims McQueen caused no end of problems when filming The Great Escape – even walking out midway after taking a dislike to the way he looked in early shoots. He flew in his agent for a showdown with director John Sturges but the next day Garner was told McQueen was out – and now he would be the star of the picture.

“I didn’t see how it could work so I sat down with Steve and asked what the problem was. He said he didn’t like the part because he wasn’t the hero and the stuff they’d had him doing was corny. “Steve could be a stubborn little cuss but the director added some motorcycle stunts to pacify him and changed his character to a guy who goes out to reconnoitre the countryside then unselfishly allows himself to be recaptured so he can share the information with the others.” BUT McQueen continued getting into scrapes, even racing his swastika-covered motorcycle all over Munich where they were filming, just to annoy the Germans.

He and Garner remained good pals, however, which was just as well given they were neighbours in the hills above Los Angeles. “He wasn’t a bad guy, just insecure,” says Garner. “His first wife Neile told me he’d always been envious of tall, dark men and was convinced [wrongly] that we’d once had an affair. But deep down, he thought of me as an older brother and I guess I thought of him as a delinquent younger brother.” Perhaps Garner indulged him because he too had come from the wrong side of the tracks. He admits many of his emotional problems stemmed from his tough childhood in Depression-era Oklahoma. The youngest of three boys, Garner lost his mother when he was four and believes she died from complications arising from a botched abortion.

Their father often arrived home drunk and whipped them if they refused to literally sing for their supper. Later, he married a violent woman who similarly delighted in beating them. “She’d make us cut willow swathes so she could whip our butts. I don’t know why she picked on me especially but when- ever I did anything wrong she’d put me in a dress and make everyone call me ‘Louise’.” Finally, he fought back and punched her. “When I’m pushed, I shove,” he says. Garner fell into acting when a “soda jerk” (the bloke who operated the soda fountain at the petrol station where he worked) told him his rugged good looks could earn him a place in Hollywood.