03 April 2007

The TWL Files….

Need to garner some information on Computer Weekly’s new editor?

James Garner was born on April 7, 1928, in Norman, Oklahoma. A Purple Heart recipient for being wounded in action during the Korea War, Garner began his show business career with a non-speaking role in the Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954).

After costarring in several films in 1956, Garner landed the role of Bret Maverick on the popular TV Western series Maverick (1957), where he remained until 1960. Through the 1960s, Garner made several successful films, including The Thrill of it All (1963), Move Over, Darling (1963), The Americanization of Emily (1964), and Grand Prix (1966), before returning to television with the series Nichols in 1971.

In 1974, Garner played private investigator Jim Rockford on the successful television drama The Rockford Files, for which he was nominated for the Outstanding Lead Actor Emmy in 1976 and won in 1977. In a failed attempt to re-establish his film career, Garner starred in a number of forgettable films, including Health (1979) and Tank (1983). However, his effervescent performance opposite Sally Field in Murphy's Romance (1985) earned Garner a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Garner offered commendable performances in the powerful TV movies Promise (1986); My Name is Bill W (1989), which documented the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous; and Barbarians at the Gate (1993). In 1994, Garner reprised the role of Jim Rockford for a series of highly acclaimed television features. Later that same year he played Zane Cooper in the modern day film version of Maverick, which starred Mel Gibson in the title role.

Garner voiced the character of God in the short-lived NBC animated series God, the Devil and Bob and played a recurring role on the CBS medical drama Chicago Hope. He also returned to film in 2002 with the role of a loving, if co-dependent, father and husband in the box-office hit Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Most recently, James was managing editor of Caterer and Hotelkeeper. In a surprise career change, James Garner joined Computer Weekly as editor in April 2007.....

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

You may mock, TWL, but it won't be long before WaggEd is accidentally sending exactly that to him as a 5,000-word dossier.

Anonymous said...

you may mock, anonymous, but the Fred Vogelstein file was sent to him by a Microsoft employee, not a WaggEd employee.

Ed

Anonymous said...

Damn you and your accuracy, Ed, for spoiling a decent gag.

"I'd have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for that pesky kid."

Anonymous said...

It all seemed fairly plausible until I got to the bit about there being a magazine called 'Caterer and Hotelkeeper' and then I realised it was a joke.

But what a coup stealing somebody from their edit team... or maybe not. Can it really be that hard to get people down to Sutton? I hear it's lovely...

Anonymous said...

Good point Ed - but on another: "three year veteran from the PR frontlines"? Discuss

Anonymous said...

There has been a slight oversight - James Garner is editor of ComputerWeekly.com not Computer Weekly. Brian McKenna is Editor of the mag.

Anonymous said...

What is it with the RBI guys all swapping mags at the moment? Is Reed having a mass game of muscial chairs at the moment or are they filming a new reality series called "journo swap" but failed couldn't get any other publishing houses to join in the fun?

Anonymous said...

talking about accuracy and Easter Eggs (oh, you didn't mention easter eggs?). Seen this story in The Times today, ouch:

Store gets egg on its face over Christ’s Easter ‘birth’

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article1610495.ece

Anonymous said...

anonymous. you're looking a little pale. do you need more irony in your diet?

as i said here there's plenty a wet behind the ears PR can offer to the jaded flak.

experience is a fluke of timing, not a yardstick of talent.

Ed

Anonymous said...

hey Ed, it's old anonymous here. Totally agree that fresh-faced PR's of one month, a year, or whatever have a lot they can bring to the PR pot, and the world would be a much more stale place without them. Was just questioning three years and veteran in the same description - but hey maybe you too are dosing on the irony? ;-)

Anyway, moving on - yep totally agree that PR agencies can run the risk of zapping the creativity and drive of someone not so "veteran" to the job, by imposing too much process and hierachy. And as yesterday's great easter egg fiasco shows (see blog entry above) the AD's of this world can stuff up far more spectacularly.

figgis said...

>experience is a fluke of timing, not a yardstick of talent.<

I must hunt down some of your press releases, I'm sure they are very entertaining.