JAMES GARNER hush-hush SECRETS

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“The Rockford Files” “Maverick” star, the legendary JAMES GARNER admitted he was a lifelong pot smoker,  did cocaine with JOHN BELUSHI and slammed pal STEVE MCQUEEN as nothing more than an “insecure poseur” in his juicy-tell-all.

In his no-holds-barred memoirs The Garner Files, Garner, 83, dropped bombshells galore.

Garner, in the book, admitted that he has smoked pot for most of his adult life. He dabbled doing some white line fever, snorting cocaine with SNL great John Belushi who died from a drug overdose.     

Garner refers to himself in the book as a "bleeding-heart liberal" who felt that Adlai Stevenson the most intelligent man to have ever run for president, with Barack Obama taking the number two slot.

Big Jim doesn’t have kind words to say about his fellow actors either –saying his “Great Escape” costar and pal Steve McQueen was an “insecure poseur and not a very good actor”.  He also branded Charles Bronson “bitter and belligerent”.

Garner also admitted he became an actor by sheer accident.  

While working at a Shell gas station, Garner met a soda jerk who told him that his ruggedly handsome good looks could make him a star. After serving in the Korean War, Garner returned stateside only to discover the soda jerk was a stage producer. 

The producer gave Jim non-speaking role in the stage production of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial where he studied the star Henry Fonda’s every inflection. Master class from a master thespian!

In their review of the book, The LA Times wrote Garner offers up “plenty of self-deprecating humor, a general air of live-and-let-live, but when it comes down to it, NO pulled punches.”

REMEMBERING JAMES GARNER: HIS LIFE IN PIX