James Garner: Secrets Of His Hellish Childhood

Behind his easy smile and cocky attitude, actor James Garner hid the horrible scars of an abusive stepmother who beat him, humiliated him and made him dress like a girl!

“Jim’s childhood was pure hell!” a Hollywood insider tells The National ENQUIRER. “It’s a wonder he managed to get it together and achieve the amazing success he had.” The “Rockford Files” star, who passed away at age 86 in 2014, was happy enough until his mother Mildred died when he was only 5 — and his father, Warren Bumgarner, turned to drink.

“Dad used to come home in terrible condition,” the Oklahoma native admitted, adding that his father regularly whipped him and his two older brothers. But those punishments were mild compared to the torment inflicted by his stepmother Wilma, who Warren wed a year after James’s mom died. “She really had it in for me, more than my brothers,” James said. “I never knew anyone as evil. She was the meanest b***h in the world!”

Wilma could give the most wicked fairytale character a run for her money! “She was always knocking me around and slamming my head into the ground,” James recalled. “She hit me with switches and pieces of wood.” Worse, perhaps, than the physical violence was Wilma’s psychological witchery, “forcing Jim to wear dresses and making everyone call him 'Louise',” an old family friend remembers.

“Anytime he did anything wrong, he had to go put on a dress. Other boys would rag him to no end!” Then, when he was 14, James put an end to the reign of terror once and for all. Wilma was beating him when he hauled off and took a swing at the hateful hag, knocking her down! They tussled, each at the other’s throats.“She tried to choke me to death, and I started choking her,” James said.

The battle ended in a draw, but James won the war. His malevolent stepmom packed up and left the family, never to return! Fortunately, Warren next married a wonderful woman. “Mama Grace,” as James called her, gave him the love and care he so sorely needed.