Garner's mobster romances 'Victor' Hollywood actor James Garner, who notably played a gay-friendly mobster in the movie Victor Victoria has died, aged 86. Garner, born James Scott Bumgarner, was long known for playing hunky square-jawed characters on TV series such as Maverick and in many movies. But the actor endeared himself to gay audiences in the mid-1980s when he portrayed a rough, womanising mobster who begins to fall in love with a person he thinks is a man but who is in fact Julie Andrews in drag. Later when his girlfriend rats on him being apparently gay to his crime associates he refuses to buy into their homophobia. Near the end of the film when his big, burly bodyguard is discovered in bed, post-nookie, with Toddy, the outrageously camp best friend of Andrews' character, Garner's mobster takes it all in his stride. In the lead-up to the New Zealand debate on homosexual law reform the release of Victor Victoria in 1982 provided a rare and welcome positive portrayal of some issues around homosexuality to mainstream movie audiences. Garner, who died in his Brentwood, Los Angeles home of natural causes, is survived by his wife Lois, daughter Gretta and step-daughter Kimberley.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 21st July 2014 - 11:33am