- published: 09 Dec 2014
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Stuart Margolin (born January 31, 1940) is an American film and television actor and director.
Margolin is best known for his role on the television show The Rockford Files, playing Evelyn "Angel" Martin, the shifty friend and former cellmate of Jim Rockford (James Garner). Margolin won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor – Drama Series in this role, in 1979 and 1980; he is one of only four actors to win this award twice for the same role.
Margolin played Rabbi David Small in the 1976 movie, Lanigan's Rabbi, based on the series of mystery novels written by Harry Kemelman. Scheduling conflicts prevented him from continuing the role in the short-lived TV series of the same name that aired in 1977 as part of the "NBC Sunday Mystery Movie," where Small was played by Bruce Solomon. Margolin was earlier paired with James Garner in a 1971-72 TV Western series entitled Nichols, where he played a character somewhat similar to the Angel character he played in The Rockford Files. That show only lasted for one season. Margolin appeared in two episodes of the television series M*A*S*H ("Bananas, Cracker and Nuts", "Operation Noselift"), The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, an episode of Land of the Giants ("The Mechanical Man"), Twelve O'Clock High ("Mutiny at Ten Thousand Feet"), The Monkees ("Monkees Watch Their Feet"), Love, American Style, The Fall Guy and Magnum, P.I. His brother Arnold Margolin was the executive producer of the Love, American Style series. In May 2009, Margolin appeared on an episode of 30 Rock, opposite Alan Alda; it was the first time the two actors appeared together since M*A*S*H in 1974. Margolin appears in the 2009 CTV/CBS police drama series The Bridge.
James Garner (born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928) is an American film and television actor, one of the first Hollywood actors to excel in both media. He has starred in several television series spanning a career of more than five decades. These included his roles as Bret Maverick, in the popular 1950s western-comedy series, Maverick; Jim Rockford, in the popular 1970s detective drama, The Rockford Files; and the father of Katey Sagal's character on 8 Simple Rules following the death of John Ritter. He has starred in more than fifty movies, including The Great Escape (1963), Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964), Blake Edwards' Victor Victoria (1982), Murphy's Romance (1985), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and The Notebook (2004).
Garner, the youngest of three children, was born in Norman, Oklahoma, the son of Mildred Scott (née Meek) and Weldon Warren Bumgarner, a carpet layer. His two older brothers were actor Jack Garner (1926–2011) and Charles Bumgarner, a school administrator who died in 1984. His family was Methodist. His mother, who was said to be of part Cherokee descent, died when he was five years old. After their mother's death, Garner and his brothers were sent to live with relatives. Garner was reunited with his family in 1934, when Weldon remarried.