How James Garner Helped Expose Hollywood’s ‘Creative Accounting’

Once upon a time, James Garner was on a mission to expose Hollywood’s “creative accounting.” After Garner’s death in 2014, litigator Neville Johnson did a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter to reflect on how Garner fought back against studios when needed. He was not afraid to get into lawsuits. Warner Bros. had suspended him in 1960 due to a writers’ strike during the filming of the ABC Western comedy series Maverick. The actor declared his contract void and ended up winning at trial.

Then a nine-year case began in 1980 when Garner claimed he was sick and couldn’t work due to “repeated injuries” after doing much of his own stunts on The Rockford Files. Universal sued him and alleged that he was on strike because he didn’t believe the show accrued a $9 million deficit after five years. Garner then alleged that Universal was “creatively accounting. In 1983, UPI reported that the Rockford Files star was seeking $22.5 million from Universal Studios Inc. due to fraud in “accounting procedures” involving the long-running TV series. In the suit, Garner contended that the studio falsified charges in order to reduce profit figures and failed to properly account for net profits. 

Garner starred on the NBC detective drama from 1974 to 1980 as LA private investigator Jim Rockford, so the suit came a full three years after the series came to an end. According to Attorney William Masterson, the actor’s company, Cherokee Productions, was supposed to receive 37.5 percent of the net profits. The suit was to seek $7.5 million in compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages. He received a settlement that was reported to be $14 million and “established that an actor would not necessarily be blackballed for demanding his just due.”

If James Garner had not passed away almost 10 years ago, he probably would have been at the forefront of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Although not exactly the same, many actors and writers have been demanding fair pay from studios as Hollywood has been at a standstill in the entertainment industry. In a way, Garner paved the way for other actors as they didn’t have to be afraid to fight back if they were being treated unfairly, no matter what it was. His legacy will live on forever. More actors will continue fighting the good fight, and hopefully, things will change soon.