JAMES GARNER LOOKS LIKE A MAN WHO would rather be on a golf course somewhere—anywhere—than here in his cozy den talking about himself. Sprawled in a leather armchair, the 66-year-old actor has been dutifully, if reluctantly, reminiscing about his life and a 40-year career that has included five TV series (Does anyone remember 1971-72's Nichols?) and 40 feature films (among them: 1963's The Great Escape and 1985's Murphy's Romance). Now, to his relief, his housekeeper, Rachel, has bustled in bearing greeting-card-size tickets to the Hollywood premiere of Maverick, the movie, which opens on May 20. In this lavish reworking of the 1957-62 TV series, Mel Gibson smartly fills Garner's old vest as Bret Maverick, the gambler with the quick-draw wit; Jodie Foster plays Gibson's shady lady love, Annabelle Bransford, and Garner himself is cast as Zane Cooper, a laid-back lawman.

Rachel hands him the tickets, along with a pen for his autograph. "I guess they're going to get Mel and Jodie to sign these too," he muses, putting a small signature on the card. "I don't want to take up too much space here."

Never mind that Garner takes up a lot of space—and screen lime—in the 125-minute Maverick, more than holding his own with Gibson. The two quickly bonded during the film's four-month shoot last year, says their mutual friend Foster, and "spent a lot of time giggling and telling jokes to each other." The make-room-for-Mel-and-Jodie autograph says as much about Garner as anything could.

"He's totally humble," says Foster of her costar, who shuns Hollywood parties and, on rare nights out. usually dines with a small group of close friends. (At a Hollywood screening of Heartsounds, a 1984 TV movie in which he played a dying doctor, Garner sent his wife, Lois, 65, in his place, then quizzed her afterward about the audience's reaction to the film.) Just as resolutely, he keeps their two daughters out of the limelight. Kim. 45, is an L.A. elementary school teacher, and Gigi, 36, is a Nashville C&W gospel singer.

In recent months, Garner has been even less public than usual. And, as he stands to walk out of the den, a slight limp suggests the reason. This is the latest entry in what could probably fill a Guinness Book of medical records. Battling the bad guys on TV's Maverick and on The Rockford Files from 1974 to 1980 (for which he won an Emmy playing private eye Jim Rockford), Garner suffered spinal disk injuries, fractured ribs, ripped tendons and, in his words, "a broken tail-bone." He has also endured arthritis and ulcers. "The work on the show had worn me down to a nub," says Garner, who had to take medication for bouts of depression until he got out of Rockford. "I was sick and tired of it all."

He was feeling fit and vigorous last December until one day, during his stretching regimen, Garner inadvertently pinched an artificial artery that had been implanted in his left leg following his quadruple bypass surgery in 1988. In January his doctor noticed a blood clot had formed, and he recommended surgery to remove it. Then what was supposed to have been a four-week recovery stretched into three months in bed after a staph infection developed in Garner's leg. The whole experience, he says wearily, "was a pain in the groin."

Garner downplays the ordeal, displaying a toughness honed back in Depression-era Oklahoma. When James Scott Bumgarner was only 5, his mother Mildred died. His father, Weldon, an upholsterer, remarried, and Jim, with his two older brothers, was regularly beaten by their stepmother, Wilma. Then one day at 13, "I fought back," he recalled recently. "I decked her." Leaving home soon afterward, Garner scuffled for odd jobs, spent a short time in the Merchant Marine and eventually drifted to L.A., where his father had moved with his third wife. In 1951, Garner headed off to the Korean War, where he earned two Purple Hearts as an Army infantryman.

Back in Hollywood after his discharge, he hooked up with an old friend who had become a theatrical producer. The connection got him a part in The Caine Mutiny Court Martial, and by 1956 he had made his film debut playing a test pilot in Toward the Unknown. That same year he married Lois Clarke, an aspiring actress.

Today the couple share a luxurious Brentwood home just a short drive from the Bel Air Country Club, where Garner regularly plays the links. He sorely missed the activity during his convalescence earlier this year, when he ate platters of cookies. ("I gained about 20 pounds that I'm trying to lose now," he grumbles.) He also consumed some 35 books and impatiently grazed through daytime TV. What he saw appalled him. "I'd flip the dial and be saying, 'This is a soap opera? They're in bed nude!' " He shakes his head.

These days moderation is Garner's watchword. Four days a week his trainer comes by to put him through a one-hour stretching and aerobics workout. He also adheres to a lean diet of pasta and fresh vegetables.

Meanwhile he and Lois are planning to build a 400-acre ranch in Santa Ynez, a mile and a half from Michael Jackson's Neverland retreat. The spread will even have three holes of golf. But Garner, a five handicap, is unlikely to be puttering around there anytime soon. Next season he will be back before the cameras in the first of a series of Rockford Files TV movies for CBS.

Some, including Garner's older brother, Jack, a 68-year-old North Hollywood golf pro, worry about the toil on Garner's battered body. "He's tougher than Dick Tracy," says Jack, but "he basically carries [Rockford], and it's hard work." Not surprisingly, Garner shrugs off both the compliment and the caution.

"I don't think I'll ever retire totally," he says simply. "It's good to work. There's nothing pulling at me to make me do it. I just like it."

MICHAEL A. LIPTON
CRAIG TOMASHOFF in Brentwood