Like many people my age, I first discovered James Garner on television, playing ex-con private investigator Jim Rockford on “The Rockford Files” in the 1970s. Rockford was vulnerable but principled, brave but pragmatic. And while he lived in a trailer, it was a trailer in Malibu – a compromise many people could live with.

James Garner, who died today at age 86, had a lot in common with that TV character. Although he made dozens of films – often playing cowboys and military types, leveraging his strong jaw and matinee-idol looks – his big-screen career lacked the stickiness of film legends like Newman and Eastwood. But his unerring gift for comedy, and his easy comfort moving between television and film, made him a star nonetheless. Like the red meat he promoted in a famous series of TV commercials in the 1980s, Garner just had a way of making us feel good (assuming you like beef, that is).

Here are my five favorite of Garner’s big-screen performances, in chronological order:

Cash McCall (1960) – In this romantic throwaway, Garner played a self-assured tycoon – in today’s terms, think of him as Tony Stark without the high-tech armor – who juggles a merger while wooing a socialite (Natalie Wood).

The Great Escape (1963) – Garner and Steve McQueen lead a prodigious cast in this durable GIs-outwit-the-Nazis caper movie.

The Americanization of Emily (1964) – Much of Garner’s big-screen heyday happened to fall during the midcentury war years; here he plays a sybaritic WWII officer whose good fortune hits a roadblock when he falls for a British war widow (Julie Andrews) and is forced to face the realities of his situation.

Victor/Victoria (1982) – Garner reteamed with Andrews for this old-school Hollywood classic from director Blake Edwards. She’s a woman pretending to be a male drag queen to foster a career in showbiz; he just wants to figure out why he’s attracted to “Victor.”

Murphy’s Romance (1986) – Garner’s last great performance, and his only Oscar nomination, came in this May/December romcom that paired him with Sally Field. Their slow progression from business acquaintances, to friends, to lovers represents the deliberate and patient pace that seemed to epitomize Garner’s career.