Noah Beery Jr. made good-natured supporting characters worth spending time with, without asking us to applaud the effort. His unfussy Rocky in The Rockford Files is a good reason to stay for another episode.
Fi1m perspective
In The Rockford Files (1974), Noah Beery Jr. makes Rocky worth watching without turning every appearance into an occasion. As the father of James Garner’s detective, he has an appealing lack of fuss that suits a programme built around the pleasure of its company. We felt at ease with Rocky because Beery never seemed to be competing for our attention. That leaves us free to enjoy the character rather than wait for the star to speak.
He had spent the 1930s and 1940s playing supporting parts, often the hero’s pal in westerns and action films. His credits include Joe Souther alongside Cary Grant in Howard Hawks’s Only Angels Have Wings (1939), and Buster McGee in Red River (1948). Television became a larger part of his work from the 1950s, before The Rockford Files gave him his most widely recognised role. His later parts as warm, occasionally grumbling older men gave that good nature a slightly firmer edge.
Garner is an important part of why Rocky works: he leaves space for his fellow actors to establish themselves. Joe Santos gives Dennis Becker enough solidity to resist the lead’s charm, while Stuart Margolin’s Angel Martin brings a more restless energy. Beery’s steadiness is useful among such distinct personalities. His quieter contribution helps make the supporting cast feel like people we might choose to watch, rather than people obliged to deliver the next clue.
The good-hearted pals, working men and kindly fathers are familiar types, and much of Beery’s work was spent playing them. We would not go to him expecting to be surprised by a wholesale change of manner. Nor can an agreeable performance fix a routine mystery, which The Rockford Files sometimes supplies despite the quality of its cast. Start there for Beery, but be prepared to care more about Rocky than about the case.
Biography
Noah Beery Jr. (also credited as Noah Beery) was an American character actor. Born Noah Lindsey Beery on 10 August 1913 in New York City, he was the son of actor Noah Beery Sr. and nephew of Wallace Beery. He began appearing in films as a child, with an early role in the 1920 silent The Mark of Zorro, and went on to work steadily in supporting parts, often in westerns and adventure films.
He is best known for playing Joseph 'Rocky' Rockford, the father of James Garner's character, in the television series The Rockford Files (1974–1980). Other credits include Red River (1948), Sergeant York (1941), Inherit the Wind (1960) and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). He received two Emmy nominations for his work on The Rockford Files and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
Beery died on 1 November 1994 in Tehachapi, California, aged 81.
