Victor Joseph Garber born March 16, 1949 is a Canadian actor and singer known for his work in television, film, and theatre. He started his career on the stage playing roles such as Jesus in Godspell; Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; and John Wilkes Booth in Assassins. He would later go on to earn four Tony Award nominations for his performances in Deathtrap, Little Me, Lend Me a Tenor, and Damn Yankees.
Garber is also known for his film appearances in the comedies Sleepless in Seattle (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), Legally Blonde (2001), and Happiest Season (2020). Garber earned three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for his performances in the historical drama films Titanic (1997), Milk (2008), and Argo (2012). Garber is also known for the role of Jack Bristow in the television series Alias as well as his appearances in Law & Order, Frasier, Modern Family, Glee, Nurse Jackie, Louie, The Good Wife, Damages, and Schitt’s Creek.
He was a series regular on Legends of Tomorrow as Dr. Martin Stein, having previously played the same role in a recurring capacity on The Flash and on the web series Vixen.
Early life
Garber was born in London, Ontario, Canada, and is of Russian-Jewish descent. His father was Joseph “Joe” Garber (died 1995), and his mother, Bessie Hope Wolf (died 2005), was an actress, singer, and the host of At Home with Hope Garber. He has a brother, Nathan, and a sister, Alisa.
Garber began acting at the age of nine, and studied at the University of Toronto’s Hart House at age 16.
Garber attended Ryerson Elementary School and London Central Secondary School. He also was enrolled in the children’s program of the Grand Theatre; and, at age 16, he was accepted at a six-week summer theatre training program at the University of Toronto taught by Robert Gill. In New York, he studied acting at HB Studio.
Career
Music
In 1967, after a period working as a solo folk singer, he formed a folk group called The Sugar Shoppe with Peter Mann, Laurie Hood and Lee Harris. The group enjoyed moderate success, breaking into the Canadian Top 40 with a version of Bobby Gimby’s song “Canada” (1967). Three other Sugar Shoppe songs made the lower reaches of the Canadian Top 100 in 1967 and ’68. The band had performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson before breaking up.
Theatre
He played Jesus in Toronto’s 1972 production of Godspell. In 1985 he appeared in Noises Off at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.
Garber in February 2010
He appeared on Broadway in the original productions of Deathtrap, Sweeney Todd and Noises Off (1983), and in the original Off-Broadway cast of Assassins, as well as the 1990s revival of Damn Yankees. In 1986, Garber appeared at Circle in the Square opposite Uta Hagen in You Never Can Tell. He has been nominated for four Tony Awards and opened the Tony Awards program in 1994 (the year he was nominated for the Tony Award for Damn Yankees). In 1998, he co-starred on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning play Art with Alan Alda and Alfred Molina. In 2005, he played the role of Frederic in the Los Angeles Opera production of A Little Night Music. He played Ben in a critically praised Encores! staged concert production of Follies (2007) opposite Donna Murphy. In mid-2007, he played Garry Essendine in a production of Noël Coward’s Present Laughter at Boston’s Huntington Theatre. He reprised the role on Broadway in the Roundabout Theatre production, which opened in January 2010.
In January 2018, Garber replaced David Hyde Pierce as Horace Vandergelder in the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! at the Shubert Theatre opposite Bernadette Peters. Garber began performances on January 20 prior to the press opening on February 22.
Garber received the 2018 Theatre World John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Film
His earlier film work includes Godspell (1973) as Jesus (the part he played originally in the 1972 Canadian stage production), Sleepless in Seattle (1993). In James Cameron’s Titanic (1997) he essayed a Mid-Ulster accent to play the shipbuilder Thomas Andrews. Other movie appearances include Annie (1999), Legally Blonde (2001), and Tuck Everlasting (2002). In 2009, he took on the role of the DC Comics supervillain Sinestro in the direct-to-video animated film Green Lantern: First Flight. The same year, Garber played a Klingon interrogator in J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek film; however, his scenes were deleted from the finished film. He starred opposite Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, and Bette Midler in The First Wives Club as film producer Bill Atchison, husband of Goldie Hawn’s character, Elise Eliot, in 1996.
In 2010, Garber had an uncredited cameo in The Town, directed by Ben Affleck, as a bank manager. Garber also appeared in the film Ice Quake. In late 2012, he appeared in Affleck’s film Argo, about the Iran hostage crisis; Garber portrayed Canadian Ambassador to Iran Kenneth D. Taylor. He also co-starred in 2014 thriller Big Game.
He narrated the 2017 film They Shall Not Perish.
Garber in March 2018
Television
On television, he has had roles on American and Canadian shows. Garber’s first leading role on television show was in CBS’s 1985 summer series I Had Three Wives. He had a recurring guest role on CTV’s E.N.G. (1991–93). He portrayed Jack Bristow, the father of main character Sydney Bristow on ABC’s Alias, earning three Emmy nominations. He next starred on the television series Justice (2006) on Fox and ABC’s Eli Stone. He appeared as Olivier Roth in four episodes of the Canadian science drama ReGenesis. He appeared in the Fox series Glee in the third episode titled “Acafellas”, as Will’s father. He played Dr. Martin Stein / Firestorm on The Flash beginning in 2015 before being spun off onto Legends of Tomorrow where he was a series regular for two seasons and half of the third. Aside from the two crossovers, Garber made an independent return to The Flash in the season three episode “Duet” as the unnamed husband of gangster Diggsy Foss in the dreamworld scenario. He has also recurred as Admiral Halsey on The Orville.
Personal life
Garber prefers to keep his personal life private and has largely stayed out of the tabloids. He referred publicly to being gay in 2012. In 2013, he said “I don’t really talk about it, but everybody knows.” Garber has been in a relationship with Canadian artist and model Rainer Andreesen since 2000. On October 10, 2015, Andreesen announced on his Instagram page that he and Garber were married in Canada. Garber has Type 1 diabetes; he was diagnosed in 1962 at the age of 12.
Garber is good friends with his Alias co-star Jennifer Garner and officiated at her wedding to Ben Affleck.