Victor Garber

Victor Garber
Victor Garber, April 2006
Born	(1949-03-16) March 16, 1949 (age 63) London, Ontario, Canada
Occupation	Actor, singer
Years active	1958–present

Victor Joseph Garber (born March 16, 1949) is a Canadian film, stage and television actor and singer. Garber is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Anthony in Sweeney Todd, John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, and Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic.

Early life

Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Garber is of Russian Jewish descent; his parents were Joe Garber (died 1995) and wife, Hope Wolf (an actress, singer, and the host of At Home with Hope Garber).^[1] He has a brother, Nathan, and a sister, Alisa.

When Garber was 12 he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. He attended Ryerson Elementary 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.^[2]

Career

Garber began acting at the age of nine, and studied at the University of Toronto's Hart House at age 16.^[2] In 1967, after a period working as a folk singer, he formed a folk band called The Sugar Shoppe with Peter Mann, Laurie Hood and Lee Harris. The group enjoyed moderate success, even performing on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson before breaking up.^[3] He has worked in various American and Canadian films and television, including James Cameron's Titanic (1997), in which he used a Northern Irish accent to play the shipbuilder Thomas Andrews, and CTV's E.N.G. (1991–1993), on which he had a recurring guest role.

Other well-known appearances include Godspell (Canadian stage version, 1972, and film version, 1973) as Jesus, Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Legally Blonde (2001), Annie (1999), and Tuck Everlasting (2002).^[2]

He is most well known for his portrayal of Jack Bristow on ABC's show, Alias, for which he earned three Emmy nominations. He recently appeared on the now-canceled television series Justice on Fox and ABC's Eli Stone. His most recent TV appearance is as a mysterious character named "Olivier Roth" in 4 episodes of the Canadian science drama ReGenesis. He appeared in the third episode of the Fox series Glee as Will's father.

He appeared on Broadway in the original productions of Deathtrap, Sweeney Todd and Noises Off, and in the original Off Broadway cast of Assassins, as well as the 1990s revival of Damn Yankees. 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. He continues to be a sought-after theatrical performer in musicals, comedies and dramatic productions. In 2005, he played the role of Frederic in the LA Opera's production of Sondheim's A Little Night Music. He played the male lead in a critically hailed Encores presentation of Follies in 2007, with Donna Murphy. In mid-2007, he played the role of Garry Essendine in a production of Noel Coward's Present Laughter at Boston's Huntington Theatre.^[4] He reprised the role in the Roundabout Theatre's New York production which opened in January, 2010 to generally favorable reviews.

In 2009, Garber took on the role of the DC Comics super villain Sinestro in the direct-to-video animated film 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.^[5]

In June 2010, due to an RTÉ production error, a picture of Victor Garber was accidentally used in an opinion poll on RTÉ News. The production team mistook the actor as Enda Kenny, the leader of Fine Gael, at that time the main opposition party in Ireland.^[6] RTÉ immediately apologized to both men for the mistake. Garber did not comment on the incident.

Recently, Garber had an uncredited cameo in The Town as a bank manager. The film was directed by Alias co-star Jennifer Garner's husband, Ben Affleck.

In December 2010, for their annual birthday celebration to "The Master", The Noel Coward Society invited Garber as the guest celebrity to lay flowers in front of Coward's statue at New York's Gershwin Theatre, thereby commemorating the 111th birthday of Sir Noel.

Both of his parents died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.

Personal

Garber prefers to keep his personal life private and has largely stayed out of the tabloids, except for an incident in 2008 when he revealed that his Alias co-star, Jennifer Garner, was pregnant. "I thought everybody knew," he explained.^[1]

Filmography

Film

Television

Broadway

• The Shadow Box - 1977
• Tartuffe - 1977
• Deathtrap - 1978 (Tony Nomination)^[7]
• Sweeney Todd - 1979 - as Anthony Hope
• They're Playing Our Song - 1981
• Little Me - 1982 (Tony Nomination)
• Noises Off - 1983
• You Never Can Tell - 1986
• The Devil's Disciple - 1988
• Lend Me a Tenor - 1989 (Tony Nomination)
• Two Shakespearean Actors - 1992
• Damn Yankees - 1994 (Tony Nomination)
• Arcadia - 1995
• 'Art' - 1998
• Present Laughter - 2010

Off Broadway

• Ghosts - 1973
• Joe's Opera -1975
• Cracks - 1976
• Wenceslas Square - 1988
• Love Letters - 1989
• Assassins - 1990 as John Wilkes Booth

References

External links

• Victor Garber at the Internet Movie Database
• Victor Garber at the Internet Broadway Database
• Victor Garber at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Victor Garber at the TCM Movie Database
• Victor Garber at AllRovi
• Victor Garber Interview on Fox News Radio