Victor Joseph Garber (born March 16, 1949) is a Canadian actor and singer. He is known for playing Jesus in Godspell, Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, Jack Bristow in the television series Alias, Max in Lend Me a Tenor, Thomas Andrews in James Cameron's Titanic, and Ken Taylor, Canadian Ambassador to Iran, in Argo. 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 as well as the web series Vixen.
Early life[]
Garber was born in London, Ontario, and is of Russian-Jewish descent. His parents were father Joseph "Joe" Garber (died 1995), and mother, Hope Garber (née Bessie Hope Wolf; died 2005), 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. 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.
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, and the band even 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.
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. 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 film work includes James Cameron's Titanic (1997), in which he essayed a Mid-Ulster accent to play the shipbuilder Thomas Andrews. Other movie appearances include Godspell (1973) as Jesus (the part he originally played in the 1972 Canadian stage production), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), 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.
In 2010, 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. Also Garber had a credited role in the Ice Quake at the end of 2010. 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.
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 on ABC's show, 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 Episode 3 of the Fox series Glee as Will's father. He played Dr. Martin Stein / Firestorm on The Flash beginning in 2015 and appeared as the character in a regular role on Legends of Tomorrow until 2017 and has the recurring role of 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 his homosexuality 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. Victor and Rainer resides in Southampton, New York.
