David Garrison

David Earl Garrison, born June 30, 1952, in Long Branch, New Jersey, is an American actor and singer whose career spans Broadway, television, regional theatre, and recording. The son of Earl B. Garrison, a school administrator, and Maude B. Garrison, a teacher, he grew up in New Jersey and attended Freehold High School, where he first performed on stage and graduated in 1970. During his freshman year, Bruce Springsteen was among his classmates, as Springsteen graduated in 1967. Garrison was inducted into Freehold High School's Hall of Fame in 2007. He went on to earn a degree summa cum laude from Boston University's College of Fine Arts in 1974, after which he joined the resident company at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., for several years.

Garrison's Broadway career began in 1978 with A History of the American Film and has extended through 2019. His appearance in A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1980. Subsequent Broadway credits include The Pirates of Penzance, Torch Song Trilogy, Titanic, Bells Are Ringing, The Visit, Wicked, and The Great Society, among others. In 2015, he appeared in the New York City Center production of The Pirates of Penzance, reprising the role of Police Sergeant. On tour, he played Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls and originated the role of the Wizard in the first national tour of Wicked, which launched on March 8, 2005, and in which he performed through March 6, 2006. He then joined the Broadway company of Wicked on April 4, 2006, replacing Ben Vereen, and played his final performance in that production on July 8, 2007. He subsequently appeared as the Wizard in the Chicago company from September 30 through October 28, 2007, in the Los Angeles company from August 26, 2008, through January 11, 2009, and in the San Francisco production from its opening on February 6, 2009, through May 31, 2009. His work as the Wizard earned him a Carbonell Award.

His Off-Broadway credits include I Do! I Do!, for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination, as well as Dead Poets Society, Middletown, New Jerusalem, Geniuses, It's Only a Play, By the Way Meet Vera Stark, The Cradle Will Rock, and Silence! The Musical. In regional theatre, Garrison has played the Devil in Randy Newman's Faust at La Jolla and the Goodman Theatre, Henry Carr in Travesties at Williamstown, Frosch in Die Fledermaus at Santa Fe Opera, Pangloss in Candide at Glimmerglass, Gaston in You Never Know at the Pasadena Playhouse, Fagin in Oliver at Paper Mill Playhouse, Leonardo da Vinci in Ever After at the Alliance Theatre, and Charley in the Arena Stage revival of Merrily We Roll Along, for which he received a Helen Hayes Award. In London, he starred alongside Tyne Daly, Frederica Von Stade, Kurt Ollmann, and Thomas Hampson in a concert presentation of On the Town, which was broadcast on PBS's Great Performances.

Garrison has contributed to a substantial body of cast and studio recordings. His cast albums include Titanic, Bells Are Ringing, The Visit, I Do! I Do!, and On the Town, the last recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas for Deutsche Grammophon. His studio recordings encompass Show Boat, Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun, Of Thee I Sing / Let 'Em Eat Cake, Girl Crazy, You Never Know, Tell Me More, and Oh! Lady! Lady!!, among others. He also appears as a guest artist on Dawn Upshaw Sings Rodgers and Hart and contributed to George and Ira Gershwin Standards and Gems, both on the Nonesuch label.

On television, Garrison is best known for portraying Steve Rhoades, the next-door neighbor of the Bundy family, on the sitcom Married... with Children, a role he began in 1987 and held for four seasons before departing to return to live theatre. He made four additional guest appearances in subsequent seasons as well as the reunion special. Prior to that role, he starred as Norman Lamb on the NBC sitcom It's Your Move opposite Jason Bateman during the 1984–85 season. He was also a series regular on Working It Out following his exit from Married... with Children. His many other television appearances include The West Wing, 30 Rock, Law & Order, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, NYPD Blue, Everybody Loves Raymond, Without a Trace, Judging Amy, The Practice, Murphy Brown, Murder She Wrote, L.A. Law, and Tom Clancy's Op-Center, as well as the PBS Great Performances broadcast of Ira Gershwin at 100: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall.