Victor Garber

Victor Garber is a Canadian actor and singer born on March 16, 1949, in London, Ontario. Of Russian-Jewish descent, he is the son of Joseph Garber and Bessie Hope Wolf Garber, an actress, singer, and television host. He has a brother, Nathan, and a sister, Alisa. Garber began acting at age nine in 1958, enrolling in the children's program at the Grand Theatre. At sixteen he was accepted into a six-week summer theatre training program at the University of Toronto taught by Robert Gill, and he later studied acting at HB Studio in New York. His Broadway career spans 1972 to 2017.

Before establishing himself as a stage actor, Garber worked as a solo folk singer and in 1967 co-founded a folk group called The Sugar Shoppe with Peter Mann, Laurie Hood, and Lee Harris. The group charted in the Canadian Top 40 with a recording of Bobby Gimby's "Canada" and placed three additional songs in the lower reaches of the Canadian Top 100 in 1967 and 1968. The Sugar Shoppe performed on both The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson before disbanding.

Garber's theatrical career took shape in Toronto in 1972, when he played Jesus in a production of Godspell alongside Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Gilda Radner, Dave Thomas, Paul Shaffer, and Martin Short. He made his Broadway debut the same year, and in 1973 received a Theatre World Award. His film debut followed in 1973, when he reprised the role of Jesus Christ in the film adaptation of Godspell. On Broadway, Garber originated the role of Clifford Anderson in Deathtrap in 1978, earning his first Tony Award nomination. The following year he created the role of Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In 1982 he received a second Tony nomination for Little Me, playing The Men in Belle's Life in the Neil Simon musical.

Garber originated the role of Garry LeJeune in the Broadway production of Noises Off in 1983, the same year he received a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Work. He reprised that production at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 1985, and returned to the role of Garry Essendine — the character's name in the source play, Noël Coward's Present Laughter — at Boston's Huntington Theatre in mid-2007, before bringing the production to Broadway in the Roundabout Theatre staging that opened in January 2010. In 1986, Garber appeared at Circle in the Square opposite Uta Hagen in You Never Can Tell. He created the role of John Wilkes Booth in the original Off-Broadway cast of Assassins in 1990. That same year he received his third Tony nomination for originating the role of Max in Lend Me a Tenor in 1989.

His fourth Tony nomination came in 1994 for playing Applegate in the revival of Damn Yankees, a production listed among his verified Broadway credits. He opened the 48th Tony Awards ceremony that year. In 1995 he originated the role of Bernard Nightingale in Arcadia, and in 1998 he co-starred as Serge in the Tony Award-winning play Art alongside Alan Alda and Alfred Molina, having originated the role. In 2005, Garber played Fredrik Egerman in the Los Angeles Opera production of A Little Night Music, and in 2007 he played Ben Stone in an Encores! staged concert production of Follies opposite Donna Murphy. His Broadway credits also include She Loves Me Not. In January 2018, Garber replaced David Hyde Pierce as Horace Vandergelder in the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! at the Shubert Theatre, performing opposite Bernadette Peters and Gavin Creel, with performances beginning January 20 and a press opening on February 22. That year he received the Theatre World John Willis Award for Lifetime Achievement.

On screen, Garber appeared in Sleepless in Seattle in 1993 and starred opposite Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, and Bette Midler in The First Wives Club in 1996, playing film producer Bill Atchison. In James Cameron's Titanic in 1997, he portrayed shipbuilder Thomas Andrews. He received Screen Actors Guild Award nominations alongside the casts of Titanic, Milk in 2008, and Argo in 2012, winning for Argo, in which he played Canadian Ambassador to Iran Kenneth D. Taylor. Additional film credits include Annie, Legally Blonde, Sicario, Dark Waters, and Happiest Season.

On television, Garber is best known for playing Jack Bristow in the ABC series Alias from 2001 to 2006, a role that earned him three consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He received further Emmy nominations for portraying Sidney Luft in Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows and for guest appearances on Frasier and Will & Grace. He portrayed Martin Stein and the superhero Firestorm in The Flash beginning in 2015 and was a series regular on Legends of Tomorrow across its first and second seasons, with his character killed off in the 2017 crossover event "Crisis on Earth-X." He reprised the role in Legends of Tomorrow's 100th episode in 2021 and provided a vocal cameo in the 2023 series finale of The Flash. Garber has received four Tony Award nominations, six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, three Gemini Award nominations, and three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations over the course of his career. In 2022, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.