Best known for his role as Jack Bristow in the ABC television series Alias (2001–2006), Victor Garber (b. London, Ontario, March 16, 1949) has complemented his television career with roles on Broadway (Deathtrap 1978, Sweeney Todd 1979, Noises Off 1983) and in film (Godspell 1973, Sleepless in Seattle 1993). Noted for his singing talent as well as skill at regional accents, he has been nominated for a total of six Emmy®Awards (three for Alias) and four Tonys®.
The mother of Victor Joseph Garber, Hope Garber, was also an actress and singer. Garber was first on stage at the age of nine, and joined the Hart House Theatre at the University of Toronto at fifteen. With three others he formed a folk group called The Sugar Shoppe which achieved a degree of success, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He made his film debut as Jesus in Godspell, but soon devoted all his efforts to the legitimate theatre in New York, first off-Broadway (Ghosts 1973, Joe’s Opera 1975), then in midtown (The Shadow Box 1977, Tartuffe 1977, Little Me 1982).
Garber began to work in television in the mid-’80s, but kept a toehold on Broadway with the Shaw classics You Never Can Tell (1986) and The Devil’s Disciple (1988) and with Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me a Tenor (1989). In 1988 he played Liberace in the made-for-TV movie Liberace: Behind the Music, for which he earned an Emmy® nomination. Victor Garber sang in the original off-Broadway cast of Sondheim’s Assassins as well as in a revival of Damn Yankees in 1990.
Since then he has worked extensively in Canadian and American movies and television: CTV’s E.N.G. (1991–1993), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), Annie (1999), Legally Blonde (2001), and Tuck Everlasting (2002). In James Cameron’s Titanic (1997), Garber played shipbuilder Thomas Andrews, with a perfect Northern Irish accent.
After five seasons of Alias, Garber appeared on the short-lived television series Justice, and is now in a new ABC series, Eli Stone. Still sought-after as a singer, he recently appeared at the LA Opera in a production of Sondheim’s A Little Night Music and in the Encores presentation of Follies.
– LEC
