Music In 1967, after a period working as a solo
folk singer, Garber 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 1968. The band had performed on
The Ed Sullivan Show and
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson before breaking up.
Theatre Garber played
Jesus in Toronto's 1972 production of
Godspell, alongside
Eugene Levy,
Andrea Martin,
Gilda Radner,
Dave Thomas,
Paul Shaffer and
Martin Short. 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. In 1986, Garber appeared at
Circle in the Square opposite
Uta Hagen in
You Never Can Tell. He was nominated for four
Tony Awards and opened the
48th Tony Awards program in 1994 (the year he was nominated for the
Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical 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 Fredrik Egerman in the
Los Angeles Opera production of
A Little Night Music. He played Ben Stone 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 earlier film work includes
Godspell (1973) as Jesus Christ (the part he played originally in the 1972 Canadian stage production) and
Sleepless in Seattle (1993). He starred opposite
Goldie Hawn,
Diane Keaton, and
Bette Midler in
The First Wives Club as film producer Bill Atchison, husband of Hawn's character Elise Eliot, in 1996. In
James Cameron's
Titanic (1997), he essayed a
Mid-Ulster accent to play the shipbuilder
Thomas Andrews. In 2009, Garber voiced
DC Comics supervillain Sinestro in the
direct-to-video animated film Green Lantern: First Flight. That 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, directed by
Ben Affleck, as David, a bank manager. Garber also appeared in the film
Ice Quake. 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. Garber narrated the 2017 film
They Shall Not Perish. Other film appearances include
Annie (1999),
Legally Blonde (2001), and
Tuck Everlasting (2002). He had a recurring guest role on
CTV's
E.N.G. (1991–93). He portrayed Jack Bristow, the father of main character
Sydney Bristow on
ABC's
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 the Fox series
Glee in the third episode titled "
Acafellas", as
Will Schuester (
Matthew Morrison)'s father Mr. Schuester. He played
Martin Stein / Firestorm on
The Flash starting with the episode "Crazy for You" (2015), before being spun off onto
Legends of Tomorrow, where he was a series regular for its
first and
second seasons (2016–2017) and half of the
third season (2017). Garber made his final appearance as a regular in the crossover event "
Crisis on Earth-X" (2017), where Stein was
killed off. However, he reprised his role in the series' 100th episode, "
Wvrdr_error_100 not found" (2021), where Stein appears as part of
Gideon's memories. Additionally, Garber made an independent return to
The Flash in the
season three episode "
Duet" (2017) as the unnamed husband of gangster Digsy Foss (
Jesse L. Martin) in a dream world. Garber reprised his role as Stein for a final time in a vocal cameo in "
A New World" (2023), the series finale of
The Flash. He also played the reoccurring character Admiral Halsey on
The Orville. ==Personal life==