Keck's Exclusives: How Victor Garber Became Charlie's Angels' Charlie

Just three days before its September 22 premiere, ABC's new Charlie's Angels finally settled on an actor to replace Robert Wagner as the voice of detective agency owner Charles Townsend — former Alias star Victor Garber. "They were in a panic. I think my agent was negotiating with someone in the Emmys audience," says Garber, who has the same gentlemanly grace as the late John Forsythe, Charlie on the original series and in two feature films. "This is an out-of-the-blue, out-of-body experience. I'm just happy they settled on me."

The next day, Garber hurried to an L.A. recording studio to dub his dialogue, having neither seen the pilot nor finished reading the script. "I was really walking in off the street," he says. "They showed me the opening title sequence where I introduce the Angels and tell the story of how it all happened, which is sort of the most important thing." Then Garber recorded his lines for the scene where Charlie gives the Angels their assignment. "It was challenging at first, but once we got going it was fun. And I can sort of do it from anywhere."

True to the original series, there are no plans to reveal Charlie's face, but Garber was told a secret mythology about the character will be explored. "There will be implications that he is more involved than in the original series. He's an interesting, complicated guy and it will be fun to explore that as the series goes on."

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