Born in Kinistino, Saskatchewan in 1944, Bear spent much of his childhood in Flin Flon where he learned how to play pool as a child and became a hustler.

[1] In 1979, he turned professional, entering his first tournament at the 1979 Canadian Open, where he beat Bernie Mikkelsen 5–3 before losing in the second round 7–9 to the young Englishman Joe Johnson.

He beat Mikkelsen again in the Canadian Professional Championship of that year by 9 frames to 4, having at one stage led 7–0, but lost his semi-final match 3–9 to Cliff Thorburn.

Fellow Canadians Cliff Thorburn, Bill Werbeniuk and Kirk Stevens were among the world's top players at this time, and Bear faced two matches in order to play alongside them at the Crucible Theatre.

The only tournament Bear entered the following season was the 1983 World Championship; here, he was unable to repeat his feats of the previous year, losing at the first attempt 7–10 to Paul Medati.