[14] Garwood put his specialty to work in a season of summer stock during 1953 in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he both performed Shakespeare with the Antioch Area Theater and served as their fencing master.

[15] He then moved south to Baltimore where he spent the winter season with a troupe of players at the Hilltop Theatre-Parkway, performing in Stalag 17,[16] Mister Roberts,[17] Kiss and Tell with Margaret O'Brien,[18] Ramshackle Inn with ZaSu Pitts,[19] and several other plays.

[26] This play by Aldyth Morris opened at the Phoenix Theatre in New York City on October 11, 1955; Farley Granger and Janice Rule starred, with Edith Meiser, Blanche Yurka, Alvin Ailey and Jerry Stiller in supporting roles.

[32] Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times said "these odd, elliptical fantastifications are amusing and provocative",[33] while columnist Joan Hanauer felt they were "for people who like to be bothered and bewildered".

[34] Director Blake Edwards was so impressed that he arranged for Garwood to begin a film career, with a supporting role of Magician in the 1959 episode "Murder on the Midway" of the television series Peter Gunn.

[1][35] Afterwards, he became a notable supporting character actor in over 45 features, often portraying husbands, fathers, eccentrics, aristocrats, cowboys, sheriffs, policemen, reporters, detectives, clerks, and in his later years, patriarchs.

His film career including roles in The Miracle of the Hills (1959),[1] The Story of Ruth (1960), The Wizard of Baghdad (1961), Move Over, Darling (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), A Covenant with Death (1967), Big Daddy (1969), and Return to Snowy River (1988).

On television, he was a familiar face in the guest cast of Bachelor Father, The Big Valley, Captain Nice, The Danny Kaye Show, Destry, I Dream of Jeannie, Empire, Get Smart, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Have Gun – Will Travel, Hondo, Hotel de Paree, Iron Horse, Laredo, The Magical World of Disney, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Mister Ed, The Monkees, The Munsters, Overland Trail, Rawhide, The Rebel, The Red Skelton Hour, The Rifleman, Ripcord, Sea Hunt, Tales of Wells Fargo, Tate, Two Faces West, The Untouchables, Wagon Train, The Waltons and of course twelve appearances on Gunsmoke, nine of which are as Undertaker Percy Crump.