Biography
The older brother of stage and film leading man
William Gargan, Brooklynite Edward Gargan joined his performing family in stage work before heading to Hollywood in 1933. Though he occasionally played crooks, teamsters, ward heelers and the like, Gargan specialized in portrayed dumb detectives who spent their lives misinterpreting clues and arresting the wrong people. His best-known role in this capacity was as incurably dense city detective Bates in the RKO
Falcon "B"-movies of the '40s. Like his brother Bill, Edward Gargan was also quite busy on radio, preceding Larry Keating as the narrator of NBC's popular This is Your FBI. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide