Backer won the 1981 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play, and the Theatre World Award for Woody Allen's The Floating Light Bulb, in which he portrayed an Allen-like protagonist.
Backer's primary television role was on the soap opera Santa Barbara in 1990 as A. Bartlett Congdon. He has made guest appearances on such shows as Charles in Charge and Growing Pains.
