A couple? Hell, he was like six different bartenders over the course of the series, and had a semi-regular role as police captain in the last season.
My favorite episode was the one where they had to try to get to the Christmas Dinner and Hanukkah Feast on the same day! Oh the hi-jinks! (The dog getting in the garbage was classic!)
One less than you would think since his real name was James Bumgarner.
I can see why he may have dropped the Bum part for Hollywood purposes.
Heh. Coming at this other way around, just imagine if the OP had been right: his little girl gets a hit TV series, and the likable guy who racked up Golden Globe wins in the 1990s after earning nominations in the 1980s and the 1970s and the 1960s all the way back to his first win in the 1950s never once shows up to play a blackmailed senator or a retired jewel thief or whatever, because, uh, he had other priorities.
Meh. I didn’t spot all of his appearances.
Just you
Oh, so then he’s probably related to Madison Bumgarner. How many of those can there be? 
They have a common ancestor born back in 1754. That’s about it. As for “How many?” - as of the 2010 census, about 6200.
I never watched Alias, but I get the impression it tended to be rather serious. Even if James had been Jennifer Garner’s father, they may have felt that sort of stunt casting would distract from the show.
Mickey Hargitay was on an episode of Law & Order: SVU. It was his last role.
This all reminds me of Walter Scott’s Personality Parade in Parade Magazine from back when. People asking all the time if Barbara Eden and Anthony Eden are related and such. Even worse were the ones where the first names were in common. Are James Garner and James Arness related?
How did these get in there? Some weird running gag?
I did always sort of assume they were related without thinking about it any further. Usually when I think about Jennifer Garner I’m thinking of…other things.
That’s just silly. Everyone knows James Arness isn’t related to James Garner. He’s related to Peter Graves.
Seriously, they’re brothers.
I really doubt that (and I don’t think there’s very much resemblance* either). Do you know how little DNA is shared between 4th cousins? Their shared ancestor would be a great-great-great-grandparent, and shared DNA would be well under 1%.
*Maureen Stapleton had a sweet and rather pretty face, not something you could say about Jean Stapleton. The only real resemblance is that they both became well-known in later life and that they were about the same age.
Given we share 99% of our dna with chimps, I think 1% is a wee bit of an underestimate.
Are you saying the Stapletons are apes?
Good point, so to clarify, the 1% that I referred to covers that which is tracked by 23andme.
The other points (lack of actual resemblance, and their closest shared ancestor) stand.
It would seem the OP isn’t going to garner much support.
^ How many balls of paper should we pelt you with? 
Hate to nitpick, but this is the Straight Dope. 
They were brothers. Peter Graves died in 2010 and James Arness died in 2011.