Nathan Lane

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Nathan Lane
Birth name	Joseph Lane
Born	February 3, 1956

Nathan Lane (born February 3, 1956 in Jersey City, New Jersey) is an award-winning American comedian and actor of the stage and screen.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Selected filmography 5 Trivia 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Born Joseph Lane to Irish American Catholic parents; he was named after his paternal uncle, a Jesuit priest. His father, Daniel Lane, was a truck driver and an aspiring tenor who died from alcoholism when Lane was 11; his mother, Nora, was a manic-depressive housewife. Lane attended Catholic schools in Jersey City, including Jesuit-run St. Peter's Preparatory High School where he was elected Best Actor in 1974. Since there was already a Joseph Lane in Actors Equity, he changed his name to Nathan after the character Nathan Detroit from the musical Guys and Dolls, a role he performed several times, including in the Broadway revival with Peter Gallagher and Faith Prince.

[edit] Career

Between choosing college or pursuing his acting career, Lane chose to go with the latter, saying that college was for people who didn't know what they wanted to do, while he did. He moved to New York City where, after a long struggle, his career began to take off. First with Off-Broadway performances at Second Stage Theatre and a Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls. Perhaps most notably, Lane appeared in the first production of Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart. He was known for originating roles in most of McNally's plays, scoring a professional triumph in Love! Valour! Compassion!. Lane and McNally eventually had a falling out when Lane was not available to make the film version of the hit play.

His second Broadway appearance was in the infamous flop Merlin, which starred magician Doug Henning and Chita Rivera. Commenting on the show later, Lane said, "Doug Henning's greatest magic trick was making the audience disappear".

The early 90's began a highly successful stretch of Broadway shows for Lane. In 1993 Nathan portrayed Sid Caesar-like Max Prince on Broadway in Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor. In 1994 he starred in Stephen Sondheim's highly successful Broadway revival of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (for which he won a Tony Award as Best Actor In A Musical). Later, he wrote a revised book for, and starred in, the Broadway debut of Sondheim's The Frogs at Lincoln Center. In the film The Birdcage he sang a song written especially for him by Sondheim.

He has appeared in nearly fifty films, including Love's Labours Lost, Nicholas Nickleby, Mouse Hunt, Stuart Little, Jeffrey, The Lion King, The Birdcage, Joe Versus The Volcano, and Addams Family Values. He also played Bobby Fine in the episode I love a charade of Sex and the City.

Nathan Lane won another Tony Award for his legendary portrayal of Max Bialystock in the musical version of Mel Brooks's The Producers. He later played the role in London, and recreated his performance for the film version of the musical for which he received a 2006 Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

After his success in The Producers Lane is now one of Broadway's highest paid performers.

[edit] Personal life

Lane, who has been openly gay since the death of Matthew Shepard, was quoted saying this on the matter, "It was like somebody slapped me awake. At this point it's selfish not to do whatever you can....If I do this story and say I'm a gay person, it might make it easier for somebody else."

Nathan came out to his mother and deems himself to be an "old-fashioned homosexual". He had this to say about the subject of finally coming out, "From the time I told my mother, I've been living openly. But really, I was born in 1956. I'm one of those old-fashioned homosexuals, not one of the newfangled ones who are born joining parades. My family referred to them as 'fags', and that was it."

[edit] Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
2005	Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild	Snowbell	Voice only
2005	The Producers	Max Bialystock
2002	Stuart Little 2	Snowbell	Voice only
2000	Titan A.E.	Preed	voice
2000	Nicholas Nickleby	Vincent Crummles
2000	Isn't She Great	Irving Mansfield
1999	Stuart Little	Snowbell	Voice only
1998	The Lion King II: Simba's Pride	Timon	Voice only
1997	Mousehunt	Ernie Smuntz
1996	The Birdcage	Albert Goldman
1994	The Lion King	Timon	Voice only

[edit] Trivia

• Has redone two Zero Mostel roles — Pseudolus (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) and Max Bialystock (The Producers). He declined to take over the 2004 Broadway revival of Fiddler On The Roof because he didn't want to be seen as always following in Mostel's footsteps. Coincidentally, both of Lane's Tony Awards were for Mostel's roles.

[edit] External links

• Nathan Lane Online
• Lifetime Achievement Award for Nathan Lane
• Lane interview, 2004, Guardian Unlimited
• Lane interview, 1996, TIME Magazine
• An unofficial fan site
• Nathan Lane at the Internet Movie Database
• Nathan Lane at the Internet Broadway Database
• Return To Broadway Working in the Theatre Seminar video at American Theatre Wing, April 1996
• Performance Working in the Theatre Seminar video at American Theatre Wing, April 1994