Profile of Nathan Lane on Famous Like Me

Nathan Lane (born February 3, 1956) is a contemporary, award-winning American actor of the stage and screen.

Born Joseph Lane to an Irish Catholic, the son of a Jersey City policeman and his homemaker housewife, the actor attended Catholic schools in Jersey City.

He changed his name to Nathan after the character Nathan Detroit from the musical Guys and Dolls, in a revival of which he appeared with Peter Gallagher and Faith Prince.

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 on Broadway, most notably in the first production of Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart. His first large film role was supplying the voice of Timon in Disney's The Lion King. After spending much of the 1990s working on movies, which included the popular film The Birdcage, Lane returned to the Great White Way in the hit musical The Producers. He is openly gay, and was criticized by some gay activists for taking the role of a promiscuous heterosexual in the short-lived TV series Encore! Encore!, which also starred Glenne Headley and Dame Joan Plowright. He dismissed these critics as "old queens".

In 2004, Mr. Lane revised the book for and starred in Stephen Sondheim's musical adaptation of Aristophanes' The Frogs at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center. The production also starred Roger Bart, Peter Bartlett, John Byner, Burke Moses, and Michael Siberry. Lane's first connection with the show came when he performed the leading role of Dionysos in a concert staging in honor of Sondheim's birthday. The concert was recorded on Nonesuch, and included Brian Stokes Mitchell and Davis Gaines. The 2004 production of the show contained 7 additional songs, and was recorded by PS Classics.

In October 2004 Lane assumed the lead role of 'Max Bialystock' in the London stage production of Mel Brooks' The Producers. He had already played the role during the show's New York run, and was a last-minute replacement for Richard Dreyfuss, who had dropped out of the London run during rehearsals, citing back problems. Lane himself was forced to retire in December 2004 for the same reason. The play was a commercial success, and for his ten-week run Lane was paid £400,000; in Februrary 2005 he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical (the show itself also winning Best New Musical, with Conleth Hill winning Supporting Role in a Musical for his performance as "Roger DeBris" (played by Christopher Hewett in the movie version) the "flamboyant" director who must play Adolf Hitler in the musical number "Springtime for Hitler".

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