Nathan Lane

Nathan Lane (born Joseph Lane; February 3, 1956) is an American film and stage actor. In a career spanning over 40 years he has been seen on stage and screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade". Lane came to New York in the late seventies, acting off and off-off Broadway, including a brief stint in the world of stand-up comedy as one half of the comedy team of Stack and Lane, until he was cast in the 1982 Broadway revival of Noël Coward's Present Laughter directed by and starring George C. Scott. This led to an extensive career onstage, where he had a long friendship and fruitful collaboration with the playwright Terrence McNally which started in 1989 with the Manhattan Theater Club production of The Lisbon Traviata. He has appeared on Broadway in 24 productions playing a variety of roles, including Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls (1992), Max Prince in Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1994), Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1996), Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner (2000), Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' The Producers (2001), Oscar Madison in Neil Simon's The Odd Couple (2005), Ben Butley in Simon Gray's Butley (2006), Estragon in Waiting For Godot (2009), Gomez Addams in The Addams Family (2010), Chauncey Miles in The Nance (2013), Walter Burns in The Front Page (2016), Roy Cohn in Tony Kushner's Angels in America (2018) and Hickey in The Iceman Cometh (2015) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has also worked extensively in film and television, making his debut in the 1987 Héctor Babenco film Ironweed. He went on to play supporting roles in films like Frankie and Johnny (1991) with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer and Life With Mikey with Michael J. Fox and then his fortunes changed when Mike Nichols cast him opposite Robin Williams in the American remake of La Cage Aux Folles called The Birdcage (1996). In television, he has had recurring roles on Modern Family as Pepper Saltzman, The Good Wife as Clarke Hayden, The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story as F. Lee Bailey, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels as Lewis Michener, The Gilded Age as Ward McAllister, and Only Murders in the Building as Teddy Dimas for which he received his seventh Emmy nomination making him the most nominated guest actor in Emmy history. Lane has received six Tony Award nominations and won three for his roles in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1996), The Producers (2001) and Angels in America (2018). Lane has also won six Drama Desk Awards, six Outer Critics Circle awards, two Obies, a Lucille Lortel Award and an Olivier Award. He has also received two Golden Globe nominations, seven Primetime Emmy nominations, two Daytime Emmy Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Award and the People's Choice Award. In 2006, Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008.

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